About this tool
Most oversized PDFs are oversized because of their images, typically scans saved at high resolution. This tool redraws each page at a lower resolution and saves it as a compressed JPEG: Recommended uses 110 dpi, which stays readable on screen and is usually 60–90% smaller for scans; Strong (72 dpi) is for strict upload limits; Light (150 dpi) keeps more detail for printing.
Because pages become images, selectable text is lost. For PDFs that are mostly text, such as reports exported from Word, this method rarely helps, and the tool tells you if the result is not smaller. Server-based compressors can optimise text PDFs without that trade-off, but they require uploading your document.
Good to know
- Text becomes part of the page image: it cannot be selected, searched or copied.
- Links, form fields and bookmarks are removed.
- Text-only PDFs often cannot be made smaller this way.
- Large documents take longer, about a second per page on a typical laptop.