Compress a PDF

How to compress a PDF

1. 1Select your PDFChoose the file you need to shrink. Its current size is shown, so you have a number to compare against.
2. 2Pick a quality levelLight barely touches image quality and suits anything going to print. Balanced is the usual choice. Strong produces the smallest file and visibly softens photographs.
3. 3Check the saving, then downloadThe exact before and after sizes are shown before you commit, so you can try a different level if the result is not what you wanted.

When you would use this

Compression is almost always about a limit someone else set: an email attachment cap, a government or university upload form that refuses anything over a few megabytes, or a job application portal. Scanned documents are the usual culprit, because a scanner writes every page as a full-resolution photograph. Those are exactly the files that shrink most here.

Questions about Compress PDF

Are my files uploaded to a server?

No. Every tool on this site runs inside your browser. Your file is read from your disk into your own browser's memory, processed there, and written back out. You can confirm this yourself: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and run the tool — you will not see your document being sent anywhere. It also means the tools keep working if you go offline after the page has loaded.

How much smaller will my file get?

It depends entirely on what is inside. Scanned documents and image-heavy files often drop by 60-90%, because photos are the bulk of the size. Files that are mostly text are already efficient, so expect a more modest 5-20% from structural optimisation alone. The tool shows you the real before and after figures so you are never guessing.

Will compressing make my text blurry?

No. Text and vector graphics are never rasterised — only embedded images are re-encoded. On the 'Strong' setting images are noticeably softer; 'Balanced' is usually indistinguishable at normal viewing size.

Why did my file barely get smaller?

Because there was little left to remove. A PDF exported straight from Word or a similar program is mostly text, which is already stored very efficiently. The large savings come from documents built out of photographs or scans. The tool shows you the real figures either way rather than pretending otherwise.