How We Built a PDF Compression Tool with Python and Flask

#python #webdev #pdf #flask

PDF files can quickly become unwieldy. At RevisePDF, we've built a compression tool that significantly reduces file sizes while maintaining quality.

Our Technical Stack

Python/Flask for the web application
PyMuPDF for PDF analysis
Ghostscript for compression
Supabase for authentication

The Compression Pipeline

File Upload and Validation
- Secure handling with size checks
- Virus scanning
PDF Analysis
- Analysing PDF structure
- Determining optimal compression strategy
Compression Processing
- Applying optimised parameters
- Downsampling images appropriately

Key Challenges We Solved

Preserving Text Quality: Using different settings for text vs images
Handling Large Files: Implementing asynchronous processing
Balancing Size vs Quality: Creating multiple compression presets

Results

Typical compression rates range from 65-75% reduction in file size!

Try It Yourself!

We're currently in beta and looking for users to test our PDF compression tool. Visit RevisePDF.com to try it out!

What compression ratio would you consider acceptable for your documents? Let me know in the comments.

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