Free Compress PDF Tool
This free tool reduces the size of a PDF by lowering the resolution of the pictures inside it and removing unused data. Pick a screen, ebook or print quality level and download the smaller file, with the size before and after shown. If a file cannot get smaller, you are told and keep the original.
Compress PDF
PDF Tools
About this tool
Email limits, form portals and messaging apps often reject PDFs above a few megabytes. Most of that weight is pictures: a scan or a slide deck can hide dozens of photos stored at far more detail than a screen can show. Compressing lowers that detail to a level that still reads well.
The tool runs Ghostscript with one of three presets. Screen is the smallest, with pictures at about 72 dpi, which suits reading on a phone. Ebook uses about 150 dpi and is the best balance for most documents. Print keeps about 300 dpi for files that will be printed. Text and vector shapes stay sharp at every level.
Results vary with the file. A scan or a photo heavy brochure often shrinks a lot, while a text only PDF may barely change because it was small already. If the new file is not smaller, the tool says so and gives you back the original rather than a bigger copy. Compression is lossy for pictures, so keep your original file.
Frequently asked questions
Which quality level should I choose?
Ebook is a good start: about 150 dpi pictures that still look fine on screen. Choose screen when you need the smallest file and only phones will read it. Choose print when the document will be printed and you want to keep fine detail.
Why did my file not get smaller?
A PDF that is mostly text, or one that was already compressed, has little left to remove. In that case the tool tells you and returns the original file, never a larger one. Try the screen level for a stronger effect.
Will text become blurry?
No. Compression changes the resolution of pictures, not text or vector graphics, so letters stay sharp. Scanned pages are pictures of text, so on a scan the text can look softer at the screen level.
Is there a size limit?
Uploads can be up to 20 MB and the job must finish within 30 seconds. Very large or very image heavy files may run out of time. Splitting the file first and compressing the parts is a good workaround.
Is my PDF stored?
No. Your file is written to a private temporary folder, processed for the length of the request and deleted straight after, whether the job worked or not. We do not keep copies, build a library of uploads or read the content of your documents.