Compress PDF
Reduce PDF file size while preserving quality
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About Compress PDF
Compress reduces PDF file size by re-encoding embedded images and stripping structures that do not affect what you see — unused objects, duplicated fonts, stale incremental-update history. You choose how hard to push, and the tool reports the before and after sizes so you can judge the trade.
Image re-encoding runs in a web worker on your own machine. Unlike server-side compressors, no copy of the document is created on a remote host, so there is nothing to delete afterwards.
How to use Compress PDF
- Load a PDF. The current file size is shown once it is parsed.
- Pick a compression level. Light keeps images near their original resolution; aggressive downsamples them substantially.
- Run the compression and read the reported saving before you download.
- If the result is too soft, step the level back down and run it again — the source file in the browser is untouched, so you can iterate freely.
On a production
Email systems bounce attachments at 10 or 25 MB, and a gear list with photographs of every case passes that easily. Compressing before sending is faster than fighting a file-transfer link that half the crew will not click.
Frequently asked questions
- Why did my file barely shrink?
- Because it was already efficient. A text-only PDF exported from a word processor has almost nothing to squeeze — the savings come from raster images. If a document is mostly vector text, expect single-digit percentages.
- Does compression affect text quality?
- No. Text and vector graphics are lossless throughout; only embedded raster images are re-encoded. Text stays selectable and searchable at every compression level.
- Can I compress a scanned document?
- Yes, and scans usually benefit most, because every page is a large photograph. Push the level harder than you would on a mixed document — scanned text stays legible well past the point where a photograph would visibly degrade.