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Compress a PDF to reduce file size

Pick low, medium or high compression and PDFlick rewrites the document smaller — usually to get a scan under an email attachment limit or a portal's upload cap. The irony of web compressors is that you must upload the oversized file before they will shrink it; here the file that was too big to send never has to move at all.

Coming Soon iOS 26.2 or later · iPadOS 26.2 or later · macOS 26.2 or later

Also searched as: reduce PDF size · shrink PDF · make PDF smaller · compress scanned PDF

How to compress a PDF to reduce file size

On iPhone & iPad

Open the document and tap Compress PDF.
Choose a level: low keeps the most detail, high shrinks the most.
Check the resulting size before you commit.
Save the compressed copy, or share it straight to Mail.

On Mac

Open the PDF and choose Compress.
Pick the compression level and review the new size.
⌘S to save, then Reveal in Finder to attach it.

What makes it different

Three levels let you trade detail against size rather than accepting one fixed result.
Image-heavy scans shrink the most; documents that are mostly vector text are already compact and change less.
Text is preserved as text, so a compressed document stays searchable.

Compress PDF — questions

Why did my PDF barely get smaller?

Documents that are mostly vector text are already efficient — there is little to remove. Big savings come from scans and image-heavy files, where the embedded images dominate the file size.

Will compressing make the text blurry?

Text stays vector and stays sharp. Compression affects embedded images, so at the high setting a photograph or scan will show more artefacts. Use low or medium if the scan needs to stay crisp.

Is there a file size limit?

No. Web compressors cap uploads because of bandwidth costs; PDFlick works on the file where it already is.

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