PDF Compression

from ironpdf import *

pdf = PdfDocument("document.pdf")

# Quality parameter can be 1-100, where 100 is 100% of original quality
pdf.CompressImages(60)
pdf.SaveAs("document_compressed.pdf")

# Second optional parameter can scale down the image resolution according to its visible size in the PDF document. Note that this may cause distortion with some image configurations
pdf.CompressImages(90, True)
pdf.SaveAs("document_scaled_compressed.pdf")

PDF Compression

IronPDF for Python can reduce the file size of PDF documents by compressing embedded images using the CompressImages method, which accepts a quality level and an optional image-scaling parameter.

Getting Started

Load a PdfDocument from a file using PdfDocument(path), call CompressImages with the desired quality level, and save the result to a new file.

Understanding the Code

PdfDocument("document.pdf"): Opens the existing PDF for modification.
CompressImages(quality): Compresses all images in the document to the specified quality level. quality is an integer from 1 to 100, where 100 preserves the original quality and lower values reduce file size at the cost of image fidelity.
CompressImages(quality, scaleDownImages): The optional second boolean parameter, when set to True, additionally scales down image resolution based on each image's visible size in the PDF. This can produce significantly smaller files but may cause visual artifacts for some image types.
SaveAs(path): Saves the compressed PDF to the specified file path.

Choosing a Quality Level

Quality	Use Case
90–100	Near-lossless, minimal size reduction
60–80	Good balance for most documents
30–50	Small files for email or web distribution
1–29	Maximum compression, significant quality loss

Learn to optimize PDFs with IronPDF for Python!