How to Compress a PDF Without Losing Quality

Large PDF files are a pain. Email attachments bounce back. File uploads time out. Your phone storage fills up. But compressing PDFs often makes them look terrible. Here is how to do it right.

Use Our Free Tool

Try our PDF compressor. It typically reduces file size by 30-50% without visible quality loss. Drag your PDF, pick a compression level, download.

Why PDFs Get So Big

Most PDF bloat comes from uncompressed images. A phone photo can be 5MB. Put 10 photos in a PDF and you have 50MB. The text itself is tiny. Compression targets those images.

Compression Levels Explained

Low quality gives you the smallest file but images look worse. High quality keeps sharp images but barely reduces size. The sweet spot is usually medium compression. You get 40% smaller files with no noticeable quality loss for screen viewing.

When NOT to Compress

Do not compress PDFs meant for printing. Print needs higher resolution than screens. A PDF that looks fine on your laptop might print blurry. For print jobs, send the full-size file.

Alternative: Merge Smarter

Before making your PDF, compress the images first. Use our image compressor to reduce JPG and PNG files by 60-70%. Then combine them with PDF merger. You will get a smaller PDF from the start.

Ready to compress? Reduce your PDF size now