Compress PDF

How it works

1. Choose the PDF you want to make smaller.
2. Pick a preset. Recommended is the default. Extreme also removes document details such as the title and author.
3. Download the smaller file. If the tool cannot make the file smaller, it returns the original unchanged.

Compression runs in your browser. It repacks the PDF's internal structure into compressed object streams, which leaves text and vector graphics unchanged. It does not recompress images, so the size reduction depends on what the file contains.

When compression helps

Repacking works best on documents with many small internal objects, such as long reports, forms and PDFs that have been edited many times.

When it will not help much

A PDF made mostly of photos or scanned pages keeps most of its size, because its images are not recompressed. For those files, the options below usually make a bigger difference.

• Split the PDF and send only the pages you need, with the Split PDF tool.
• Lower the image resolution in the program that created the PDF, then export it again.
• For a scan, rescan at a lower resolution if the quality is still acceptable.

Check the result

The tool shows the original and the new size. Open the output and check a few pages before you send it, especially pages with figures.

Limits

This tool processes your file on your device and never uploads it. The app does not set a size limit for it, so very large files can run out of memory in the browser, especially on phones. If that happens, split the file first with Split PDF.