Compress PDF
Shrink a PDF down by recompressing the images inside it, with a live estimate of the new file size before you commit - pick Basic, Moderate, or Strong depending on how much you want to save.
- Free, no watermarks
- Files deleted after 1 hour
- Runs in your browser
- No account needed
Why use SnapFetch
- Recompresses every embedded image at your chosen level - text and layout are untouched
- See the real estimated file size for each level before you download
- Works on PDFs of any page count, no watermark added
How it works
- 1
Choose or drag in a PDF file
- 2
Pick a compression level and check the estimated new size
- 3
Click Compress
- 4
Download your smaller PDF - files are deleted from our servers after 1 hour
When to use Compress PDF
The fix for a PDF that will not fit an attachment or upload cap. Almost all of a heavy PDF's weight is the images inside it, so those are recompressed while text is left alone and stays crisp. Scanned documents shrink the most, since every page is an image. A text-only PDF is already small and will barely change.
Specifications & limits
- Quality levels
- Basic (JPEG quality 85), Moderate (60, the default), Strong (30)
- What is compressed
- Embedded images only - text and vector content are untouched
- Accepted input
- PDF only (.pdf)
- Maximum pages
- 50 pages per PDF
- Maximum file size
- 20 MB per upload
- File retention
- Deleted from our servers 1 hour after upload
Troubleshooting
The file barely got smaller
It is probably mostly text already. Compression targets images, and there is little to gain when there are none.
Scanned pages look blotchy
Strong compression is aggressive on scans. Step down to Moderate or Basic.
The upload is rejected before anything happens
The file is over the 20 MB cap. Compress it first, or split a long PDF into smaller files and process them separately.
References
The published specification for the formats involved, and the open-source software that actually performs this conversion.
- pypdf documentation
The library used for PDF page operations - splitting, merging, rotation and encryption.
- JPEG standards (JPEG committee)
The official home of the JPEG standard and its lossy compression model.
Frequently asked questions
No - only embedded images are recompressed. Text, fonts, and page layout are left exactly as they were.