About Compress PDF
Make an image-heavy PDF easier to share by rebuilding its pages at a chosen image quality. Try a gentle setting first, then compare the downloaded result with the original. Compression is most effective on PDFs that contain large photographs or high-resolution scans.
How to use Compress PDF
- Choose a PDF and select Low, Recommended or Extreme compression.
- Select Compress PDF; the page images are re-encoded locally.
- Open the downloaded PDF and check small text, diagrams and file size.
What to check
The tool preserves page dimensions. If the image-based result is larger than the input, it tries to re-save the original document instead and reports that the file is already well optimized. Recommended is a good starting point for email attachments; Extreme suits drafts where legibility matters more than print quality.
Limitations
When pages are rebuilt as images, searchable/selectable text and some document features are lost. The reduction varies by source file; a smaller file is not guaranteed.
Frequently asked questions
Why did my PDF not get smaller?
Files that are already optimized, or made mostly of text and vector graphics, have little to compress. The tool reports this instead of giving you a larger file.
Will I lose the selectable text in my PDF?
Yes. Pages are rebuilt as images, so the text layer is removed. Keep the original if you need searching or copying.
Which compression level should I choose?
Start with Recommended and inspect the result. Use Low for documents you will print, and Extreme only when file size matters more than sharpness.