What this tool does
Compress PDF looks for JPEG photos embedded inside your PDF and re-encodes each one at the quality percentage you set, replacing the original only when the result is genuinely smaller. It runs entirely in your browser tab. This is the honest scope of client-side PDF compression without a server-side tool like Ghostscript: it shrinks embedded photos, not the document's text, fonts, or vector graphics.
How to use it
- Drop a PDF onto the box above.
- Set a JPEG quality — lower produces a smaller file at more visible quality loss.
- Click Compress PDF and read the result summary before downloading.
Limitations
Password-protected PDFs are rejected rather than silently skipped. Only JPEG-encoded embedded images are touched — PNG-style embedded images, fonts, and vector drawing are left exactly as they are. If your PDF has no embedded JPEGs, the file will come back the same size, and this tool says so instead of claiming a compression it didn't perform.
Frequently asked questions
How does this actually shrink a PDF?
It finds JPEG photos embedded in the PDF and re-encodes each one at a lower quality, then only keeps the new version if it's actually smaller. It does not touch PNG-style embedded images, fonts, or vector graphics, and it does not rasterize your text.
Why did my file barely shrink, or not shrink at all?
This PDF likely has few or no embedded JPEG images — common in text-only documents, scanned pages saved as PNG, or files that are already tightly compressed. This tool is honest about that rather than pretending to compress something it can't.