Compress a PDF without losing quality
Less compression is already selected. It never touches text, fonts or vector drawings, keeps lossless images such as screenshots and diagrams exactly as they are, and only re-encodes photos at high JPEG quality. Uncompressed data inside the file is packed tightly too. It is the right choice for print files, portfolios and documents where every detail matters.
How to use Compress a PDF without losing quality
- Choose your PDF. Less compression is already selected, so images keep high quality.
- Press Compress PDF. Photos larger than 2400 pixels on their longest side are scaled down to that size and saved at high quality; everything else is kept or packed losslessly.
- Download the file and compare it with the original at 100% zoom. If you need it smaller, try Recommended, which most people cannot tell apart on screen.
Frequently asked questions
Is any PDF compression truly lossless?
Partly. Text, fonts, vector graphics and the file structure can be packed more tightly with no change at all, and that part is lossless. Photos only shrink much if they are re-encoded, which loses some detail. This setting keeps that loss small enough that it is hard to see, even in print.
Will it still print sharply?
Yes for normal documents. A photo 2400 pixels wide printed across an A4 or US Letter page works out at close to 300 dots per inch, the usual standard for print. Large-format posters are better compressed in the design program that made them.
Why did my file barely get smaller?
Gentle compression saves the most on files with large photos. A PDF that is mostly text, or one that was already optimised when it was exported, has little left to remove without lowering quality.
Is my file uploaded?
Your file is processed in your browser and is never uploaded to our servers.
Related tools
- Compress PDF: Shrink a PDF, or hit a target size like 600 KB.
- PDF to images: Save each page as an image.
- Edit PDF: Add text, shapes, highlights and images, or white out content.