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Make a PDF file smaller
Most of a large PDF is usually its pictures. PDF Stitch saves them again at a smaller size and leaves text and line drawings untouched, so the text stays sharp and searchable.
Yes. Compress PDF is one of the everyday tools, free forever, with no account and no watermark. Pricing
How to do it
- Open your PDF.
- Open Document properties (the command key and I), then The downloaded file, and choose Balanced or As small as it goes under Make the file smaller. Press Save.
- Press Download.
You do not have to take our word for it
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Watch the network
The "Nothing is uploaded" button in the app opens a list of every other site the page has contacted since you opened it, and how often, taken from the browser's own record. Your browser's developer tools show every request, this site's own included.
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Pull the plug
Once the app has loaded, turn off your network and keep working. Text recognition, the document converter and the handwriting fonts work offline too after their first use.
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Redaction that removes
A page with something blacked out is saved as a picture of itself, so the text under the box is gone, and every redacted page is checked before the file is saved.
Questions
- Why did my file not get much smaller?
- A PDF that is mostly text has little to shrink. Compression here works on pictures, and leaves out kinds of picture whose colours a browser cannot read back faithfully.
- What do Balanced and As small as it goes do?
- Balanced makes pictures at most 2000 pixels on their long side, and As small as it goes at most 1200, at a lower quality. A picture is only replaced if that makes it at least a tenth smaller.
- Does it touch text?
- No. Text, fonts and line drawings are left exactly as they are, so they stay sharp and searchable.
- Is it free?
- Yes. Compress PDF is one of the everyday tools, free forever, with no account and no watermark.