How to reduce PDF size without losing quality
Large PDF documents can be difficult to email, share, or upload to portals. The secret to compressing PDFs lies in managing image assets inside the document without degrading text readability.
Why Are PDF Files So Large?
PDFs often contain high-resolution scans or photos at 300 DPI (Dots Per Inch). For standard screen reading and emailing, 72 to 150 DPI is more than enough. High-resolution images inflate file size unnecessarily.
Using the PDF Compressor
Our online PDF compressor uses automated Ghostscript rendering to balance quality. Selecting "Balanced Compression" optimizes images inside the PDF to 150 DPI and converts colors to RGB, reducing the overall file size by up to 80% while keeping text perfectly sharp.
Manual Scanning Best Practices
If you are scanning physical documents to PDF, choose black and white or grayscale scans instead of color. Also, set the scanner resolution to 150 DPI rather than 300 DPI or 600 DPI to ensure small files from the start.
Pro Tip:
Avoid using "Save as PDF" directly from heavy scanned images inside Word documents. Instead, convert the Word file directly using the Word to PDF tool, which compiles layout and text vectors for a lightweight file size.