Compress PDF
Shrink your PDF without losing readable quality.
Drop your file here, or browse
PDF — max 50 MB
How it works
- 1
Upload your PDF
- 2
Ghostscript compresses images and optimises the file structure
- 3
Download your smaller PDF: same content, a fraction of the size
Features
- Image-heavy PDFs typically shrink 30–70%
- Readable quality preserved for screen and print
- No signup required
- Files deleted immediately after compression
- Free up to 10 compressions per day
How to Compress a PDF Without Losing Quality
Upload your PDF to Papyrio. Ghostscript resamples embedded images to a lower resolution and rebuilds the file structure, removing redundant data. Download the result in seconds. The text layer stays untouched; only images lose resolution, and you'll rarely notice the drop on screen or in print.
Why Are PDF Files So Large?
Size comes almost entirely from images. A text-only PDF is a few kilobytes per page. Add full-resolution photos, scanned pages, or embedded graphics, and a 20-page file can hit 50 MB. Compression targets the images, not the words.
How Much Will My PDF Shrink?
Image-heavy PDFs typically shrink 30–70%. A 20 MB presentation often comes back at 4–8 MB. Text-only documents shrink far less, sometimes only 5–15%, because there's less redundant image data to remove in the first place.
Compress a PDF for Email or Upload Limits
Most email clients cap attachments at 10–25 MB. Run an oversized PDF through here first and it usually lands comfortably under that limit. The same applies to web forms and portals that reject large uploads.
What Compression Doesn't Fix
If a file is still too large after compressing, the problem usually isn't image resolution. It's page count or vector content that doesn't compress well. In that case, splitting the document and sharing only the relevant pages works better than further compression.
Split your PDF into individual pages →After Compressing: What to Do Next
If the file is password-protected, remove the password before compressing; Ghostscript can't process encrypted PDFs. Once compressed, you can merge it with other files, add a watermark, or convert it to another format without worrying about the original file size anymore.
Remove a PDF password first →Need to merge several PDFs first? Merge PDF, then compress →
Password-protected PDF? Unlock it before compressing →
Want to split out specific pages? Split PDF first to compress only what you need →
Frequently asked questions
How much will my PDF shrink?
PDFs with large images typically shrink 30–70%. Text-only PDFs compress much less, since there's less redundant data to remove. The exact reduction depends on how the original was created.
Will the quality look worse?
Ghostscript resamples embedded images at a lower resolution. The result is still readable on screen and prints cleanly at standard sizes. If your PDF is mostly text, quality is essentially unchanged.
Do I need to create an account?
No account, no signup. Upload, compress, download. Guests get one compression per day; free accounts get 10.
Can I compress a PDF for email?
Most email clients cap attachments at 10–25 MB. Run your PDF through here first; image-heavy files usually land well under that limit after compression.
Does it work on password-protected PDFs?
No. Remove the password first with our Unlock PDF tool, then compress.
Is there a file size limit?
50 MB per file for free users. Pro users get 200 MB.
Does it work on mobile?
Works in any browser on iPhone, Android, or iPad. No app to install.
Is my file safe?
Your file is processed in memory and deleted the moment your download starts. We never store or read your documents.