Compress PDF
Compress a PDF in your browser. Choose smaller files (pages become images) or keep the text layer. No upload, no signup, no watermark.
Drop your PDF file here
or click to browse files
Not all PDF compression is the same, and the difference decides whether the result is still useful to you. A browser cannot do what a server-side optimiser does - decode every embedded image, re-encode it more efficiently, and rebuild the file with the text layer intact - so this tool offers two honest modes instead of pretending to do both at once.
Keep text repackages the PDF without rasterising anything: it re-saves the file with compressed object streams and strips metadata such as title, author and producer. The text stays selectable and searchable, links keep working, and files typically shrink by a few percent - worthwhile for a bloated document, but not dramatic. Smaller file renders every page to an image at the resolution and quality you choose and rebuilds the PDF from those images. That is where the big savings come from, especially for scans and image-heavy documents, but the text layer is gone: the result cannot be searched, copied or read aloud by a screen reader. If the document matters beyond its appearance, keep the original.
How to compress a PDF
Drop your PDF onto the page, or click to browse.
Choose the mode: Keep text for a modest saving with the text layer intact, or Smaller file to rasterise the pages. With Smaller file, pick a resolution - 150 DPI is fine for reading on screen, 300 DPI only if it will be printed.
Compress, check how much smaller the file became, then download it. If it did not shrink, try a lower DPI rather than assuming the tool failed.
FAQ
Which mode should I choose?
If the PDF is a scan, a photographed document or mostly pictures, choose Smaller file - that is exactly the case where rasterising wins, because the text was never selectable anyway. If it is a text document you may need to search, copy from, or have read aloud, choose Keep text and accept the smaller saving.
Why did my PDF hardly get smaller?
Most modern PDFs are already compressed, so there is little left to remove. In Keep text mode the achievable saving is genuinely only a few percent for a well-made file. In Smaller file mode the size depends on the resolution and quality you pick: lowering from 200 to 120 DPI usually makes a much bigger difference than any other setting.
Does compressing keep the text selectable?
Only in Keep text mode. Smaller file mode turns each page into a picture, so the text is no longer selectable, searchable or accessible to a screen reader - even though the page looks the same. That trade is the reason both modes exist rather than one automatic choice.
Can it compress a password-protected PDF?
No. An encrypted file has to be unlocked before it can be read at all, so remove the password first with the unlock tool, then compress the opened copy.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. Both modes run entirely in your browser using libraries the page has already loaded, so the PDF never leaves your device. That is also why there is no file-size limit and no queue.
What resolution should I choose?
150 DPI is a good default: it is sharp on a screen and keeps the file small. Use 120 DPI when the page is only going to be read on a laptop or phone, and 300 DPI only when the result must be printed or scanned by OCR - it looks best and is much larger.
At a glance
| Input | |
|---|---|
| Multiple files | No |
| Where it runs | In your browser - files are never uploaded |
| Works offline | Yes — once the page has loaded |
| Price | Free, no sign-up, no watermark |
What actually makes a PDF large
Almost all of a bulky PDF is images, not text. A ten-page scan can be 40 MB while a 300-page text document is often under 2 MB. That is why compression targets embedded pictures: it downsamples them to a sensible resolution (150 dpi is usually enough for on-screen reading, 300 dpi only if someone will print it) and re-encodes them more efficiently. Text, bookmarks, links and form fields cost almost nothing and should never need to be removed. If a file stays large after compression, it usually contains either a lot of high-resolution images that the compression setting did not touch, or embedded fonts and attachments you can strip.
Keeping text selectable and searchable
A PDF can hold real text or a picture of text, and the difference matters: real text can be selected, searched, copied and read aloud, while a scanned page cannot until someone runs OCR on it. Many "reduce size" tools silently flatten everything into images, which shrinks the file but destroys searchability and makes the text blurry when zoomed. If a document needs to stay usable - contracts, manuals, anything you may need to search later - keep text as text and compress only the images. If you are starting from a scan, run OCR first, then compress.