Compress a PDF without losing quality
The “Light” level shrinks a PDF without any quality loss: the file is rebuilt losslessly, so text and vector graphics stay crisp and selectable. How much it saves depends on how inefficiently the original was stored — a lot for some files, very little for others.
Choose files
or drag and dropPDF
Your files never leave your device — everything runs locally in your browser.
How it works
- 1
Upload the PDF
Choose your document.
- 2
Choose “Light”
This level doesn’t touch images or text.
- 3
Compare
The savings are shown as a percentage.
- 4
Decide
If it isn’t enough, try “Recommended” and compare readability.
Lossless vs. lossy
A PDF consists of text, fonts, vector graphics and images. Lossless means the file is only stored more efficiently — duplicate or unused objects are dropped. Lossy means images are re-encoded at a lower resolution or stronger JPEG compression. That saves much more space but can’t be undone.
Which PDFs benefit from lossless compression?
- PDFs that were merged or edited several times and carry leftovers.
- Exports from some office or design programs with an unnecessarily large structure.
- Documents whose text must stay searchable and copyable, such as contracts.
With scanned PDFs, almost the entire size is image data. Lossless optimization helps little there; only a lower resolution saves noticeable space.
Tips
- With “Recommended” and “Strong”, pages become images — text is no longer selectable. Try “Light” first for contracts and forms.
- Photo-heavy PDFs shrink the most; text-only PDFs are often small already.
- Several PDFs? Merge them first, then compress.