Size
Twenty megabytes and the limit is ten
The cause is nearly always a scan: every page becomes an image, and an image weighs several times what the same text does.
Shrink your fileYou see the result before downloading
A document made of text rarely causes trouble. The problem starts where there are images inside: a scanned contract, a catalogue of product photographs, a deck full of screenshots.
What happens when it is compressed
The images inside are stored more economically. Text stays text and loses no sharpness, but photographs and scans go through compression — and that is where the difference in size comes from.
What does not come back
Quality removed from an image does not return. If the scan is headed for print, or for an office that expects legible stamps, keep the original beside the smaller copy.
Where this one runs
This is a server tool, not a browser one. The file is sent, processed and comes back, and the result is held for sixty minutes before it is deleted.
Facts about this tool
- Compresses a PDF to make it smaller, on the server like the conversions
- Takes files up to 100 MB and up to 50 files in one task
Before you start
- Keep your converted file afterwards — a server-side result is held for 60 minutes and then deleted
- Let you download the result without a subscription — running the tool is open to everyone, the download is not
The second point surprises people here in particular: a smaller file is wanted now, and an hour passes faster than it sounds.