Compress PDF
Make a PDF smaller by re-encoding the images inside it. Text stays sharp, and the output is never larger than the input.
How to compress a PDF
- 1
Choose the PDF you want to shrink.
- 2
Pick a level: light, balanced or strong.
- 3
Select Compress PDF.
- 4
Compare the before and after sizes, then download.
Where the megabytes actually are
A page of text weighs a few kilobytes. A phone photo pasted into that page weighs a few thousand. When a PDF is too big to email, it is almost never the words — it is scans, screenshots and pictures stored at far higher quality than a reader can see. So that is the only thing this tool touches: the embedded images are re-encoded at the level you choose, and the text, fonts and vector graphics pass through untouched, which is why they stay perfectly sharp at any zoom.
The corollary is honest too: a PDF that is mostly text has little to win, and rather than inflate it, the tool tells you so and guarantees the output is never a byte larger than the input.
The rest of the PDF toolbox
Compressing is often one step in a chain — the attachment that is too big is usually also several documents that should be one, or one document that should be several. Merge PDFs into a single file, or split out just the pages you need — a smaller selection beats a stronger compression every time.
Locked files cannot be compressed: remove the password first, and protect the result again after. Like merge and split, the output here is stripped of its author and title metadata, since compressing is usually the last step before sending something on.
About Compress PDF
Most oversized PDFs are oversized for one reason: the images inside them — scans, phone photos, pasted screenshots — were stored at far higher quality than anyone reading the document can see. This tool re-encodes those images at a quality you choose and leaves everything else exactly as it was: the text stays real text, selectable and searchable, because it is never touched. You see the size before and after, and if a file has nothing worth re-encoding you get it back no larger than it went in — never a bigger file, and never a watermark.
- Three strength levels — light, balanced and strong — so you choose the trade-off
- Text stays sharp and selectable: only the embedded images are re-encoded
- Honest numbers: original size, compressed size, and how many images were touched
- The output is never larger than the input — a file with nothing to win comes back as-is
- Author, title and producer metadata stripped, same as merge and split
- No watermark on the output, ever
Frequently asked questions
- How does PDF compression work here?
- The images embedded in the PDF are re-encoded as JPEG at the quality level you pick, and the file's internal streams are repacked. Text, fonts and vector graphics are not touched, which is why they stay perfectly sharp.
- Will the text get blurry?
- No. Text in a PDF is stored as text, not pixels, and this tool never rasterises anything. Only pictures are recompressed — the words look identical at any zoom level.
- Which level should I pick?
- Balanced is right for almost everything — email attachments, uploads with size limits, archiving. Pick light when the images matter (a portfolio), strong when they do not (a scanned form someone only needs to read once).
- What if my PDF doesn't get smaller?
- Then you get the original back, byte for byte the same size or smaller — never larger. A PDF that is mostly text has little to compress, and the honest answer is to say so rather than inflate it.
- Is there a size limit?
- Up to 25 MB per file for everyday use, which covers the overwhelming majority of documents people need to shrink.
- Can I compress a password-protected PDF?
- Not while it is locked — remove the password first with the unlock tool, compress it, and protect it again if you need to.