Compress PDF to a size you choose
Files never leave your devicePick the size the upload form allows and drop the PDF. The page first tries a lossless rewrite that keeps text selectable; only if that is not enough does it turn pages into the sharpest images that still fit, and it tells you which it did.
How to use it
- Choose the limit: 100 KB, 200 KB, 300 KB, 500 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB, or a custom number.
- Drop the PDF. Turn on Grayscale for black-and-white documents.
- Press Compress, check the exact byte count, and download.
Details
- Step 1, lossless
- The PDF is rewritten with compressed object streams and unused objects dropped. Text, links and bookmarks stay; often 5–30% smaller
- Step 2, if needed
- Pages are rendered with pdf.js and stored as JPEG at the highest resolution (150 down to 72 DPI) and quality (85 down to 35) that fits
- Target
- At or under the limit in bytes (1 KB = 1,000 bytes, so it also passes a 1,024-byte check)
- If it cannot fit
- You get the smallest readable version and its exact size, with a note, instead of an unreadable file
- Engine
- pdf-lib and pdf.js, downloaded once and run in this tab. Password-protected PDFs need the password removed first
Questions
Are my files uploaded?
No. The page loads its code once, then reads and processes your files inside the browser tab. Nothing is sent to a server; you can confirm it in your browser's network panel while a file is processed.
Will the text still be selectable?
If the lossless step reaches the limit, yes: nothing about the content changes. If pages had to be turned into images to fit, the new file looks the same but its text cannot be selected or searched. The page tells you which one happened.
Why does 72 DPI stop the search?
Below about 72 DPI, normal 10–12 pt body text in a page image becomes hard to read, and a portal that accepts the file may still reject an unreadable document. You get the smallest readable version and a clear message instead.
My PDF is a scan. How small can it go?
A scanned page is already a picture, so the tool re-renders it at a lower resolution. Clean scans on white paper shrink the most; grainy phone photos of paper and colour pages need more bytes. Turn on Grayscale for black-and-white documents, and check the DPI shown in the result.
Does 500 KB mean 500,000 or 512,000 bytes?
The tool aims at or under 500,000 bytes, so the file passes either way of counting. The exact byte count is shown before you download.
Why is my PDF so big in the first place?
Usually because of photos or scans stored at full camera resolution (a phone scan can be 3–5 MB per page), or embedded fonts. Text-only PDFs are rarely large; for those the lossless step is often enough.
Can I compress several PDFs into one small file?
Merge them first with Merge PDF, then compress the merged file here to the limit.