Compress PDF — Honest About How Much It Shrinks
Sometimes you need to shrink a PDF because of an email attachment cap or a submission system's size limit. But there are clear limits to what compression can do in the browser, so this tool doesn't promise exaggerated reductions.
The first method, structure optimization, reorganizes the objects inside the document and clears out unused data. Text and vectors are preserved, but a well-built document may barely shrink.
The second method, image rebuilding, redraws each page as a picture. Files that are mostly images, like scans, shrink a lot, but text selection and search become impossible, so check your use case before choosing it.
Limits of this tool
- Lossless structure optimization can be close to 0% depending on the document.
- The image rebuild method makes text selection, search, and copying impossible.
- Big gains are hard to expect on already-optimized PDFs or text-heavy documents.
- Lossy compression at the level of professional tools (like Ghostscript) was not adopted due to licensing.
How to use
- 1
Upload the PDF
The original size is shown. That value is the baseline for comparison after compression.
- 2
Choose method and strength
Pick lossless structure optimization or image rebuilding, and if you chose rebuilding, set strength to low, recommended, or high.
- 3
Compare the result and save
The original size, result size, and the amount and percentage saved are shown as real measurements. If it got bigger instead, it tells you that plainly too.
Key features
Two clearly separated methods
The quality-preserving method and the size-reducing method are offered separately, not mixed, so the result is predictable.
Measurements only
Instead of phrases like "up to 90% smaller," it shows only the actual bytes and percentage reduced for this file.
Tells you when it doesn't help
If the result is larger than the original or barely different, it recommends keeping the original.
Upfront quality-loss warning
The image rebuild method explains on screen exactly what information is lost the moment you select it.
When to use it
Meeting an email attachment cap
When an attachment is blocked by a few megabytes, structure optimization alone sometimes gets you under the limit.
Archiving scanned material
Image rebuilding is effective when turning a high-resolution scan into a viewing copy.
Documents for the web
Lower the size before publishing to reduce the data usage of people who download it.
How are your files handled?
Compression runs in your browser too. The image rebuild method goes through drawing pages on screen, but those images also exist only in memory.
Selected files open only in your browser's memory, and results are handed straight to your device when you save. Close the tab and any remaining data is gone with it. See the Privacy Policy and File Retention Policy for details.