Compress PDF
Make a PDF smaller while keeping text sharp and selectable.
Or drop one anywhere on this page
What to know about Compress PDF
Reduce the size of a PDF so it fits an email or upload limit. TryToPDF resamples embedded images and rebuilds the file structure while leaving text as real, selectable text — not a flattened picture. Compression runs on your device, so the document is never uploaded.
How much comes off depends entirely on what is inside the file. A scan full of photographs can shrink dramatically, because images are where the bytes are. A text-only document that was already well made may barely move, and no honest tool can promise otherwise — which is why this one reports what it actually saved rather than a figure quoted in advance.
What it will not do is flatten your pages into pictures to buy a smaller number. That is how a great many compressors get their headline results, and it costs you every selectable word, every working link and every chance of searching the document again.
The result is never larger than the original. If a file is already as small as it usefully gets, you are told so instead of being handed a pointless download.
How to compress a PDF
- 1
Choose your PDF
Drop the file onto the page. TryToPDF reads it locally and shows the current file size and page count.
- 2
Pick a level, or name a size
Recommended suits most documents; High favours size over image detail and Low stays close to the original. If you have been given a specific limit, switch to Target size and type it instead.
- 3
Compare and download
You see the before and after size with the percentage saved before you commit to the download.
What Compress PDF accepts and produces
- Input
- One PDF, of any kind — the savings depend on what is inside it.
- Output
- A smaller PDF with its text still real, selectable text — never a flattened picture of the page.
- Limits
- How much is saved depends entirely on what is inside: a scan of photographs compresses a great deal, a text-only document that was already optimised may barely move. The result is never larger than the original.
- Offline
- Yes, once the optimiser has been fetched on your first visit.
Why Compress PDF here
- Text remains selectable and searchable — pages are not flattened to images
- Before and after sizes shown so you can judge the trade-off
- Three presets, from near-lossless to aggressive
- Runs on your device, so confidential reports never leave it
Where your file goes
Nowhere. This tool runs inside your browser, and the page is served with a policy that forbids it from sending your document anywhere. You can confirm that yourself: open your browser’s developer tools, watch the Network tab, and process a file.
Questions
How much smaller will my PDF get?
It depends almost entirely on what the file contains. Scanned or photo-heavy documents often shrink by 60–90 percent. A text-only PDF is already efficient and may only shrink slightly, because there is little redundancy to remove.
Will compression make my text blurry?
No. TryToPDF compresses embedded images and optimises the file structure, but text is stored as vector glyph data and is left untouched. It stays crisp at any zoom level and remains searchable.
Can I compress a PDF to a specific size, like 1MB?
Yes. Switch from Compression level to Target size, type the number you have been given and choose KB or MB. Several settings are then tried against that target and the mildest one that fits is kept, so you get a readable document at the size you asked for rather than the smallest file possible. If nothing fits, it tells you so and names the reason instead of quietly flattening your pages to make the number work.
Is my file uploaded for compression?
No. The compression engine runs inside your browser in a background worker. Nothing is transmitted, which is why compression also works with your internet disconnected once the engine is cached.
Why did my PDF barely get smaller?
Because there was little to remove. Compression works by resampling images and rebuilding the file structure. A document that is mostly text is already stored efficiently, so a small saving is the correct result rather than a failure — and if compressing would have made the file larger, TryToPDF gives you the original back untouched.
Will compressing remove my bookmarks or form fields?
No. Bookmarks, form fields, annotations and links are all preserved. Compression rewrites how the file is stored, not what it contains.
Which level should I use to email a document?
Start with Recommended. It usually brings a scanned document comfortably under common attachment limits while keeping pages readable. Use High only when you need the smallest possible file and can accept softer images.
Does it work on scanned documents?
Yes, and that is where it helps most. A scan is a set of photographs, and photographs are where the size is — scanned files commonly come down by 75 to 90 percent. A text document will not shrink nearly as much, because there is far less to remove.
Worth reading about Compress PDF
- Why is my PDF so large?Find out what is really taking up space in a PDF — scanned images, embedded fonts, duplicated resources — and which of them compression can and cannot recover.
- When a PDF will not openA PDF that will not open is usually truncated, password-protected or genuinely damaged. How to tell which of the three you have, and what fixes each.
- Sending several documents at onceMerging, zipping and splitting solve different problems. Which one to reach for when you have several files to send and a size limit you have to meet.
- Choosing an image format for a PDFJPG, PNG and WebP behave very differently inside a PDF. Which to use for photographs, which for screenshots, and which for pages of scanned text.
- Why a scan will not compress below 100 KBYour compressor hit its floor and the scan is still too big. What decides the size of a scanned PDF, and the fix that works when compression cannot.
- Your PDF is too large to emailGmail, Outlook and corporate servers each cut off at a different size, and encoding inflates your file in transit. The real limits, and four ways past them.
- An alternative to iLovePDF and SmallpdfiLovePDF, Smallpdf and Adobe all process your document on their servers. Here is what that means in practice, where it is genuinely better, and where it is not.
- PDF work for accountants and bookkeepersGetting figures out of statements, bundling invoices for filing, and meeting the size limits that tax portals impose. The PDF jobs behind a finance workflow.
- PDF work on a phone, without an appMerging, compressing and scanning on a phone usually means an app that wants a subscription. What a browser can do instead, and where the real limits are.