class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/intro.png" alt="reduce pdf file size" />Lately, I’ve been trying to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-convert-scanned-pages-into-ereader-ebook-format/">scan my class notes and handouts, and transfer some e-textbooks so I can view them on my Kindle to save myself carrying too much in my backpack. This is something that class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/calibre-ebook-management-synchronization-software-multi-os/">Calibre could help convert easily to ebook reader-friendly formats, but the resulting PDF files are often huge, have several pages and thus, take sometime to load and smoothly display things. This is especially true for my Logic textbook, which is about 180MB.

So in my desperate search for ways to optimize PDF files, I’ve found that there aren’t many free options. Although there are a lot of shareware programs, there are also, thankfully, a few free programs can help you reduce a PDF file size.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.irfanview.com/">Irfanview & class="vt-p" href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghostscript/">GhostScript [Windows & class="vt-p" href="http://www.wine-reviews.net/applications/irfanview-410-on-linux-with-wine.html">Possibly Linux]

If you don’t have class="vt-p" href="http://www.irfanview.com/">Irfanview, you should really consider downloading it. It’s a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/irfanview-blows-windows-viewer-out-of-the-water/">much better and lightning fast alternative to the default image viewer in Windows, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-cool-irfanview-plugins-enhance-simple-image-editor/">supports countless plugins that allow it to be extremely versatile, and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-convert-a-pdf-file-to-a-jpg-image/">converts images to different file types. You can use it to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-easy-ways-to-add-borders-to-your-photos/">add borders and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watermarks-marking-your-image-territory/">watermarks to your photos, and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-take-a-screenshot-batch-process-images-irfanview/">batch process many images at a time. You can also view PDF files, provided you download class="vt-p" href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghostscript/">GhostScript first.

Once you have Ghostscript installed, you can use Irfanview ( class="vt-p" href="http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/irfanview_portable">portable version will work as well) to view PDF files and save them as new files. You’ll get a box on the right of the Save As dialog to choose compression levels.

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You can choose to save with lossless, best, high, medium, and ‘dump’ quality. In my tests, Irfanview reduced a 14MB PDF file to 8MB using the high-quality setting in Compression, while the lossless and best quality settings produced files bigger than the original size.

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class="vt-p" href="http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx">PrimoPDF [Windows]

class="vt-p" href="http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx">PrimoPDF is a desktop application that allows you to create PDF files from image files and documents.

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It installs itself as a virtual printer, which makes optimizing PDF files a matter of opening the files and printing them with PrimoPDF, though you can also drag and drop documents to the PrimoPDF desktop shortcut. From there, you’ll get a dialog box, where you can choose the document quality.

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For the smallest file size, choose the Screen setting. Pressing Create PDF starts the conversion.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=494">Free PDF Compressor (version 1.12) [Windows]

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This program is now shareware but the link provided leads to the last freeware version. It is pretty much just an executable that does a decent job at reducing PDF file sizes. In my tests, this program managed to reduce a 50MB PDF file to 45MB, with the maximum compression level, at an impressive speed (almost instant conversion).

class="vt-p" href="http://convert.neevia.com/pdfcompress/">Neevia’s PDFCompress [Web-Based]

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PDFCompress is a simple web app that takes any PDF files smaller than 5MB and compresses them according to the presets you chose (low, medium, high and maximum). Maximum compression means the quality will be approximately a 10 in a scale of 100. In my test with a 3MB file and maximum compression, the optimized file was about 9% smaller, with no visible quality loss.

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I should also mention PDF ReDirect which is another Windows-only PDF printer that lets you optimize and rotate PDF files, which we previously reviewed class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pdf-redirect-lets-merge-rotate-optimize-encrypt-print-pdfs-windows/">here.

What free software do you use to reduce PDF file size? Let us know in the comments! />
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Selecting new accounting software requires more time than most businesses realize. To complete the proper amount of research and assessment of various programs, most business owners should expect to spend weeks, not months, instead of days or hours. However, once the right solution is identified, the improvements that it can help the company realize are often well worth the time spent selecting the software.

