About the Compress PDF tool
Some PDFs balloon in size because of high-resolution scans or embedded images, which makes them slow to email or upload. The Compress PDF tool re-renders each page at a smaller, web-friendly resolution and reassembles the file, often cutting file size dramatically for image-heavy documents.
The three quality levels trade file size against sharpness in different ways, similar to the export settings in professional design software. Screen aims for the smallest possible file for on-screen reading where every kilobyte counts, such as an email attachment limit. Ebook balances size and clarity for general-purpose sharing. Print keeps the most detail for documents someone might zoom into or print, at the cost of a larger file. Because compression re-renders each page as an image, the size reduction is most dramatic on scanned or photo-heavy PDFs — a document that's already mostly plain text has much less room to shrink.
How to compress a PDF
- Upload the PDF you want to shrink.
- Pick a compression level: Screen for the smallest file, Ebook for a balance of size and clarity, or Print for the sharpest result.
- Click Compress PDF. The tool reports how much smaller the file became before starting the download.
- Open the compressed file to confirm the quality still meets your needs.
Tips for best results
- Start with Ebook quality as a default — it's the middle ground and often gives the best balance without needing to try all three settings.
- If the compressed file still looks too soft for your needs, step up to Print quality rather than assuming compression can't help; the difference between settings is often larger than expected.
- Compression works page-by-page as an image, so a PDF that's mostly typed text with no scanned images will shrink very little — that's expected, not a malfunction, and in that case the original file is probably already close to its practical minimum size.
- Always keep your original, uncompressed file. Compression is one-directional, so if you need full quality again later (for printing at large size, for instance), you'll want the source file, not the compressed copy.
Common ways people use this
- Getting a scanned document under an email attachment size limit.
- Speeding up upload times for a PDF going into an online form.
- Shrinking a photo-heavy portfolio or lookbook PDF for faster sharing.
- Preparing a document for a website where load time matters.
- Reducing the size of a scanned multi-page contract before archiving many of them in limited cloud storage.
Good to know
Because each page is redrawn as a JPEG image rather than kept as live text, any text in the compressed file is no longer selectable or searchable, even if it was in the original — this is an inherent trade-off of this compression method, not a setting you can turn off.
Frequently asked questions
Will compression make my text blurry?
Because this method rebuilds each page as an image, small or dense text can look softer than the original, especially at the Screen setting. Try Print quality if text sharpness matters most.
How much smaller will my file get?
It depends heavily on the source file. PDFs that are mostly scanned images shrink the most; PDFs that are already mostly plain text may shrink very little or even grow slightly.
Is compression reversible?
No. Compression is a one-way process, so keep your original file if you might need full quality again later.
Why did my file get bigger instead of smaller?
This can happen with text-only PDFs, since converting text into an image page is sometimes less efficient than the original text-based format. For text-heavy files, compression may not help.
Will compressing a PDF remove metadata like the author or title?
The compression process rebuilds the file from rendered page images, so document metadata isn't preserved through that rebuild. If you need to keep specific metadata, keep a copy of the original alongside the compressed version.
Which setting should I use for a document I'm going to print?
Print quality keeps the most visual detail of the three options, which matters most when a document will be printed or viewed up close; Screen and Ebook are tuned for on-screen reading where the extra detail isn't as noticeable.