How to compress a PDF
- Drop your PDF file on the box above, or click it to choose the file — or press Load a sample to try it first.
- Check the settings below the box; the defaults suit most files.
- Press Convert. Long jobs show a progress bar and can be cancelled; you then see what was made and its real size.
- Download the .pdf file.
What is kept when you compress a PDF
- Light re-saves the file with compressed object streams — no visible change at all. Medium and Strong also re-encode large JPEG photos to 2000 or 1400 pixels on the longest side at 80% or 65% quality.
- Text, vector drawings, fonts and links are not touched. Only plain RGB or grey JPEG photos are re-encoded; CMYK, scanned black-and-white and other image types are left exactly as they are.
- You see the real size before and after. If no smaller file can be made, nothing is offered for download — the tool says so instead of handing back a bigger file.
About PDF files
A PDF holds pages that look the same on every device: text with its fonts, vector drawings and images at fixed positions. Pages can be rotated, reordered or copied between files without redrawing them. It opens in any browser, Acrobat Reader, phone and tablet viewers.
Good to know
- A PDF that asks for a password when you open it cannot be processed here; protection is never removed.
Privacy and limits
The file is read and converted by this page in your browser; there is no upload and no account. Nothing inside a PDF is run: there is no PDF JavaScript engine on this page, and links and forms are copied, not followed. Encrypted PDFs are refused rather than unlocked. PDFs may have up to 2,000 pages. Files up to 150 MB are accepted; a file of the wrong type or a damaged file is rejected with the reason.