filetity

PDF -> smaller PDF · Local tool

Compress PDF

Compress a PDF to a size you name, or to settings you choose.

Last updated

  1. 01 / Your device

    the file stays here

  2. 02 / Browser memory

    the work runs locally

  3. 03 / Back to you

    saved on this device

When you would use this

Situations, not settings.

A portal that rejects your file for being too big
Government and college upload forms often cap a PDF at 100KB, 200KB or 1MB. Name the size you need and the tool shows what it actually reached before you download.
Email that bounces on the attachment
Gmail and Outlook both stop around 25MB. A compressed scan usually clears that with room to spare.
A phone scan that is far heavier than it looks
Scanner apps store full camera resolution for a page of printed text. Dropping to 150 DPI keeps it readable and removes most of the weight.

How it works / no cloud

A conversion engine, not an upload form.

filetity does four things to your PDF in browser memory. A lossless pass first: streams stored uncompressed or wrapped in ASCII85 are repacked, identical streams that a merge duplicated are collapsed onto one, and objects nothing points at any more are dropped. Then the fonts: an embedded font carries tables a reader never needs and outlines for every character in the typeface, so the spare tables come out and the outlines for characters your document does not use are emptied. Glyph numbering is left exactly as it was, so nothing shifts and every character still draws from its own outline. Then it reads the drawing instructions to work out how big each picture is actually drawn on the page, which the file never states, and redraws anything carrying far more pixels than that resolution needs. Then it re-encodes at the level you choose. Your text and vector drawing are copied across untouched, and the size shown is the finished file rather than a projection.

  • Offline ready
  • Installable app
  • No file limit queue

Straight answers

No accordion. Nothing hidden.

Is it free?
Yes, with no watermark and no page limit.
Does it need an account?
No. There is no account system.
Is my file processed on my device?
Yes. The file is read by your browser and never uploaded. There is no server to send it to.
What formats are supported?
PDF in, PDF out. One file at a time.
What are the limits?
No page limit. A file that genuinely will not shrink is refused rather than handed back the same size, and it is told what it is made of. Images already stored as CCITT fax or JBIG2 are left alone because they are already tighter than anything this would replace them with. Very large scans are limited by the memory your device gives the browser.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes, on any modern mobile browser. Large files are limited by the memory the phone gives the browser.
Does it work offline?
Yes, after you have used it once. Your browser keeps what the tool needs, so it then works with no network connection.
My PDF has no pictures in it. Is there anything to compress?
Usually yes, and this page used to say no. A PDF written by a word processor often stores its page content with no compression at all, and a document assembled by merging several files carries the same embedded font once per source file. Measured on 2026-09-03 against a 55-page text-only PDF exported by LibreOffice: 714 KB down to 257 KB, 64% smaller, with no page, no character and no image altered. If a file genuinely has nothing left to give it is refused and told what it is actually made of, rather than handed back the same size.
How do I compress a PDF to under 1MB, or to 500KB?
Switch to "To a size", pick the target, and press the button. It cannot be worked out in advance: the same settings produce wildly different sizes on a photographic scan and on a text document, so the only honest way to hit a number is to try, measure and try again. This lowers the resolution before it lowers the quality, because most scans carry pixels the page never uses and removing those costs you nothing visible, and it keeps searching for the best settings that fit rather than stopping at the first ones that do. If your target is out of reach it says so and tells you the smallest it managed, instead of handing back a file that the upload box will still reject.
Why is resolution a bigger lever than quality?
Because most scans carry pixels nobody will ever see. A phone or a scanner embeds a photograph at 300 or 450 dpi and the page then draws it into a box sized for reading, so two thirds of those pixels are paying rent and doing nothing. No quality setting finds them: it makes every pixel worse instead of removing the ones that are surplus. Measured on a page image stored at 1600 by 1200 and drawn across 539 points, which is 214 dpi: at 150 dpi it needs 1122 by 841, which is 51% fewer pixels before quality is touched at all. Choose "leave every image at its own size" if you are keeping the file for print.
How much smaller will my PDF get?
It depends entirely on the file, which is why the page shows you the real result before you download it. A 938 KB scan of two photo pages came out at 354 KB, 62% smaller, at the default quality (measured in Chrome, 2026-08-26). A PDF that is mostly text will barely move, and you will be told so.
Will the text go blurry?
No. Text stays text and vector drawing is copied across untouched, so both stay sharp at any zoom. The fonts are made smaller, by removing tables a reader never needs and the outlines for characters your document does not contain, but every character you can see keeps its own outline and its own place in the font. Only the embedded photos and scans are re-encoded, and the level you pick decides how hard.
Can it compress a password-protected PDF?
No. It refuses an encrypted file rather than producing a damaged one. Remove the password first, then compress.

How this one works

Keep working locally

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