PDF Compress

How to use it

1. Choose a PDF file. Its original size is shown in the Before row.
2. Leave Remove document metadata on to drop the title, author, subject and keywords stored in the file.
3. Leave Use object streams on for the smaller output; switch it off if an old reader refuses to open the result.
4. Click Compress PDF and read the honest numbers: Before, After and the percentage saved.
5. Download the result with the Download button.

Common use cases

• Cleaning a file before sending — strip the metadata that travels with exported PDFs.
• Email attachments — shave what can be shaved locally before hitting the size limit.
• Checking whether re-saving helps — the tool reports the real gain instead of a promise.
• Privacy tidying — author names and edit history in the Info dictionary are removed on request.

Why it stays private

Compression re-serializes the file in your browser with pdf-lib. The PDF is read with the File API, never uploaded, and no network request is made.

FAQ

Q: Why did my file only shrink by a few percent, or even grow? A: Because most of the size usually sits in streams that are already compressed — embedded images and fonts. This tool does not re-encode them, so the honest result can be small, zero, or slightly larger after re-serialization. Shrink at the source instead.

Q: What exactly is removed when I strip metadata? A: The document Info dictionary entries: title, author, subject, creator, producer and keywords. They are set to empty values. Page content is untouched.

Q: Is this the same as a server-side compressor? A: No. Server-side tools re-encode images and fonts with heavier pipelines. This one is limited to what pdf-lib can do locally, and it says so instead of pretending otherwise.