PDFWren

Make a PDF smaller

Shrink a PDF without wrecking the text. Runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded. No signup, no watermark, no file size cap, no daily limit.

🔒 Runs in your browser

Make a file smaller without ruining it

Three levels, each showing the size you should expect before you commit. No account, no daily limit, no watermark, and nothing is uploaded — the work happens inside this browser tab.

If a form has given you a specific number to hit, use compress to an exact size instead. That is a different question and it deserves a different tool.

What actually gets removed

A PDF is usually large for one of two reasons, and they behave very differently.

Embedded images. Photographs, logos, scanned pages. These are where nearly all the savings come from, and reducing them is a genuine trade — fewer pixels, less detail.

Text and fonts. These are stored as instructions rather than pixels. They can be tidied and subsetted, but they have a real minimum size. Below it, the only way to go smaller is to convert your words into a picture of words — which destroys exactly what you were trying to keep.

This tool will not do that silently. When a file reaches its floor, it says so.

Scanned documents are a different case

If your PDF came from a scanner or a phone camera, every page is a photograph. There is no text in the file at all — just dark pixels arranged in the shape of letters.

That means quality is bounded by resolution, and strong compression will visibly soften it. The tool detects this when you add the file and tells you before you choose, rather than after you have downloaded something unreadable.

For scans it also uses a different technique — high-contrast black-and-white rather than blurry grey — which on a real four-page report produced a 70 KB file that was still readable where the usual approach needed 111 KB and was not. There is more detail on the exact-size page.

Practical notes

  • Keep your original. Compression is one-way.
  • Open the result before sending it, especially at Strong.
  • Compress last. If you are also merging or splitting, do those first — compressing then merging undoes some of the saving.
  • Already under 200 KB? Compressing further will gain very little and may cost quality. Check whether you actually need to.

This tool runs entirely inside your browser. Your file is never uploaded — it never leaves your device, so there is nothing for us or anyone else to read, store or leak.

Common questions

Which level should I choose?

Balanced, unless you have a reason not to. Light is for when a file is only slightly over a limit. Strong is for strict upload caps and will visibly soften a scanned document — the tool warns you when that applies.

Will my text stay selectable?

Yes, if it was selectable to begin with. Text stays as vector outlines and fonts are subsetted rather than converted to pictures. A scanned document had no selectable text in the first place — scanning produces an image, not words.

Is there a file size limit or a daily cap?

Neither. Because the work happens on your own machine there is no upload to meter and no cost to us per file. The only ceiling is your device memory.

When should I use the exact-size tool instead?

When a form gives you a specific number. This tool answers "make it smaller"; the exact-size tool answers "get it under 200 KB", which is a different question and needs a different approach.

Why is my compressed file barely smaller?

It was probably already efficient. A PDF exported from Word with no images has very little to remove — most of its size is the fonts and the text itself. The tool will tell you it has hit that floor rather than pretending it failed.

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