Compress a PDF to email size
A twenty-page scan comes off the office copier at 40 MB and your mail server draws the line at 25. The fix is rebuilding the document at the resolution email actually needs, which for a readable scan is far less than the copier used.
This page opens the PDF compressor on the Small preset (96 dpi). Scans routinely shrink by 70 to 90 percent, the tool shows real before and after sizes, and since the document is probably a contract or an invoice, it never leaves your browser.
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This is Compress PDF preconfigured for this task — open the full tool for every option.
How it works
Drop in a PDF; its pages are counted locally.
Pick a preset (Recommended 144 dpi, Small 96 dpi, High 216 dpi) or set your own resolution and quality. Grayscale is one checkbox for scans.
Pages render and re-encode one at a time with progress and a working cancel.
The rebuilt file is reopened in two independent parsers to verify every page made it, then you get honest before and after sizes.
What the tool does
- Renders each page locally and rebuilds a fresh, smaller PDF
- Presets plus custom dpi and quality control
- Grayscale mode for scanned documents, often the biggest saving of all
- Page-count verification through two independent PDF parsers
- Flattening leaves source metadata, attachments, scripts, and hidden structures behind, which doubles as a privacy scrub
- Says so plainly when compression would make your file bigger
How the result is verified
The rebuilt document is reopened with pdf-lib and PDF.js independently, and both must report the same page count as your original. The displayed size is measured from the actual output bytes. If either parser fails, the download is blocked.
Frequently asked questions
How small will my scan get?
A typical 300 dpi office scan drops by 70 to 90 percent at the 96 dpi preset. A 40 MB document usually lands well under 10 MB, with the exact number shown before you download.
Is 96 dpi readable?
On screen, comfortably, it's roughly screen resolution. If the recipient needs to print and study fine details, use the Recommended 144 dpi preset and check the size.