Compress PDF
Shrink PDFs that are too big to email or upload. Scans and photos are compressed again while text stays sharp, and your documents never leave your device.
How to compress a PDF
- 1Choose a compression level. Recommended suits most documents.
- 2Choose one or more PDF files, or drag them onto the page.
- 3Each file is compressed right away, showing its size before and after.
- 4Download the smaller PDFs one by one, or all of them in one ZIP.
What makes a PDF big, and what this tool shrinks
Text, fonts and drawings take up very little space in a PDF. What makes a PDF heavy is almost always pictures: scanned pages, phone photos of documents, or photos in a brochure or report. Those are usually stored at a much higher resolution than a screen or printer needs. This tool finds them, scales down the oversized ones and compresses them again, which often makes scanned documents several times smaller.
Everything else is copied as it is, so text stays sharp, selectable and searchable, and links and the page layout don’t change. If a PDF is mostly text, or its images are already small, there is little to gain, and you get the original file back instead of a bigger one.
Most online compressors upload your PDF to their server. For tax returns, contracts, medical records or ID scans, that is a real risk. Here the compression happens in your browser, so the document never leaves your device.
Why use Lilypad
100% private
Files are processed right in your browser. Nothing is ever uploaded to a server.
Batch processing
Add hundreds of files at once and download them all in a single ZIP or PDF.
Fast & free
Uses every core of your CPU. No sign-up, no watermarks, no file limits.
Frequently asked questions
Which compression level should I choose?
Recommended keeps documents sharp on screen and in print and works for most files. Strong gives the smallest files, for email attachments or upload forms with a size limit, but small print in scans may look soft. Light keeps every image at its full size and only compresses it a little more.
Why didn’t my PDF get smaller?
Its size probably comes from text, fonts or drawings rather than photos or scans, and those are already compact. Some PDFs also store images in formats this tool doesn’t recompress, such as black-and-white fax-style scans, which are small already. In those cases you get the original file back.
Will the text still be searchable?
Yes. Only images are compressed. Text, fonts, links and the layout are copied unchanged, so you can still select, search and copy text.
Can I compress a password-protected PDF?
No. A PDF that is locked with a password, or encrypted against changes, has to be unlocked first, for example by opening it in your browser and printing it to a new PDF.
Are my files uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything runs inside your web browser. Your files never leave your device, and we never see them.
Can I use it on my phone?
Yes. It works in any modern browser on Android, iPhone, Windows, Mac, Linux and ChromeOS.