Compress PDF

Reducing a PDF's file size makes it faster to email, upload to web portals, and store. Large PDFs slow down email servers, exceed upload limits, and take longer to open on mobile devices. Size reduction is one of the most frequently needed PDF operations.

The right compression level depends on how the document will be used. For documents that will only ever be viewed on screen — emails, online forms, digital-only reports — the "Small file" setting (72 dpi) achieves the maximum reduction. For documents that might occasionally be printed, "Balanced" (150 dpi) is a better balance.

PDF size is mostly driven by image content. A 50-page PDF containing scanned photographs will be many times larger than a 50-page text document. Compressing a text-heavy PDF will reduce its size, but not as dramatically as compressing an image-heavy one.

After reducing the size, check the output file in your PDF viewer before replacing the original. If the quality is acceptable for your use case, you can proceed. If not, re-upload and try a higher quality level. The "High quality" setting at 300 dpi is nearly visually identical to the uncompressed original for most documents.