Compress PDF
Shrink scanned and image-heavy PDFs in your browser — choose a quality level, see before/after size, nothing uploaded.
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Note: output text is not selectable (pages are rasterized). Ideal for scanned documents.
Output is LARGER than the original — this file is already efficient (likely text-only). Keep the original.
How Browser-Side Compression Works — Honestly
This tool re-renders every page as an optimized JPEG and rebuilds the PDF — the same approach scanners' "small file" mode uses. On scanned documents and image-heavy files it routinely cuts 60-90% of the size. The trade-off is real and we state it plainly: the output is a picture of each page, so text is no longer selectable or searchable, and a lean text-only PDF may even grow — the tool compares sizes and warns you instead of handing over a worse file.
Everything runs in your browser with Mozilla's open-source pdf.js served from this site; the document never leaves your device — which is the point when it is a signed contract. Choose quality by destination: High for archiving, Medium for email attachments, Low for upload forms with tight limits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did my PDF get bigger?
It was probably a born-digital text PDF, which is already tiny — rasterizing text costs more bytes than the fonts did. The tool detects this and tells you to keep the original.
Can I keep the text selectable and still compress?
Not in a browser — that requires re-encoding embedded images in place (Ghostscript-style tools on a computer). For scans there is no text layer to lose anyway, which is where this tool shines.
Is there a file size limit?
Only your device's memory. Hundred-page scans work on a desktop; very large files on old phones may be slow — pages are processed one at a time with progress shown.
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Compress PDF