Compress a PDF
Shrink a PDF on this device. Start with lossless compression. If the file barely changes, the smaller option rebuilds pages as JPEGs.
No uploads. Runs on your device.
Scanned pages that are already image-compressed often stay about the same size.
How it works
- Add the PDF and compare the two compression modes.
- Lossless mode cleans unused objects and recompresses streams without redrawing pages.
- Download the new file and check the before-and-after size.
Questions
Why did the file stay the same size?
Scanned PDFs are often already filled with compressed images. Lossless mode cannot shrink those images. The smaller mode can, because it rebuilds each page as a JPEG and turns text into a picture.
Will text stay selectable?
Lossless mode keeps the original pages, including selectable text. The smaller mode flattens each page into an image.
Where does compression run?
In a WebAssembly build of qpdf, inside a background thread, after you start the job. The PDF is not sent to a server.