Compress PDF
Compress PDFs with preset levels: Maximum, Recommended, or High Quality. See size before and after.
Examples
See what this tool can do.
Shrink a scan for email
Drop a heavy scanned PDF, pick Recommended, and get a much smaller file that fits under a 10 MB email limit.
Maximum compression for upload forms
Use the Maximum preset when a portal caps uploads at a few megabytes.
Keep quality for print
Choose High Quality to reduce size modestly while keeping pages crisp.
Tips & tricks
Get the most out of it.
- 1Check the before/after size and percentage saved before you download.
- 2Maximum compression downscales pages the most — best for screen viewing, not print.
- 3If you need to keep selectable text, compress less aggressively or use a different tool.
About Compress PDF
What this tool does
Compress PDF reduces a PDF’s file size using three presets — Maximum, Recommended and High Quality — and shows you exactly how much you saved before you download.
How to use it
- Drop in your PDF.
- Choose a compression preset.
- Compare the before/after size, then download the compressed file.
How it works
Each page is rendered and re-encoded as a JPEG image at the preset’s quality and scale, then rebuilt into a new PDF. This is very effective for scans and image-heavy documents.
Important considerations
- Because pages are rasterised, selectable text and hyperlinks are not preserved.
- Already-optimised, text-only PDFs may not shrink much.
Privacy
Your PDF is processed entirely in your browser. The file is never uploaded to a server, which makes this safe for confidential contracts, statements and personal documents.
Related PDF tools
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the content. Image-heavy and scanned PDFs shrink the most; the tool shows the exact percentage saved after compressing.