About this tool
Compress PDF provides two different reduction methods because PDF contents vary widely. Recommended mode recompresses supported JPEG images while retaining selectable and searchable text. Scanned documents and image-heavy reports usually benefit most, while a text-only file or a PDF that already contains efficient images may show little or no reduction.
Maximum mode renders every page to a JPEG at the selected resolution and builds a new PDF from those page images. This can reduce difficult files more aggressively, but text is no longer selectable or searchable. Light, Balanced, and Strong levels control dimensions, rendering resolution, and JPEG quality for both processing modes.
How to use the Compress PDF
- 1Choose one PDF up to 200 MB.
- 2Select Recommended or Maximum compression mode.
- 3Pick a Light, Balanced, or Strong level.
- 4Start compression and cancel between processing stages if needed.
- 5Review the reduction before downloading a smaller result.
Features
Selective JPEG recompression
Identify supported RGB and grayscale JPEG image streams, resize and re-encode them, and replace only versions that become smaller.
Selectable-text preservation
Keep original PDF page content and searchable text in Recommended mode while changing qualifying embedded images.
Page flattening option
Render complete pages at 150, 110, or 80 DPI for stronger reduction when preserving text selection is not required.
Honest size comparison
Show original and result sizes with the percentage reduction, or keep the source when the generated file is not smaller.
Cancelable local work
Report image or page progress and allow a long compression operation to stop without uploading the document.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Recommended and Maximum modes?
Recommended changes qualifying JPEG images inside the existing PDF and keeps text selectable. Maximum turns every page into one JPEG image, which can shrink more files but removes text selection and searchability.
Why did my PDF not become smaller?
Text-only documents, files with already optimized images, unsupported image encodings, and heavily compressed sources may have nothing useful to reduce. When the generated result is not smaller, the original is kept and no misleading download is offered.
Which files usually compress the most?
Scanned paperwork, photo portfolios, and reports containing large JPEG pictures are the strongest candidates. Documents made mostly from fonts and vector lines often change very little in Recommended mode.
What do the three compression levels change?
For image recompression they set maximum image sides of 2400, 1600, or 1100 pixels and progressively lower JPEG quality. For flattening they use 150, 110, or 80 DPI with matching quality reductions.
Does PDF compression occur on a server?
No. Image inspection, JPEG decoding, page rendering, comparison, and creation of the smaller PDF all run locally in the browser.