Guide to Compressing PDF Files with Syncfusion API

9 May 20254 minutes to read

The Compress PDF API allows you to reduce the size of a PDF document with various compression options.

Flatten PDF Document

To compress a PDF document, send a request to the /v1/edit-pdf/compress endpoint with the input PDF file and compression options as shown below.

curl --location 'http://localhost:8003/v1/edit-pdf/compress' \
--form 'file=@"4mb.pdf"' \
--form 'settings="{
  \"File\": \"file\",
  \"Password\": null,
  \"ImageQuality\": 50,
  \"OptimizeFont\": true,
  \"RemoveMetadata\": false,
  \"OptimizePageContents\": true,
  \"FlattenFormFields\": true,
  \"FlattenAnnotations\": true
}"'
const formdata = new FormData();
formdata.append("file", fileInput.files[0], "4mb.pdf");
formdata.append("settings", "{\n  \"File\": \"file\",\n  \"Password\": null,\n  \"ImageQuality\": 50,\n  \"OptimizeFont\": true,\n  \"RemoveMetadata\": false,\n  \"OptimizePageContents\": true,\n  \"FlattenFormFields\": true,\n  \"FlattenAnnotations\": true\n}");

const requestOptions = {
  method: "POST",
  body: formdata,
  redirect: "follow"
};

fetch("http://localhost:4000/v1/edit-pdf/compress", requestOptions)
  .then((response) => response.text())
  .then((result) => console.log(result))
  .catch((error) => console.error(error));
var client = new HttpClient();
var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "http://localhost:8003/v1/edit-pdf/compress");
var content = new MultipartFormDataContent();
content.Add(new StreamContent(File.OpenRead("4mb.pdf")), "file", "4mb.pdf");
content.Add(new StringContent("{
  \"File\": \"file\",
  \"Password\": null,
  \"ImageQuality\": 50,
  \"OptimizeFont\": true,
  \"RemoveMetadata\": false,
  \"OptimizePageContents\": true,
  \"FlattenFormFields\": true,
  \"FlattenAnnotations\": true
}"), "settings");
request.Content = content;
var response = await client.SendAsync(request);
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
Console.WriteLine(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());

Once the request is sent, it will create a compression job to compress the PDF and return the job details as follows:

{
    "jobID": "6be827c5-d86d-4fe5-9bd5-c8fd5887a455",
    "status": "requested",
    "createdAt": "2024-05-06T09:39:13.9505828Z"
}

Poll the status of the Compress PDF Job

Next, you can retrieve the job status by sending a request to the /v1/edit-pdf/status/{jobID} endpoint with the job ID.

curl --location 'http://localhost:8003/v1/conversion/status/ef0766ab-bc74-456c-8143-782e730a89df'
const requestOptions = {
  method: "GET",
  redirect: "follow"
};
fetch("http://localhost:4000/v1/edit-pdf/status/4413bbb5-6b26-4c07-9af2-c26cd2c42fe3", requestOptions)
  .then((response) => response.text())
  .then((result) => console.log(result))
  .catch((error) => console.error(error));
var client = new HttpClient();
var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "http://localhost:8003/v1/conversion/status/ef0766ab-bc74-456c-8143-782e730a89df");
var response = await client.SendAsync(request);
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
Console.WriteLine(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());

You will receive one of the following statuses until the job is completed. Upon completion, you will receive the actual output file.

Job Statuses:

  • Queued:
{
    "jobID": "4b2782b2-9f08-478b-98fc-4464bd219ca0",
    "status": "queued"
}
  • In Progress:
{
    "jobID": "ef0766ab-bc74-456c-8143-782e730a89df",
    "status": "in progress"
}
  • Error:
{
    "jobID": "ef0766ab-bc74-456c-8143-782e730a89df",
    "status": "errror",
    "code": "500",
    "message": "Failed to convert the document to PDF"        
}

NOTE

The Syncfusion Document Processing API is now available as a Docker-based solution. Try it out