The Best Ways to Optimize PDFs for Mobile Access

If you have to optimize PDFs it is because they were created on one device (laptop or desktop) computer, which does not have the same screen size or processing power as a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. This is a common disconnect between content creators and users, as sometimes a file or application that was created on a specific platform has formatting problems when viewed on another type of device. Many companies now create two versions of their content to make sure that they each work well and correspond to the device they are being viewed on since non-optimized content can create problems for users and force them away from using your content, program, or application.

Understanding Why You Need to Optimize PDFs

The reason for wanting to optimize PDFs is that you want the brilliance and nuances of your content to shine through, regardless of where or how a user is viewing it. If you create only one type of file that is incompatible with all the other types of devices and programs out there, you risk alienating your audience and users, since they will not be able to see or interact with your content.

That’s why optimizing PDFs is so important; it allows more people to see your content in a variety of ways, without losing any of the originality and dynamic presentation of the original content. Optimizing can mean a lot of things. You can optimize PDFs by using a PDF optimizer online tool that only requires you to upload your file and press the optimize button, which will shrink the size of your design elements such as your photo resolution, pixel size, and other important factors.

What you do when you prepare PDFs is to make them suitable to the constraints of particular programs and devices so they can be viewed optimally. You can prepare PDF by shrinking its overall file size so the content appears crisp and clear without any over-pixelization or by showing the content in poor quality.

Creating Optimized PDF Files

If you want to optimize a PDF file, it means you want to prepare PDF to make sure that it is viewed as it should be without any disruptions to its quality or content. You do this mainly by shrinking or compressing the file size, so every element of your file reduces in size so the device that is being viewed can display it accurately. You often have to do this because not every device is going to be able to process the elements of your PDF so that it is displayed properly.

The fact that a PDF can contain so many different visual elements such as photos, tables, graphs, and other data means that many people do not pay attention to how these elements will ultimately be displayed by the end user. But one way that you can optimize PDFs is that you can create linearized PDFs from the outset that do not later need to be optimized, compressed, or shrunk.

To create linearized PDFs, you can create a new PDF file but make small changes, such as using only a single column for your text, using smaller versions or low-resolution files for your document, and checking your file’s size before creating it to make sure it is not too big to use on other platforms or devices.

How to Optimize PDFs

If you do need to optimize PDFs, then there are several optimize PDF tools and applications that can help you. A PDF optimizer online can help you shrink your files into a more manageable size, so it displays clearly and there are no usability issues. These can be big problems, especially if you and your team worked hard to create a new piece of content, but overlooked how it would look across different platforms and devices.

You can use something like the Lumin PDF compress feature to compress files that are too big to be shown properly. You can open the Lumin browser, and then look for the Compress tab. Open the Compress tab and then you can upload or drag and drop your file into the browser. Before you compress it, you can fine-tune the process by choosing what elements to compress, and whether you want to compress everything about the file or certain characteristics.

You can also use Lumin to merge PDFs, combine PDFs, and split PDFs, which is another way you can optimize these files, especially if they are too big to be viewed properly on several different types of devices. Lumin also lets you share and save these files to your Google Drive, which means all your changes and edit are saved automatically so you do not have to save every change.