How to compress a PDF that is too big
In 30 seconds: go to ilovepdf.com, pick Compress PDF, upload your file, leave the recommended level and hit the red button. Free, no sign-up. Watch out: if your PDF is only text, it will barely shrink.
You try to email a PDF and it gets refused for being too big. Or you upload it to a form and it says you are over the limit. It usually happens with documents that have photos or scanned pages in them.
Compressing it takes under a minute, it is free and there is nothing to install. Here are the steps, how to pick the level, and at the end the explanation of why sometimes the file barely shrinks.
Go to iLovePDF
Go to ilovepdf.com. If the site comes up in another language, you change it from the top right: click the nine-dots icon and look for Language.
In the grid of tools, find Compress PDF and click it.
Upload your PDF
Click the red Select PDF files button and pick your document.
You can also drag it straight from your folder onto the red box, which is quicker. And if it lives in the cloud, the icons beside it pull it from Google Drive or Dropbox.
Unlike some other tools, here you can upload several PDFs at once and they all get compressed in one go.
Pick the compression level
This is where everything is decided. The panel on the right has three levels:
- EXTREME COMPRESSION — Cuts as much as it can. The images lose quality and you can tell.
- RECOMMENDED COMPRESSION — Selected by default. Brings the weight right down without the photos looking bad. The one you should use almost every time.
- LESS COMPRESSION — Barely touches the file. For when quality matters more than size.
The practical advice: always start with the recommended one. Only if the result is still too heavy, upload it again and try the extreme. Starting with the extreme is ruining the images for nothing.
Click "Compress PDF"
With the level picked, click the red Compress PDF button at the bottom right.
It takes a few seconds, depending on how heavy the file is and how many images it has.
See how much it dropped
The result screen appears, and this tool has something the others do not: it tells you exactly how much it dropped.
In the example, a PDF of 4.07 MB came out at 449 KB: 90% less, with the photos still looking perfectly fine.
Click Download compressed PDF and the file is saved to your downloads folder.
Why sometimes it barely shrinks
This is what almost no tutorial explains, and it is the most repeated question.
If you compress a PDF and the saving is 1% or 2%, the tool has not failed: your document has nothing to cut.
Compressing a PDF is, basically, lowering the quality of the images. Everything follows from that:
- A PDF full of photos or scans can drop 80% or more.
- A PDF of plain text barely shrinks, because there are no images to touch. And that is normal, not a fault.
- If it is heavy and still will not shrink, it usually has scanned pages at a huge resolution. There the extreme level does make a difference.
What happens to your files
This applies to all these tools.
Your file is uploaded to an iLovePDF server so it can be processed. It is processed there and deleted automatically after a few hours. The connection is encrypted.
For holiday photos or an ordinary report there is no problem at all. For documents with sensitive data, better a program that works on your own computer and uploads nothing. And if you upload it anyway, click the bin when you are done.
And that is it: a PDF that was too big, shrunk in under a minute and for free.
Keep two things: start with the recommended compression, and if your file is only text, do not expect miracles.
Common questions
I compressed my PDF and it only dropped 1%. Why?
Because your document is almost all text. Compressing a PDF means lowering the quality of the images, so if there are no images, there is nothing to cut. A text PDF is already compressed out of the box and cannot be made much smaller. It is not a fault in the tool: that file was already at its sensible minimum size.
Which compression level should I pick?
The recommended one, almost always. It brings the weight right down and the images still look fine. Only if the result is still too big is it worth uploading it again and trying the extreme, which cuts more but leaves the photos visibly worse. Going straight for the extreme is ruining the quality for nothing.
Does compressing lose quality?
In the images, always: that is exactly what compression does. At the recommended level the loss is barely noticeable on screen. At the extreme level you can tell, especially if you are going to print the document or zoom into the photos. The text is never touched: it stays selectable and searchable just as before.
Can I compress several PDFs at once?
Yes. Unlike some other tools on the same site, this one takes several files at a time and compresses them all at the same level. If there are several, the result comes back as a zip.
My PDF is still too big for email. What now?
Try the extreme compression first. If it still will not fit, there are two ways out: split the PDF into parts with the split tool and send them separately, or upload it to Google Drive or Dropbox and send the link instead of the file. Most email services refuse attachments over 25 MB.
Is it safe to upload the document?
For an ordinary document, yes: it travels encrypted, is processed on the iLovePDF server and is deleted automatically after a few hours. For documents with sensitive data you are better off with a program that works on your own computer and uploads nothing. If you upload it anyway, click the bin icon when you are done to wipe it from the server there and then.
