Compress PDF

Shrink a PDF's file size by rendering each page to a compressed image — right in your browser, nothing uploaded.

Honesty warning: this shrinks a PDF by rendering each page to a compressed image. It works best on large, scanned or image-heavy PDFs. Selectable text becomes part of the image (no longer selectable), and PDFs that are already small — or mostly text — may not shrink, or could even grow. For those, keep your original.

Drop a PDF here, or click to browse .pdf · stays on your device
~65%

How to Compress a PDF

Three steps, all in your browser.

1

Add your PDF

Drag in a PDF, or click the box to browse. The file stays on your device — nothing is uploaded to any server.

2

Pick quality and scale

Lower JPEG quality shrinks the file more; a higher render scale (1.5x) keeps detail sharper at the cost of some size. Around 65% quality at 1x is a good starting point.

3

Compress and download

Click Compress PDF and every page is rendered to a compressed image and rebuilt into a new PDF, right in your browser. The result card shows the original size, new size and percent change before you download. Need a different format instead? Try PDF to JPG.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does this PDF compressor actually reduce file size?
Every page is rendered onto a canvas in your browser at the resolution you pick (1x or 1.5x), then re-encoded as a compressed JPEG at the quality you choose. Those images are assembled into a brand new PDF with pdf-lib. It works well because a compressed image is usually far smaller than the original page's mix of fonts, vector graphics and embedded images — especially on scans and photo-heavy pages.
Why can't I select text in the compressed PDF anymore?
Because each page becomes a single flattened image. Any text that was selectable in the original — real text characters positioned on the page — is rendered into pixels along with everything else, so the output PDF has no text layer to select, search or copy. This is an unavoidable side effect of the rasterize-and-recompress approach, not a bug.
When should I not use this compressor?
Skip it for PDFs that are already small, or that are mostly text you need to keep selectable and searchable — reports, contracts, ebooks. Rasterizing those can produce a similar-sized or even larger file while destroying the text layer. This tool earns its keep on large, scanned or image-heavy PDFs, where turning vector and bitmap content into one compressed image per page saves real space.
What do the quality and resolution settings control?
Quality sets the JPEG compression level used for every page image — lower values shrink the file more but soften detail; around 65% is a reasonable starting point. Resolution (render scale) sets how many pixels each page is rendered at before compression — 1x keeps files smaller, 1.5x keeps text and fine detail sharper at the cost of some file size.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. Every page is rendered and recompressed entirely in your browser using pdf.js and pdf-lib, and the result never leaves your device until you choose to download it. Nothing is uploaded, logged or stored.