Compress PDF
Compress scanned pages while keeping detected text pages intact.
Try it: Compare a scan with a text document
- Open the sample PDF and choose Balanced compression.
- Compare the resulting size with the original and verify that the text remains selectable.
- For comparison, try an image-only scan that you are allowed to use. Check small print after compression.
The text sample is copied rather than rasterised and may not shrink. The original is offered if the result is not smaller. The compressor does not recompress images on pages with detected text, including OCR scans.
About Compress PDF
Compress scanned PDF pages locally with adjustable JPEG quality and resolution. Pages with detected text are copied without image compression, including photos on those pages. Compare the result before downloading; savings are not guaranteed.
Most oversized PDFs are oversized for one reason: photographs stored at far higher resolution than anything will ever display or print them at. This tool handles the commonest case, the scanned page that is one large photograph, by re-rendering those pages as JPEGs at a resolution and quality you choose.
You choose how hard to push, and the result reports what it actually saved rather than promising a percentage in advance.
- Processed on your deviceEverything you open or type here is handled by this page and never uploaded anywhere.
- No queue, no limitsNothing waits on a server, so the only limit is your own hardware.
- No account neededNo sign-up and no email address required.
How Compress PDF works in your browser
The compressor checks for extractable text on each page. If it finds a text run longer than two characters, it copies that entire page without recompressing its images. A photograph with a caption, and a scan with an OCR text layer, can therefore receive no image compression.
Pages without detected text are rendered as JPEG images at the selected resolution and quality. Fine lines and any text drawn as outlines can soften. This is page rasterisation, not selective replacement of embedded images. The new document does not preserve document bookmarks, interactive forms or digital signatures.
Compression is therefore bounded by what is in your file. A scanned document is mostly photographs and compresses heavily. A text report with two logos has almost nothing to remove, and a tool claiming it can shrink one by 80 per cent is either rasterising your text or not telling you what it did.
When to use it
Getting a scanned document under an email attachment limit without printing and rescanning it. Reducing image-only pages in a scanned report before uploading it to a portal that caps file size. Comparing lighter and stronger JPEG settings on scans without an OCR text layer. Preparing a document for a government or banking form with a strict size cap, where the file contains personal identity documents.
Read more about this
Frequently asked questions
How much smaller will my PDF get?
It depends entirely on the source. Pages with no detectable text, such as plain scans, are re-rendered as JPEGs and usually shrink a great deal. Pages that contain text, including OCR scans and pages with photographs, are copied unchanged, so a mostly-text PDF will not shrink and the original is offered back.