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Why PDFs get bigPick the right levelStep by stepWhen you need an exact sizeScanned documentsStill too big?Most email services cap attachments at a few megabytes, and a PDF full of photos or scans blows past that quickly. Compression fixes most of these files in seconds, if you choose the level that matches what is inside the document.
Why PDFs get big
Text costs almost nothing. Size comes from images: photos pasted into a report, pages scanned at high resolution, or graphics saved without compression. Compressing a PDF mostly means re-saving those images more efficiently.
Pick the right level
| Level | Best for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Light | Brochures, photos you will print | Smallest saving |
| Recommended | Reports, invoices, most email | Balanced |
| Strong | On-screen reading, upload limits | Images visibly softer |
Step by step
- Open Compress PDF and drop your file in.
- Leave the level on Recommended unless you know you need more.
- Download, open the result, and zoom into a photo or small text before you send it.
Compress PDFFree · no sign-up · files deleted automaticallyOpen tool
When you need an exact size
Some forms say “under 200 KB” and nothing else. Use Compress PDF to a Target Size: choose 100 KB, 200 KB, 500 KB, 1 MB or 2 MB, or type your own, and it works down until the file fits or tells you how close it got.
Scanned documents
A scan is one large picture per page, so it compresses well. If text becomes hard to read on Strong, go back to Recommended and split the file instead.
Still too big?
Use Split PDF to send it in parts, or Remove pages you do not need. Guests can process files up to 10 MB each; with a free account the limit is 50 MB, and you can compress up to five files at once.