Compress PDF
Shrink a PDF by recompressing its images, without touching the text.
This shrinks the photos and scans embedded in the PDF. It does not touch text — a text-only PDF is already small and this tool will say there is nothing worth compressing rather than pretend to help.
Most oversized PDFs are oversized because of the photos or scanned pages inside them, not the text. This finds those images and recompresses them — the text stays exactly as it was, still selectable and searchable, which a render-and-rebuild compressor can't promise.
How to use it
- Add the PDF.
- Pick a compression level.
- Press Compress PDF and download the result.
Why use this tool
Completely private
Everything runs inside your browser. Your files and text are never sent to a server.
Free, with no limits
No sign-up, no watermarks and no cap on how many times you can use it.
Instant results
There is no upload or queue to wait for, so results appear as fast as your device can work.
Works on any device
Runs in any modern browser on phone, tablet or desktop. Nothing to install.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does it say there's nothing to compress?
- That means the PDF has no images it can confidently recompress — a text-only document, for instance, which is already small. Rather than rasterise the whole page to manufacture a smaller file (which would break the text), it says so plainly.
- Will my document still look right?
- Yes. Layout, fonts and every other piece of content are untouched — only the compressed image data inside is replaced with a smaller version.
- Does the text stay selectable afterwards?
- Yes, completely. Nothing about the text layer changes. This is the entire reason this tool works the way it does rather than rendering pages to pictures.
- Which images does it skip?
- Anything it isn't fully confident is safe to touch — images already using an indexed or unusual colour space, or ones so small that recompressing them wouldn't help. It only acts where it can be sure of the result.