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Compress a PDF File

Built for scanned documents. Pages become images, so text stops being selectable.

This tool turns pages into images. It suits scanned documents, and is the wrong choice for text files, because text stops being selectable and searchable.
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Supported formats: PDF

How to use it

  1. Drag a PDF onto the box above and wait for it to be inspected.
  2. Read the warning if one appears — it means your document contains text that will stop being selectable.
  3. Choose a compression level. “Balanced” suits most scanned documents.
  4. Click “Compress” and compare the sizes before downloading.

This tool redraws every page as a compressed image and builds a new PDF from the results. That approach is highly effective on scanned documents and image-heavy files, where a 60–90% size reduction is typical.

But know the trade-off before using it: because pages become images, text will no longer be selectable, copyable or searchable. If your document is a text file produced by something like Word, we'd advise against this tool — text PDFs are already compressed, you'd gain very little, and you would lose the text while possibly ending up with a larger file.

The tool inspects your document first and warns you if it finds real text, so the decision stays yours. If your aim is to shrink a text document, you're better off splitting it and keeping only the pages you need.

Frequently asked questions

Most likely because your document is text-based rather than scanned. Text PDFs are already efficiently compressed and there is nothing to gain. This tool is designed for scanned and image-heavy documents.

Yes, if your document contains real text. Pages become images and the text becomes part of the picture. Scanned documents are already images, so they lose nothing they hadn't already lost.

Start with “Balanced” — it cuts size substantially while keeping printed text readable. Use “Maximum” only when file size matters more than clarity, and “Light” if you intend to print the document.

No. The output keeps exactly the same number of pages at exactly the same dimensions, so it still prints the same way.