PDF | 3 min
How to make a PDF smaller
Compress PDF rewrites the file more efficiently and removes waste without touching text, drawings or image quality. How much it saves depends on what is inside the file.
Steps
- 1
Open Compress PDF
Go to the Compress PDF tool and add your file.
- 2
Decide about metadata
Switch on Also strip metadata if you also want the author, producer and creation dates removed from the file. It is off by default.
- 3
Run and compare
Run the tool. The result shows the new size next to the old one so you can see what was saved.
- 4
If it barely changed
A scanned PDF is mostly one large picture per page, so there is little to remove without lowering image quality. Convert the pages to pictures at a lower resolution with PDF to JPG, then put them back together with JPG to PDF.
Tips
- Send the smaller file only after opening it and checking the pages look right.
- Large PDFs often come from big photos. If you made the PDF yourself, compress the photos first with Compress image.
- If a form still rejects the file, split it into parts with Split PDF.
Questions
- Does compressing lose quality?
- This tool compresses without losing quality, so text, drawings and images look the same. The trade is that it cannot shrink a file whose weight is mostly large images as much as a lossy method would.
- Is my PDF uploaded?
- No. It is compressed in your browser and never leaves your device.