Compress PDF
Make a PDF smaller in your browser. Shrink the images inside it while text stays sharp and selectable, optimize it losslessly, or reduce whole pages to images for the deepest cut on a scan. It shows you the real before and after size every time.
- Nothing is uploaded
- No signup or watermark
- Works on large plan sets
Smaller file, ready to send.
Need to measure something on it? Easy Takeoffs measures length, area, and count on any PDF, to scale. 14-day trial, no card.
How do I make a PDF smaller?
To compress a PDF, add your file and choose how. Shrink images, the default, makes the photos and scans inside the file lighter and touches nothing else, so text stays sharp, selectable, and searchable; it is the best first pick for most PDFs. Optimize rewrites the file structure without changing anything at all. Reduce quality turns each page into a lower-resolution image, which cuts a scan the deepest but stops the text being selectable. Either way, the tool shows the real before and after size, all in your browser with nothing uploaded.
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Drag your PDF onto the tool or click to choose it. It loads in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
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Shrink images makes the pictures inside the file lighter and keeps text sharp; Optimize keeps full quality; Reduce quality turns whole pages into images for the deepest cut on a scan.
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The tool builds a smaller copy and shows the real before and after size.
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Keep the smaller file, or keep your original if it did not get smaller.
Compress PDF at a glance
Compress PDF at a glance
| Capability | Detail |
|---|---|
| Input format | PDF (any PDF) |
| Shrink-images mode (default) | Makes the photos and scans inside the file lighter; text and line work stay sharp and selectable |
| Optimize mode | Rewrites the file structure; keeps text and lines sharp and selectable (lossless) |
| Reduce-quality mode | Turns pages into images at a lower resolution; text stops being selectable (lossy) |
| Target file size | Cannot be set to an exact size; the tool shows the real before and after |
| Vector plans and text PDFs | Often shrink only a little without losing quality, because they are already compact |
| Scanned or image-heavy PDFs | Shrink the most: Shrink images keeps any text selectable; Reduce quality cuts a scan the deepest |
| Runs in your browser | Yes, 100% on your device |
| Files sent to a server | None, ever |
| Cost | Free |
| Signup | None |
Shrink images re-encodes only the pictures inside the file (and skips any it cannot re-encode safely), so everything else is untouched. Optimize is lossless, so nothing is thrown away. Reduce quality is lossy: it flattens each page to an image, which removes selectable text and softens fine lines. The tool always shows the real before and after, and if a file does not get smaller, it says so.
Compress PDF Questions
Add your PDF and choose how. Shrink images, the default, makes the photos and scans inside the file lighter while text stays sharp and selectable. Optimize rewrites the file without losing anything. Reduce quality turns whole pages into lower-resolution images for the deepest cut on a scan. The tool shows the real before and after size. It is free, needs no signup, and nothing is uploaded.
It finds the pictures embedded in your PDF, scales down the oversized ones, and re-encodes them more efficiently, directly in your browser. Everything else in the file, the text, the vector lines, the layout, is untouched, so the pages look the same and the text stays selectable and searchable. Images it cannot re-encode safely, like ones used as masks or with spot printing inks, are left exactly as they were. A replacement is only kept when it is genuinely smaller.
No. There is no honest way to hit an exact target size, because how much a PDF shrinks depends entirely on what is inside it. The tool shows you the real result, and you can step through the Amount settings to get the file as small as you need.
It depends on the mode. Shrink images lowers the quality of the pictures inside the file by the amount you pick, and touches nothing else. Optimize is lossless, so the quality is unchanged. Reduce quality is lossy on purpose: it lowers the resolution of every page to shrink the file, so text stops being selectable and fine lines soften. You choose which one to use.
Because it is already compact. A PDF made of text and vector lines, like a construction plan or a document, stores its content very efficiently, so there is little for any compressor to remove, and that is normal. The big savings come when a file carries large photos or scanned pages: Shrink images makes those lighter while keeping the text, and Reduce quality cuts a pure scan the deepest.
With Shrink images and Optimize, yes: the text is untouched and stays selectable and searchable. With Reduce quality, no: each page becomes an image, so the text becomes part of the picture and can no longer be selected.
No. Your PDF is compressed on your own device and never sent to a server, so it is safe for confidential drawings and documents. That is different from most online compressors, which upload your file to their servers to process it.
A scan stores every page as a large photo, which is why it is big. Shrink images makes those photos lighter, and Reduce quality lowers the resolution of entire pages for the deepest cut. How much you save depends on the original resolution, so the tool shows you the real before and after rather than promising a number.
Those services upload your file to their servers to process it. This tool does the same kind of work, shrinking the images inside the PDF, entirely in your browser, so your file never leaves your device. It is also honest about the limits: a plan or document made of text and vector lines has little for any compressor to remove, and this tool tells you that instead of overpromising.
No. Compressing only changes the file size. To measure length, area, and count on a PDF to scale, use Easy Takeoffs, the construction takeoff software built to measure off plans. 14-day trial, no card.
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