6 October 2026
How to Compress a PDF Without Losing Quality
Why PDFs get so big
Text takes very little space. Scanned pages, photos and embedded fonts make up most of a PDF's size. A 20-page scan can be tens of megabytes, while a 20-page text document is often under 1MB.
Pick the right level
Use light compression for documents you will print, and stronger compression for files you only need to read on screen or send by email. Always open the result and zoom in on small text before sending.
Remove what you don't need
Deleting blank or duplicate pages before compressing often saves more than compression alone. Extracting only the pages someone needs is even better.
Keep it private
Our tools run in your browser, so the file is processed on your own device rather than uploaded to a server.