If your app needs to compress PDFs, you have two paths:

Install pdf-lib , ghostscript , or puppeteer — and inherit binary dependencies, config complexity, and memory overhead.

Make one HTTP POST and let a dedicated API handle it.

Here's how the second option works with the Forgelab PDF API.

The endpoint

POST https://www.forgelab.africa/api/pdf/compress

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Headers: X-API-Key: your_api_key

Body (multipart/form-data): file — the PDF to compress

Response: compressed PDF as a binary download.

curl

curl -X POST https://www.forgelab.africa/api/pdf/compress \ -H "X-API-Key: $FORGELAB_API_KEY " \ -F "[email protected]" \ --output compressed.pdf

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A 10 MB PDF typically comes back under 2 MB.

Node.js

import fs from ' fs ' ; import fetch from ' node-fetch ' ; import FormData from ' form-data ' ;

async function compressPdf ( inputPath , outputPath ) { const form = new FormData (); form . append ( ' file ' , fs .…