Compress PDF
Reduce a PDF’s file size while keeping it readable.
How to use the Compress PDF
- Select the PDF you want to shrink.
- Choose a compression level.
- Click Compress PDF and download the smaller file.
About the Compress PDF
Large PDFs are slow to email, awkward to upload and quick to hit attachment limits. This compressor re-processes your PDF on our server with Ghostscript — the same engine many print workflows use — downsampling the images inside it, removing duplicated and unused data, and re-encoding the file so it comes back meaningfully smaller while still opening everywhere a normal PDF does.
You choose the trade-off. Recommended suits most documents and email attachments, balancing size against quality. Maximum compression makes the smallest possible file for screen-only use, where some image softening is fine. High quality keeps everything crisp for printing, trimming less aggressively. The biggest savings come from PDFs full of photos or scans; a text-only PDF is already compact, so it will shrink far less — occasionally barely at all, which is normal rather than a fault.
Text stays selectable and the page layout is untouched — only the weight changes. Files are uploaded, processed under a random name in a folder blocked from web access, and deleted the moment the request finishes; nothing is stored. If you need to combine files first, use merge PDF, and to pull out just the pages you need before compressing, use split PDF. For images specifically, compress image is the better fit.
Frequently asked questions
Will it lower the quality?
It downsamples images to the level you pick. Text stays sharp; “Recommended” looks great on screen, and “High quality” is fine for printing.
Why didn’t my file get much smaller?
PDFs that are mostly text are already small. The biggest savings come from PDFs full of large photos or scans.
Are my files kept?
No — your PDF is deleted from our server the moment the compressed copy is made.