PDF Compress

PDF Compress makes a PDF smaller by cleaning out data you cannot see. It removes extra metadata and unused objects, then saves the file in a more compact form. What you see on the page does not change.

Here is what happens. Editing programs leave traces in a PDF, such as the name of the software, creation and edit dates, and hidden metadata blocks. They also leave objects that nothing in the document uses any more. The tool deletes those, keeps the title, author and subject, and rewrites the rest using compressed object streams. Bookmarks, links and form fields stay as they were.

Be realistic about the saving. A file with lots of leftover data can shrink noticeably. A file that is mostly photos or scans will shrink very little, because the images are not re-compressed or reduced in resolution. A file that is already lean may not shrink at all, and the results then say No reduction. For image-heavy documents, it works better to shrink the pictures before building the PDF. You can do that with the Image Compressor and then combine them with Images to PDF.

Compression starts as soon as you upload a file, and files up to 50 MB are accepted. The work runs in your browser with pdf-lib, so the document is not uploaded. Files that only restrict printing or copying are processed, but the compressed copy is saved without those restrictions.