Compress PDF

A 40 MB scan will not go through a mail server that stops at 25 MB, and an upload form that caps at 10 MB does not care how important your document is. That is the moment people go looking for a PDF compressor. This one shrinks a PDF by re-rendering each page as an image at a quality and resolution you choose, then rebuilding a new PDF from those pages. You get a quality slider, a DPI choice, and the before and after sizes side by side with the percent saved, so you can decide whether the trade was worth it before you download anything.

I need to be blunt about that trade rather than bury it, because it is the thing every other compressor glosses over. Turning pages into images means selectable text and clickable links do not survive. What comes out is a picture of your document. For scans and image heavy files that is exactly right, since they were pictures already. For a normal text PDF it is usually the wrong tool, and I will tell you what to do instead further down. Everything runs in your browser, so the file is never uploaded. If your real problem is too many pages rather than too many megabytes, the PDF splitter is the cheaper fix.

How to use

1. Drop your PDF onto the box, or press the button and pick it from your files.
2. Look at the original size shown once the file loads, so you know what you are aiming to beat.
3. Set the quality slider. Lower quality means a smaller file and softer pages.
4. Choose a DPI. Lower resolution shrinks the file fast but makes small print harder to read.
5. Start the compression and wait while each page is rendered on your device.
6. Compare the before and after sizes and the percent saved that appear when it finishes.
7. Download the result if you are happy, or change the settings and run it again.

Why use our compress pdf?

The honest headline first, because it decides whether you should use this at all. Compression here works by rendering every page to an image and building a fresh PDF out of those images. Text stops being text. You will not be able to select a sentence, search for a word, or click a link in the output, and screen readers will find nothing to read. That is a real cost, and it is also why the savings can be dramatic on the files this was built for: scanned contracts, photographed receipts, brochures full of photography, and anything that came out of a copier. Those pages carry no useful text layer to lose.

So here is the advice I would give a friend. If your PDF is a scan or is dominated by photographs, run it through here and expect a serious reduction. If your PDF came out of Word, Google Docs, or a browser print, keep the original. A text PDF is already small, the savings will be modest, and you will have traded searchable text for a picture of text. Better routes exist for those: remove what you do not need with the page remover, or rebuild a slimmer document from only the pages you actually send.

When it does fit, the controls are the point. Around 150 DPI with mid quality is usually the sweet spot for a document somebody will read on screen. Drop to 100 DPI and it stays legible for casual reading while getting much smaller. Push quality low and you will see the softness on letterforms first, which is the honest early warning that you have gone too far.

Nothing is uploaded, and that matters more here than almost anywhere else on the site, because the documents people compress are the ones with signatures on them: scanned passports, signed leases, medical paperwork, insurance claims. Every page is rendered by your own browser using the standard canvas export machinery, and the finished file goes straight to your downloads folder. No server copy, no retention window, no account.

What I refuse to add is a fake magic setting. Plenty of compressors advertise one button that promises a smaller file with no loss, and what they usually do is quietly re-encode your images anyway. I would rather show you a slider, tell you what it costs, and put the numbers on screen so the decision stays yours. A tool that admits when it is the wrong tool is more useful than one that always says yes.

Who is this tool for?

The classic case is a scanned document that will not attach to an email. Someone scans a ten page signed agreement at 600 DPI because that was the default, ends up with 60 MB, and needs it under 10 MB for a portal upload. Re-rendering at 150 DPI usually clears that bar with the signatures still perfectly readable.

Government and university portals are the other constant. Visa applications, grant submissions, tax filings and course registrations all set hard file size limits, and the file you have is nearly always a phone photo of paper that somebody stitched together with an image to PDF tool. Those files compress beautifully because they were photographs to begin with.

Print and design teams use it to make a client review copy of a heavy brochure, so the reviewer gets a version that opens quickly on a phone instead of stalling. Estate agents, contractors and inspectors do the same with photo heavy reports, and anyone with folders of old scans eating a laptop can reclaim space in one pass. Just keep the originals of anything legally important.

Frequently asked questions