Why didn't lossless cleanup shrink my PDF much?

Modern PDFs from tools like Word, Pages, and InDesign are already well-optimized. Lossless cleanup mainly strips metadata and re-saves with object streams. For dramatic size reductions on image-heavy PDFs, scanned documents, or screenshots, switch to the rasterize mode.

What does rasterize mode do to my text?

Rasterize mode re-renders every page as a JPEG image at the DPI you choose. The output looks identical on screen and in print, but the text inside it is no longer selectable or searchable. Use it when file size matters more than text accessibility, such as emailing a 200 MB scanned contract.

What DPI and quality should I pick?

144 DPI at 70% JPEG quality is a great default — readable on screen, prints well at letter size, typically 60–90% smaller than the original scan. Use 100–110 DPI for screen-only sharing, and 200+ DPI when you still need print fidelity.

Is anything uploaded and is there a file size limit?

Nothing is uploaded — Compress PDF runs entirely in your browser via pdf-lib and pdfjs-dist, so there is no server-imposed cap. The only practical limit is your device's available memory; modern laptops comfortably handle PDFs of several hundred megabytes.

PDF Tools/Compress PDF

Compress PDF

Shrink large PDF files instantly. Choose quick metadata cleanup or aggressive image downsampling. Everything runs locally — your file never leaves the browser.

Files are never uploaded.

•How this works

Drop PDF files to compress

Supports PDF · drop one or many

Drag up to 50 PDFs

How to use Compress PDF

Open Compress PDF: Go to converter.plus/compress-pdf in any browser.
Drop your PDF files: Drag one or more PDFs onto the drop zone, or click to select them.
Pick a compression mode: Choose lossless cleanup to preserve text, or rasterize for the biggest savings on image-heavy PDFs.
Click Compress PDF: Compression runs entirely in your browser. Watch the progress bar — nothing is uploaded.
Download the result: Download each compressed PDF or grab them all in a single ZIP.

Why use Compress PDF

✓Two clear modes: lossless cleanup keeps text crisp, or rasterize for the biggest savings on image-heavy PDFs.
✓Image-heavy PDFs typically shrink 60–90% in rasterize mode at the default 144 DPI / 70% JPEG quality.
✓Text-only and form PDFs run through a metadata + object-stream cleanup that shrinks them with zero visual change.
✓Runs 100% in your browser via PDF.js + pdf-lib — your contracts, scans, and reports never leave your device.
✓Live before/after byte counter shows exactly how much you saved per file before you click Download.
✓Free with no signup, no watermark, and no per-file size limit beyond what your browser can hold in memory.

About PDF compression

A PDF balloons in size because of three things: embedded images saved at print resolution, fonts and ICC colour profiles bundled into the document, and accumulated revision metadata from years of edits in Word, Acrobat, or InDesign. The 50 MB scanned contract you cannot email almost always falls into the first bucket — page bitmaps captured at 300 DPI for archival quality but distributed for screen reading.

Converter.Plus offers two compression strategies that match these realities. Lossless cleanup rewrites the PDF with object streams enabled, drops author/edit-history metadata, and removes orphaned objects from prior saves; it shrinks "office" PDFs (Word exports, form-heavy documents) without touching glyph rendering or vector geometry. Rasterize mode re-renders every page as a JPEG at the DPI and quality you choose — the right hammer for scans, screenshot-stuffed presentations, and image catalogues, where it routinely cuts file size by 60–90%.

The whole pipeline runs in your browser via pdfjs-dist (rendering) and pdf-lib (rewriting), so contracts, financial reports, medical records, and other sensitive documents never leave your device. The live before/after byte counter shows exactly what each file saved before you commit to the download — no surprises, no opaque "optimised" output.

Frequently Asked Questions

More PDF Tools

Merge PDF

Combine multiple PDFs into a single file.

Split PDF

Extract page ranges into separate PDFs.

Extract Pages

Pull selected pages into a new PDF.

All PDF Tools

See every browser-based PDF tool in one place.

Image Optimizer

Compress JPG, PNG, and WebP without quality loss.

PDF to JPG

Render every PDF page to a high-quality JPG image.

Privacy & trust

•PDFs are read into your browser memory only — no upload, no server-side processing, no third-party API.
•Works offline once the page has loaded; perfect for sensitive documents on disconnected machines.
•No account, no email, no payment information collected; free for personal and commercial use.
•Output PDFs contain no Converter.Plus watermark, footer, or telemetry.