GhostScript Python Script to Compress Multiple Large Size PDF Document on Command Line Using BAT File

Welcome folks today in this blog post we will be writing a simple shell bat script to compress multiple large size pdf documents in command line. All the full source code of the application is shown below.

Get Started

In order to get started you need to install the ghostscript pdf compression library in windows 10 or 11 as shown below in the blog post. You need to read this blog post as shown below

How to Install GhostScript PDF Compression Library on Command Line in Windows 11 & 10

app.py

from __future__ import print_function
import os
import subprocess

root = "."

try:
   os.mkdir('compressed')
except FileExistsError:
   pass   
   
for file in os.listdir(root):
      if file.endswith(".pdf"):
         filename = os.path.join(root, file)
         arg1= '-sOutputFile=' + './compressed/' + file
         print ("compressing:", file )
         p = subprocess.Popen(['gs', '-sDEVICE=pdfwrite', '-dCompatibilityLevel=1.4', '-dPDFSETTINGS=/screen', '-dNOPAUSE', '-dBATCH',  '-dQUIET', str(arg1), filename], stdout=subprocess.PIPE).wait()

from __future__ import print_function

import os

import subprocess

root = "."

try:

os.mkdir('compressed')

except FileExistsError:

pass

for file in os.listdir(root):

if file.endswith(".pdf"):

filename = os.path.join(root, file)

arg1= '-sOutputFile=' + './compressed/' + file

print ("compressing:", file )

p = subprocess.Popen(['gs', '-sDEVICE=pdfwrite', '-dCompatibilityLevel=1.4', '-dPDFSETTINGS=/screen', '-dNOPAUSE', '-dBATCH', '-dQUIET', str(arg1), filename], stdout=subprocess.PIPE).wait()

If you execute the above python script then the compressed folder will be created as shown above.

Now you need to create the compress.bat file and copy paste the following code

compress.bat

@echo off
setlocal
set GS_OUTPUT_DIR=compressed_files
mkdir %GS_OUTPUT_DIR%
for %%i in (*.pdf) do ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS#/screen "%%i" "%GS_OUTPUT_DIR%\%%i"

@echo off

setlocal

set GS_OUTPUT_DIR=compressed_files

mkdir %GS_OUTPUT_DIR%

for %%i in (*.pdf) do ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS#/screen "%%i" "%GS_OUTPUT_DIR%\%%i"