A powerful, in-browser tool for compressing PDF files and extracting their text content using Ghostscript compiled to WebAssembly.
Overview
This utility provides two key functions for handling PDF files directly in your browser, ensuring your data remains completely private. You can significantly reduce the file size of a PDF by choosing from several quality presets, or you can extract all selectable text from a PDF, which is then formatted for readability and made available for download.
Features
- PDF Compression:
- Reduces PDF file size using the power of Ghostscript.
- Offers multiple quality presets (Low, Medium, High, Maximum) to balance size and quality.
- Compares the original and compressed file sizes and reports the percentage saved.
- Warns you if compression fails to reduce the file size.
- Text Extraction:
- Extracts all text content from a PDF, page by page.
- Formats the output with clear page breaks (
--- Page X ---).
- Provides options to copy the extracted text to the clipboard or download it as a
.txt file.
- Client-Side Privacy: All processing is done locally in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to a server.
- User-Friendly Interface: Supports drag-and-drop or standard file selection.
Usage
- Open the PDF Compressor.
- Wait for the Ghostscript library to load.
- Drag and drop your PDF file onto the designated area, or click it to select a file.
- To Compress:
- Select your desired Quality from the dropdown menu.
- Click Compress PDF. The process may take a moment.
- A download link for the compressed file will appear.
- To Extract Text:
- Click Extract Text.
- The extracted text will appear in a text area below, ready to be copied or downloaded.
Technical Details
- Core Engine: Uses @jspawn/ghostscript-wasm, a WebAssembly port of the powerful Ghostscript PDF interpreter.
- Technology: Built with vanilla JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
- File Handling: Uses the File API to read the user’s PDF and creates downloadable blobs for the output.
Credits
Created by Oskar Austegard (@oaustegard)
For issues, feature requests, or contributions, please open an issue on GitHub.