Shrink a PDF hard when nothing else fits
Pages become images at screen resolution: scans collapse in size, text stops being selectable. The blunt tool, used knowingly.
Runs in your browser. Your file never leaves your computer.
- EffectHard cuts on scans
- CostText becomes unselectable
- Resolution72, 110 or 150 dpi
- First tryCompress, the gentle tool
When a portal's size limit will not budge and compressing gently was not enough, shrinking is the blunt instrument: every page is re-drawn as a picture of itself at the resolution you choose, and image-heavy scans collapse to a fraction of their weight. The cost is stated plainly, text stops being selectable and searchable, so this suits copies for sharing, never archival originals. Try the gentler Compress first; reach here when limits leave no choice. Local, like everything.
Questions
When Shrink versus Compress?
Compress re-encodes only the pictures inside and keeps text real; use it first. Shrink rasterises whole pages and wins only when the file must get dramatically smaller.
Which dpi should I pick?
110 reads well on screens; 72 is for desperate size limits; 150 keeps print passable.
Is this reversible?
No, keep the original; the shrunk copy is for sending.
Related conversions
- Compress PDFSmaller file, same pages. The pictures inside are re-encoded and the file repacked; text stays selectable, links keep working, and nothing leaves your computer.
- PDF to DOCXThe text layer rebuilt as an editable Word document. Honest limits: columns are best effort, scans need OCR.
- PDF to MarkdownThe text layer as structured plain text: headings and lists recovered where the layout permits.
- PDF to TXTThe text layer, page after page, with no markup at all: the rawest useful form of a document.
- PDF to PNGEvery page rendered at the resolution you pick, delivered together as a ZIP. Scans welcome here.
- Split PDFEvery page becomes its own one-page PDF, text and links intact, delivered together as one ZIP.
Part of convert documents in your browser. Every other conversion is on the conversions index.