How much can I compress a PDF?

Compression ratios vary by content. Image-heavy PDFs typically compress by 50–80%, while text-only PDFs see smaller reductions.

Will compression affect text quality?

Text is losslessly compressed — only images are resampled, so text remains sharp and readable.

Can I compress a password-protected PDF?

You need to unlock password-protected PDFs before compressing them. Use our Unlock PDF tool first.

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How to compress a PDF without losing quality

Choose a compression level — high, medium, or low — and pdfs.to runs Ghostscript with downsampling, font subsetting, and duplicate-image detection to shrink your PDF.

If the optimised file ends up larger than the original (rare, but possible for already-compressed PDFs), we return the original instead so you never end up with a bigger file.

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Compress PDF Online — Reduce File Size, Keep Quality

How to compress a PDF without losing quality

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