Use the following ghostscript command:
gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook \
-dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.pdf
Summary of -dPDFSETTINGS:
-dPDFSETTINGS=/screenlower quality, smaller size. (72 dpi)-dPDFSETTINGS=/ebookfor better quality, but slightly larger pdfs. (150 dpi)-dPDFSETTINGS=/prepressoutput similar to Acrobat Distiller “Prepress Optimized” setting (300 dpi)-dPDFSETTINGS=/printerselects output similar to the Acrobat Distiller “Print Optimized” setting (300 dpi)-dPDFSETTINGS=/defaultselects output intended to be useful across a wide variety of uses, possibly at the expense of a larger output file
Reference: https://www.ghostscript.com/doc/current/VectorDevices.htm#PSPDF_IN:
Controls and features specific to PostScript and PDF input
-dPDFSETTINGS=configuration
Presets the “distiller parameters” to one of four predefined settings:
/screenselects low-resolution output similar to the Acrobat Distiller (up to version X) “Screen Optimized” setting./ebookselects medium-resolution output similar to the Acrobat Distiller (up to version X) “eBook” setting./printerselects output similar to the Acrobat Distiller “Print Optimized” (up to version X) setting./prepressselects output similar to Acrobat Distiller “Prepress Optimized” (up to version X) setting./defaultselects output intended to be useful across a wide variety of uses, possibly at the expense of a larger output file.
The exact settings for each of these, including their DPI values, are shown in the dozens of options in this table: https://www.ghostscript.com/doc/current/VectorDevices.htm#distillerparams.
How can I reduce the file size of a scanned PDF file?