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Tag: compress

  • Freeware PDF Compressor

    Freeware PDF Compressor

    PDF Compressor
    I was contacted and asked to write about PDF Compressor. It is a freeware and at v.3.0.

    As its name suggests it is straightforward with one purpose. It is easy to use, simply add or drag and drop pdf files to the program window or alternatively add a folder containing pdf files. Customize the output folder and if necessary the output defaults from 120 dots per inch and 75% compression. Press the Start button and it is done.

    In tests on an older XP computer the process took 3 minutes for a 39MB file and approximately 20 seconds for a 4MB one. The most important thing to look for is of course the size of the output. As the author states:

    First please check if your PDF files are scanned PDF or not. Scanned PDF documents are made from images so that the program can compress it. If the PDF files are not scanned PDF, the compressor will not work properly and make files bigger than before.

    The usefulness of PDF Compressor, and this is true of other similar software too, is therefore limited. The size reduction does depend on the original pdf, if the original is a manual or book it is likely not going to be compressed. Changing the DPI and compression quality will help but may adversely effect text quality in the file.

  • Freeware Shorts: Bandizip

    Freeware Shorts: Bandizip

    Bandizip (Version: 1.03 as of this post) is an archiver that support most if not all archive formats including the popular ZIP, 7Z, TAR, CAB, RAR and ISO formats and less common ones ones like XZ and BH.

    Bandizip

    More usefully Bandizip can create executables that will join big files that Bandizip itself has split and archived separately for easier portability. Bandizip can extract automatically from its context menu or let the user choose a destination. It also features what it calls high speed archiving. Here Bandizip recognizes file formats that are difficult or impossible to compress and bypasses them for faster processing. Another speed feature, also found and enabled in its setting, is the fast drag and drop. Here a big file is directly extracted into the chosen folder instead of being extracted into a temporary folder and then copied to the destination folder as is often the case with other – and indeed with small files using Bandizip – archivers or compressors.

    Full Unicode (UTF-8) support is one other main advantage of Bandizip. It runs on XP and newer Windows and is available for 32-bit and 64-bit systems.