Compressing PDFs
PDFs with lots of images get huge. This compresses them down - anywhere from 10% to 90% depending on what quality level you pick. Four presets: extreme for maximum compression (70-90% smaller, screen quality), high for ebooks (50-70% smaller), medium for printing (30-50% smaller), and low for professional printing (10-30% smaller). Good for email attachments, saving storage space, or just making files load faster.
Uses servers for processing so it's faster than doing it in browser.
Upload
- Click upload. Pick your PDF.
- Shows filename, page count, original size.
- Status indicator shows if service is online.
Pick Quality Preset
- Four options:
- Extreme (Screen): 70-90% smaller. Optimized for screens. 72 DPI. Use for web, email with tight size limits, quick previews.
- High (Ebook): 50-70% reduction. 150 DPI. Good for digital reading on tablets and ereaders.
- Medium (Printer): 30-50% smaller. 300 DPI print quality. The default for most uses - business docs, reports, general sharing.
- Low (Prepress): 10-30% reduction. Full quality for commercial printing. When quality can't be compromised.
- Each shows the compression range and what it's for.
File Info
- Before compressing:
- Filename, page count, current size.
- PDF version and metadata if it has any.
- Selected preset and what results to expect.
Start Compressing
- Hit compress.
- Uploads to server for processing.
- Progress bar shows stages - upload, analysis, compression, optimization, finalization.
- Most PDFs compress in seconds. Really big files take longer.
- Uses encrypted connections.
Results
- After compression:
- Success message with compression percentage.
- Original size vs compressed size.
- Space saved.
- How long it took.
- Quality rating (Excellent, Very Good, Good, etc).
Download
- Click download.
- Saves with your preset in the filename (like "document-compressed-medium.pdf").
- Opens in any PDF reader.
- Content stays the same, just smaller file size.
How It Works:
- Image downsampling: Reduces image resolution. Screen = 72 DPI, ebook = 150, printer = 300.
- JPEG compression: Compresses color images at different quality levels.
- CCITT compression: For black and white images and text.
- Font subsetting: Only embeds characters actually used.
- Deduplication: Removes duplicate images used multiple times.
- Stream compression: Compresses PDF content streams.
Which Preset to Use:
- Extreme: Email with size limits, web uploads, temporary files.
- High: Digital distribution, ebooks, mobile viewing, cloud storage.
- Medium: Business docs, office printing, presentations, most everyday needs.
- Low: Professional printing, publishing, high-quality materials.
Other Stuff:
- Server processing: Uses pro-grade compression. Same tech as commercial software.
- Text stays sharp: Even extreme compression keeps text readable. Only images are affected.
- Works everywhere: Compressed PDFs open in any reader.
- Encrypted transfer: Files upload and download over HTTPS.
- Auto-delete: Files get wiped from servers after processing.
- Fast: Server processing is quicker than browser-based.
Upload, pick quality level, compress, download. Can shrink files by 90% for web use or lightly compress for printing. Good for email attachments, saving storage space, or making files load faster.