Compress PDF
How to use
Shrinks a PDF in one of two ways. Keep text selectable rebuilds the file structure and removes metadata; Compress images re-saves every page as a smaller image, which is what makes scans small enough for upload limits. Choose a method, pick a quality for images, and compare the before and after sizes.
Select a PDF to compress
Rebuild the structure, or compress the page images for scans
Why use this tool
- Two methods for two kinds of PDF: rebuild the structure to keep text selectable, or compress the page images, which is what makes a scan small enough for an upload limit.
- Three image qualities, 150, 110 or 80 DPI, so you can go only as far as the limit requires.
- If a method would not make your file meaningfully smaller, it says so instead of handing you a bigger copy.
- Getting a scanned application or certificate under a portal's upload limit
- Shrinking a PDF of phone photos of documents before emailing it
- Removing hidden author and software details before sharing a document
- Reducing the size of an image-heavy brochure or report for a slow connection
Free and private. Everything runs on your own device, with no account and no uploads.
Upload forms, email and messaging apps all cap file size, and a PDF that is too big simply will not go through. This tool offers the two methods that actually shrink a PDF. "Keep text selectable" rebuilds the file's internal structure and removes metadata, which helps PDFs that were saved inefficiently and leaves text, links and drawings untouched. "Compress images" re-saves every page as a smaller image at the quality you choose, which is what shrinks scans and photo-heavy documents, often by 80 to 90 percent.
If you can select and copy the text in your PDF, start with Keep text selectable. If the PDF is a scan, a phone photo of documents, or mostly pictures, use Compress images, since that is where almost all of the size is.
Because the size is in the images, and that method leaves images exactly as they are. It helps files saved inefficiently by the program that made them, but a scan is almost entirely image data. Switch to Compress images.
Every page is redrawn as a JPEG image at the resolution you choose and placed on a page of the same size. The pages look the same at normal zoom, but text can no longer be selected, searched or copied, and links stop working. Keep the original if you will need any of that.
For scans, Balanced typically cuts the size by 80 to 90 percent. A PDF that is mostly typed text may come out larger as images, in which case the tool tells you to keep the original instead.
Typed text at normal sizes usually is, but fine print, small table figures and signatures can blur. Check the result before sending it, and use it only when a strict upload limit leaves no other option.
- 1
Add the PDF
Select the PDF you want to shrink.
- 2
Choose a method
Keep text selectable for documents made on a computer; Compress images for scans and photo-heavy files.
- 3
Pick an image quality if compressing images
High quality (150 DPI), Balanced (110 DPI) or Smallest (80 DPI).
- 4
Compress and compare
The before and after sizes are shown. If the file would not get meaningfully smaller, the tool tells you to keep the original.
- ·Try Balanced first. Go to Smallest only if the file is still over the limit.
- ·Text-based PDFs rarely need compressing; if one is large, it usually contains a few big images, so Compress images helps there too, at the cost of selectable text.
- ·Keep the original. A compressed copy cannot be turned back into the full-quality file.