Reduce PDF size by converting pages to images

How it works

• Each page of the PDF is turned into a JPEG image, and a new PDF is built from those images only. This works best for scanned documents, whose pages are already images.
• A small PDF that contains only text can become larger when converted. The result tells you when this happens; in that case, keep the original PDF.
• Your original PDF is not changed. Everything happens in your browser; the file is not uploaded or stored.

What is lost

Only the appearance of each page remains. The following stop working. Before processing, the tool lists the ones it found in your PDF.

• Searching, copying and reading text aloud
• Links and bookmarks (outline)
• Form fields (entered values stay visible)
• Editing comments and annotations (their appearance stays)
• Verifying digital signatures
• Tags (reading order and structure for screen readers)

Text may look rough when zoomed in. Check that the text on page 1 is readable before saving.

How to reduce the size

• Choose a quality: Easy to read (200 dpi, quality 80%), Standard (150 dpi, quality 70%) or Smallest (100 dpi, quality 55%).
• Set a target size: enter a target in KB (1 KB = 1,000 bytes). The tool tries 8 steps from 200 dpi down to 72 dpi and uses the most readable one that fits. If none fits, it uses the smallest step and tells you the target was not reached.

Limits and what is not supported

• Up to 50 MB and 200 pages per file. The new PDF can be up to 100 MB.
• Each page image is limited to 12 megapixels and 8,192 pixels per side. Very large pages are converted at a lower resolution, and the number of such pages is shown.
• PDFs with a password or usage restrictions, and PDFs with XFA forms, are not supported.
• There is no black-and-white conversion and no per-page quality setting.