Ghostscript is the classic command-line tool for PDF compression on Linux and Mac — powerful but intimidating for non-technical users. Here is a free graphical alternative that achieves similar results without any terminal knowledge.
Ghostscript requires: installing the package (apt, brew, or Windows installer), knowing the right command flags (-dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook, -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4, etc.), using a terminal, and processing one file at a time manually. For occasional PDF compression, this overhead is not worth it.
Go to pdfeditor.onl/compress-pdf. Upload the PDF. Choose Basic, Balanced, or Smallest. Download the result. No terminal, no flags, no installation — and the result quality is comparable to Ghostscript's /ebook and /printer presets.
Basic ≈ Ghostscript /printer (JPEG 82%, 2400px). Balanced ≈ Ghostscript /ebook (JPEG 65%, 1800px). Smallest ≈ Ghostscript /screen (JPEG 42%, 1200px). The three presets map directly to Ghostscript's most commonly used output quality settings.
Tip: For Linux power users who need batch compression of hundreds of files, Ghostscript in a bash loop is still the right tool. For occasional single-file compression, the browser tool is significantly faster.
For single-file compression with standard quality presets, yes. Ghostscript offers more granular control (custom DPI, color space conversion, PDF version targeting) for advanced use cases. The browser tool covers the 90% use case with zero setup.
Yes. Any Linux browser (Firefox, Chrome, Chromium) supports the WebAssembly-based compression tool.