Compress a PDF to under 1 MB
Under a megabyte, for email and forms
1 MB is a common limit for a whole application form, and a considerate size for a document going by email to somebody on a slow connection. A multi-page scan from an office copier can be many times that. Open the tool from here and it starts on 1 MB: send the file, and alongside the usual sizes you get the best-looking version under 1 MB.
Choosing between the sizes
A megabyte is often more room than the smallest readable file needs, so several of the cards may already be under it. The smaller ones give up detail you only see zoomed in or printed; the larger ones keep more of it. The file made for 1 MB is the best-looking one that fits, and its preview shows the same piece of text as the others, so they can be compared side by side.
If it will not fit
A long scan in colour may not reach 1 MB while every word still reads. Then the tool gives you both sizes, the smallest readable one and the 1 MB you asked for, and offers to split the file into parts under 1 MB each.
Compress a PDF to under 1 MB — it opens the tool, with nothing to install.
What it never does
- It never makes a page harder to read to reach a size. Every page of every file it offers is compared with yours at reading size, and a setting that falls below its measured limit for legibility is not offered, whatever size was asked for.
- It never turns text or drawings into pictures. The page images are made smaller and the file's structure is tidied; text stays text, sharp and searchable.
- It never makes an image larger, and never saves one at a higher quality than it already had, which would add bytes and lose detail at once.
When it says no
A file of text and fonts, with few page images, has little to give: the tool says so, and says where its bytes are, rather than offer a file that is barely smaller. A scan already at a low resolution may have no detail left to give without becoming hard to read, and it says that too. A file with a password asks for it. It takes files of up to 100 MB.
The record
The smaller file says how it was made: which setting, the resolution and quality each image was saved at, which images were left as they were, and the sizes before and after. A document you corrected here becomes a new document when it is compressed, because compressing changes the pixels its correction was checked on; the check and the certificate stay with the one you corrected. The sizes made for your file are deleted an hour after they are made, or as soon as you choose one, and the file you choose is deleted after 90 days, or whenever you erase it.