How to reduce the size of a PDF file
Large PDFs are hard to e-mail, upload to an online form or keep in the cloud. Compression makes them lighter, mostly by lowering the resolution of photos and scans. You choose the level and PDFowo finds the balance between size and quality.
- Load the file
Drop the PDF document in the box above.
- Choose the level
Recommended keeps good quality, Strong gives a noticeably smaller file, and Maximum the smallest one at the cost of image quality.
- Download the smaller file
You will see how much space was saved and can download the compressed PDF.
What shrinks a PDF the most
Scans and photos take up the most space. Documents made of text only are usually small already, so compressing them may make little difference.
Good to know
By default PDFowo only shrinks the photos and scans inside the file, and the text stays selectable and searchable. If you turn off “Keep text”, whole pages are saved as images: the file gets smaller, but the text can no longer be selected, so keep the original.
Typical attachment limits
- e-mail: often 20–25 MB per message
- online forms of offices and universities: often 5–10 MB per file
- messaging apps: depending on the app
Frequently asked questions
Will compression make the document harder to read?
At the Recommended level the difference is usually invisible. At stronger levels images may become less sharp – check the result before sending.
Why did my file hardly get smaller?
It probably contains mostly text and vector graphics, which take up little space already. Compression helps most with scans and photos.
Is the file uploaded anywhere?
No. Compression runs in your browser and the document never leaves your computer or phone.