How to compress a PDF without losing quality
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Open Compress PDF"Without losing quality" can mean two things: a file that is literally identical page for page, or one where you can't see the difference. Knowing which you need tells you which setting to use.
Lossless compression: identical pages
Lossless compression removes data you never see — unused objects, duplicated resources, inefficient storage — and leaves text, fonts and images untouched. Text stays selectable and the pages are pixel-for-pixel the same. In Compress PDF without losing quality, this is the Light level.
Typical savings are modest, often 5–30%, because most of a PDF's size is usually images, which lossless compression doesn't shrink.
Visually lossless: smaller, looks the same
For scans and photo-heavy PDFs, the big savings come from re-saving images at a sensible resolution. Our Recommended level renders pages at 150 DPI — sharp on any screen and fine for printing text — which often shrinks scans by 70–90%. The trade-off: pages become images, so text can't be selected.
Which should you use?
| Your PDF | Use |
|---|---|
| Contract, report or resume made in Word | Light (lossless) |
| Scanned documents | Recommended, plus black & white for text scans |
| Photos, brochures, presentations | Recommended; check the result zoomed in |
| Must be under a size limit | Exact size — highest quality that fits |
Tips
- Remove pages you don't need first with Remove pages — the easiest saving of all.
- Don't compress the same file repeatedly; start from the original each time.
- On a Mac, Preview's Reduce File Size filter shrinks images aggressively and can make them blurry, so check the result.