How to compress a PDF
- Choose your PDF, or drop it on the box above.
- Pick how much to compress. Recommended suits most scans and photo-heavy files.
- Press Compress PDF, then Download compressed PDF.
The file is read and rebuilt by your own browser. You can switch off your internet once this page has loaded and the tool still works.
Which setting should I choose?
| Setting | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Light | Re-packs the file more tightly. Text, links and form fields are untouched. | Text documents, forms you still need to fill in |
| Recommended | Turns each page into a sharp image at 150 DPI. | Scanned documents, ID copies, photo-heavy reports |
| Smallest | Turns each page into a lighter image at 100 DPI. | Strict limits such as 200 KB or 500 KB upload boxes |
Recommended and Smallest give the biggest savings, but the text becomes part of an image, so it can no longer be selected or searched. Keep your original file if you might need that later.
Why is my file not much smaller?
A PDF that is mostly typed text is already compact, and turning its pages into images would make it bigger. fibub checks both methods and always gives you the smaller file, so you never end up with a larger PDF than you started with.
Can it open password-protected PDFs?
No. fibub does not remove passwords. Open the file in your PDF reader, save a copy without a password, and compress that copy.
Last updated 2026-11-06.