One of the first things you’ll do when selecting new accounting software is to look at the processes that your business currently uses and see if there are ways to use software to make those processes more efficient. Many companies use the implementation of new financial software as a good time to also change some processes to gain more efficiencies from the new software’s extra features. If you consult with financial software reviews, you’ll see that the market for accounting software is roughly divided in to four segments: entry-level, small to medium scale business, small to medium scale enterprise, and enterprise resource planning.

A brief overview of each segment follows.

Entry level software is designed to work best with small businesses (those with 20 or fewer employees and less than $5 million in sales). Roughly 5 million companies in the US meet the profile for those that are best suited for software within this segment. This is the largest group of companies and is often the reason that accounting software guides exist – to help smaller businesses choose new software.

Small to Medium Business (SMB) software is designed to work best for companies with $5 to $100 million in sales and no more than 100 employees. This is the second largest market segment and estimates say that about a half a million companies in the US could benefit from new software designed for businesses of this size.

Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) software is the next step up and is designed for even bigger companies – those with up to $500 million in sales and up to 500 employees. Approximately 17,000 US based companies fit this profile.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is designed for the largest companies and can accommodate well over 500 employees and billions of dollars in sales. The number of companies that fit in to this segment is fewer than any other segments, although some estimates have claimed as high as 17,000.

These segments are only roughly defined guidelines for looking for new software. These are not rules that must be followed. Some businesses that fall in to the the SMB category may find that ERP software is actually best for their applications due to it’s additional flexibility or other features that the company may need. In this case, they should opt for the ERP software.

When selecting software, make sure you know what you require from the new accounting package and keep those requirements in mind. This will allow you to avoid purchasing modules or features that you do not need in the new software. Overall, software designed for larger and more profitable companies come with more capabilities. In some cases these capabilities can be beneficial, but it is also important to note that this is not always true. At times, additional capabilities that are not used can actually slow down the software.

At the same time, purchasing software with too few capabilities can also create problems. If you purchase software without a module that you need, you may be forced to use an outside application to run that process, which can cause headaches as well as present problems with compatibility that can add costs to the overall project.

I wanted to add more space to my Windows boot camp partition because I wanted to put a couple games on it. There are other ways to do this, but this is the option that I felt most comfortable with. I like this because you also have a backup of your windows boot camp partition, just in case anything goes wrong (like a virus..lol) Twitter.com/TheSavage042

The MFT or Master File Table is the most significant data structure of NTFS (New Technology File System). The MFT stores metadata about each file, folder, and metafile on the NTFS file system partition. The structure of MFT supports special algorithms that help minimizing hard drive fragmentation. However, if the number of entries exceeds 4 million, the MFT may get damaged and you come across catastrophic data loss situations. In order to retrieve lost data in such cases, windows data recovery is required to get your valuable data back.

In a practical scenario, when you delete or create files on the NTFS file system partition that already stores over 4 million files, you may encounter file corruption or file system damage. This behavior might be shown in any of the below given ways:

Removed files are not removed from the drive. They continue to be shown on same location.

Files and directories that you haven’t removed can not be accessed any more.

You encounter a pop-up messages, which states that the hard drive or its data structures are damaged and you need to run Chkdsk to fix the problem.

After this behavior of Microsoft Windows, some of your significant files or directories may not be accessed and you come across data loss. In order to extract lost data, you need to find out the cause of this problem and perform windows data recovery by sorting it out.

Grounds of the issue:

This issue takes place if the size of MFT exceeds its 4 GB size limit that may happen if you store over 4 million files on your Windows hard drive. When you remove any file whose master file table entry is beyond 4 GB point in such circumstances, an error in the calculations results into the incorrect entry to be pointed as available. If the same entry contains information about other files, and you add new files to partition just after deleting the files, entry can be re-used resulting into the file referenced to be lost.

In order to retrieve lost files from Windows hard drive, you need to use windows data recovery software to extract lost data. The Windows Recovery tools methodically scan the affected drive using high-end scanning techniques and recover windows data from it. With non-destructive conduct and rich graphical user interface, the applications are completely safe and easy to use.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most excellent solution to retrieve lost data from Windows hard drive. The software recovers data from FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 file system partitions. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000.