Guide ·
How to reduce a PDF's file size for an upload limit
Upload forms and email often cap attachments at a few megabytes. Most large PDFs are large because of photos or scanned pages, and Compress PDF shrinks those while keeping text sharp.
Step by step
- 01
Open Compress PDF and add your file
Drop the PDF you need to make smaller.
- 02
Choose a level
Light tidies the file and leaves images alone. Balanced brings large photos to 150 DPI, which is fine for screens and email. Strong uses 96 DPI for the smallest file.
- 03
Compress and check the size
Select Compress PDF. The new size is shown; if it's still over the limit, try Strong.
- 04
Download
Download the smaller copy. If the new size isn't smaller, keep your original instead.
What changes and what stays sharp
Text and vector drawings are never turned into pictures, so they stay crisp and selectable at every level. Only photos and scanned pages are resampled, and only at Balanced and Strong. Duplicate fonts and images are merged at every level.
If it's still too big
- Remove pages the form doesn't need with Delete pages.
- If the form accepts several files, cut the document into parts with Split PDF.
- For a PDF made from photos, shrink the photos with Compress image and rebuild the PDF with JPG to PDF.
There's no setting for an exact target size such as 200 KB. Try Balanced, then Strong, and check the size shown after each.
Why some PDFs barely shrink
A PDF that is mostly text is usually small already, so there is little to remove. Files that were already compressed, or whose images are already low resolution, also change less. Why won't my PDF compress any further? explains each case.
Questions
- Will compression make my document blurry?
- Text and drawings stay sharp. Photos lose some detail at Balanced and Strong, which is rarely visible on screen.
- Is there a size limit?
- Files up to 50 MB and 1,000 pages can be uploaded.