Shrink a PDF to email it, upload it to a portal, or fit under a form's size limit. Pick a quality level, or give it a goal such as "under 200 KB" and let it find the settings that get there. You see the new size before anything downloads, and if a goal cannot be reached the tool says so instead of quietly handing you an unreadable file.
How it works
- Drop in the PDF and choose a goal size or a quality level.
- Click Compress. Light clean-up is tried first because it keeps the text; pages are redrawn as pictures only if needed.
- Check the before and after sizes, then download.
Questions about compress pdf
- Why does "Strong" make the text unselectable?
- Strong redraws every page as a JPEG picture. That is what makes scans and slide decks small, but the text stops being text. Use Light when you need to keep it.
- How small can a PDF get?
- It depends on the content. Photos compress a lot; a page that is already plain text barely changes. A size goal on a text-heavy document may only be reachable at a resolution that is hard to read.
- Does compressing break links, forms or signatures?
- Light keeps them. Strong and size goals that need redrawing remove links, form fields, bookmarks and any digital signature, and the tool asks you to confirm before doing that.