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Asked: 2026-06-03T17:05:37+00:00

So there are some threads here on PDF compression saying that there is some,

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So there are some threads here on PDF compression saying that there is some, but not a lot of, gain in compressing PDFs as PDFs are already compressed.

My question is: Is this true for all PDFs including older version of the format?

Also I’m sure its possible for someone (an idiot maybe) to place bitmaps into the PDF rather than JPEG etc. Our company has a lot of PDFs in its DBs (some older formats maybe). We are considering using gzip to compress during transmission but don’t know if its worth the hassle

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  1. Editorial Team

    PDFs in general use internal compression for the objects they contain. But this compression is by no means compulsory according to the file format specifications. All (or some) objects may appear completely uncompressed, and they would still make a valid PDF.

    There are commandline tools out there which are able to decompress most (if not all) of the internal object streams (even of the most modern versions of PDFs) — and the new, uncompressed version of the file will render exactly the same on screen or on paper (if printed).

    So to answer your question: No, you cannot assume that a gzip compression is adding only hassle and no benefit. You have to test it with a representative sample set of your files. Just gzip them and take note of the time used and of the space saved.

    It also depends on the type of PDF producing software which was used…

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