Learn how to reduce the size of your PPT files by more than half at no cost, using Smallpdf. No watermark, no registration, and no installation.
Learn how to reduce the size of your PPT files by more than half at no cost, using Smallpdf. No watermark, no registration, and no installation.
We’re well into the 21st century, but many email servers still have a 20–25 MB size limit for attachments. This isn’t an inconvenience when you’re sending or receiving simple documents or files. But it can be a severe impediment when you work on presentations and PPT files regularly.
Basic presentations of only a few text-based slides are rarely too large to send via email. But once you start adding charts and images to a PowerPoint presentation with more than 20 slides, the size can rapidly balloon past the email size cap.
Using the compression tools built into Windows and macOS might save you 1–2 MB. Cloud-based storage involves multiple steps for you and the recipient, and file transfer services usually require registration.
Smallpdf offers a simpler alternative that requires no registration and can reduce PowerPoint file size by more than half.
How To Compress a PPT File for Free
Upload your PPT to our Compress tool.
Choose “Basic” once the Compress panel appears.
Once compression is complete, select “Export As” instead of “Download.”
Choose “PowerPoint (.pptx),” and on the next screen select “Convert selectable text only” and then the “Convert” button.
After conversion, you can download your document, share it, or save it.
Convert, compress, and download your PPT using Smallpdf
What Happens When We Compress PowerPoint Files
Smallpdf can compress PowerPoint files more effectively than zipping by first converting them to a PDF. During this process, our compressor looks for repeated patterns and data, replacing them with unique identifiers. This results in a much smaller file.
If what you wanted was a smaller PDF, you can download this once the conversion and compression are complete. But to reduce PowerPoint file size, the “Export As” option allows you to turn the PDF back into a PPT file. The layout remains unchanged, and all fields can still be edited in PowerPoint.
Once your file has been compressed and converted, you can either download it to your device, share a link to the file, or save it to your Dropbox or Google Drive account. If you have a Pro subscription, you can also save it to your Smallpdf storage.
One caveat is that compression can sometimes affect non-standard fonts, special characters, and emojis. To reduce the risk of any text in your presentation from being changed, you can embed the fonts used in your PowerPoint file.
- With your presentation open in PowerPoint, select “Preferences.”
- Select “Save” under “Output and Sharing.”
- In the panel that opens, check the “Embed fonts in the file” option.
Emojis are usually replaced by the “undefined” glyph—a rectangle with an X—during compression. If your presentation must include emoji, turn them into images first and add the image to your slides.
Other Measures to Reduce PowerPoint File Size
There are a few other steps you can take to make your PPT file smaller before compressing it.
Each high-resolution image in your presentation can add 2 MB or more to the file size. Instead of removing images essential to the presentation, try optimizing them first. This guide will take you through the steps to using our Compress tool on your images. Once you have compressed all your images, replace the high-resolution version with the optimized version.
You can also compress images using PowerPoint. Go to File and select “Compress Pictures”. This will give you a variety of options that you can experiment with to see what effect it has on the image quality and the file size.
Embedding videos in your presentation will also inflate the file size. Although Smallpdf can’t help with compressing video files, there are other online services that can. Alternatively, consider uploading the video to YouTube and then adding a link to it in the presentation.
Once you have finished compiling your PowerPoint presentation, run through all the slides again to ensure all unused slides and slide masters have been removed. You can reduce PowerPoint file size substantially by following these steps, and then you can use our Compress tool to make it even smaller.
Maintaining Quality and Formatting
Whenever you compress PowerPoint files, there is always some risk of losing quality. Text and vector graphics will remain clear with well-defined edges, but other images could end up with slightly blurred edges. Opting for Basic compression reduces this risk while still giving you a much smaller file. But always check the results before sending your file.
Our compression tool also retains the original formatting. You can still edit any text in your presentation, along with shifting, resizing, or removing individual images.
When uploading a file to our Compress tool, you’re uploading a copy. The original file is never removed from your device. So, if you are unhappy with any results, you still have the uncompressed original to work with.
Go Pro and Get More Done
Smallpdf is free to use, and you don’t need to create an account. However, you are limited to two downloads a day using any of our more than 20 tools. If you create a Smallpdf account, you unlock a 7-day free trial with unlimited downloads and access to other Pro features. You can also download our Windows app, allowing you to compress PowerPoint files, JPGs, and other file types offline. After 7 days, you can switch back to a free plan with limited downloads or subscribe to a Pro, Team, or Business plan.
