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Compress a PDF

Updated 2026-10-19

Shrink a PDF to email or upload it. Pictures are made smaller while text stays sharp. Free, private, in your browser. A free Docmend tool that runs in your browser. The same PDF tools are in the Docmend Chrome extension.

Files stay on your computer. Free, with no limits.
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How to compress a PDF

  1. Choose the PDF.
  2. Pick how much to compress.
  3. Click Compress PDF and see how much smaller it is.

Common questions

Why did my PDF barely shrink?

Most of a PDF’s size is usually pictures. A file that is mostly text is already small, and Docmend never hands back a bigger file.

Does the text get blurry?

No. Text and drawings stay sharp. Only photos and scans are re-saved at a smaller size.

See also how to merge, compress or protect a PDF without uploading it.

We tested this on 19 public-domain PDFs (median 12.9% smaller at Recommended): see the PDF compression benchmark.

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