Make a PDF small enough to email or upload: pictures and scanned pages get lighter, while text, fonts and drawings stay as they are, so the text stays sharp and selectable. Free, in your browser: the PDF is not uploaded to compress it.
How it works
Choose your PDF. It opens in the editor, in your browser.
Pick how much to compress: light, balanced or strong.
See the new size, then download the smaller PDF.
In detail
In most heavy PDFs, the pictures are the weight: photos, scanned pages, screenshots. GenPDF brings each large picture down to a size that suits a screen or an office printer and packs it again as a JPEG. Pictures that are already small are left alone, and a picture is only replaced when its new version is really lighter.
Text, fonts, drawings, links and forms are not changed. Nothing is turned into an image, so the text stays sharp, can be selected and searched, and a compressed contract still reads like the original. GenPDF never gives you back a file heavier than the one you chose.
The three levels differ in how far pictures are reduced and how hard they are packed:
A PDF that is mostly text and drawings is already compact, and one whose pictures are already light, or of a kind this tool leaves untouched (print colours, palettes, one-bit scans), cannot get noticeably smaller. GenPDF says so instead of making the file worse.
There is no target size to type in. If a limit is still not met, try the next level, then Split by size to cut the file into parts under the limit. A PDF above 25 MB does not open in the editor, so it cannot be compressed here.
Why GenPDF
Pictures make most PDFs heavy. GenPDF resizes and recompresses photos and scans, and leaves text and drawings untouched.
GenPDF tells you the size before and after, and says so honestly when a PDF can't get noticeably smaller.
Compression runs in your browser: the PDF is not uploaded to make it smaller.
Questions
Choose the PDF here, pick Balanced, or Light if picture quality matters most, and see the new size before you download. GenPDF shrinks only the pictures and scanned pages and leaves text, fonts and drawings alone, so the text stays sharp and selectable.
No. Text, fonts and drawings are not touched; only pictures are made lighter.
Balanced suits screens and office printing. Light keeps the best picture quality; strong makes the smallest file, for email limits and upload forms.
Its pictures are already light, or it is mostly text and drawings, which are compact already. GenPDF tells you rather than making it worse.
No. Compression happens in your browser, on your device. A scanned page is sent as an image only if you later agree to have its words read, and deleted as soon as they are read.
Not to an exact size. Choose the strongest level and look at the result; if it is still over your limit, Split by size in Split PDF makes parts under it.
Yes. Text is not touched, so search, copy and selection work as before. A scan keeps whatever text layer it had.
Balanced suits office printing. For a professional print run, use Light or keep the original.
The editor opens PDFs up to 25 MB, so that is the largest file that can be compressed here. On the free plan, 10 downloads a day from compress and the other page tools; Pro or a 7-day pass has no limit.
Yes: a scan is mostly pictures, so this is where compression helps most. Strong brings pages down to 1150 pixels on their longest side, which can blur small print, so check the result or use Balanced. A text layer, if the scan has one, is not touched.
