Compress A PDF Without Uploading It

Most pages that offer to compress a PDF give you a slider marked low, medium and high and never say what is being thrown away. There are only two things any tool can do, so this one names them. Tidy re-saves the file with its objects packed together, its metadata stripped and its index rewritten. Not a mark on any page changes, the text stays selectable, and the saving is usually small and sometimes zero - which the panel says in those words. Rebuild redraws every page at a resolution you choose and saves it as a compressed picture. That is what genuinely shrinks a scan, and it destroys the text layer: a document rebuilt this way is a picture of words that nobody can search, copy or hear read aloud.

Who It Is For

Almost everyone trying to reduce PDF size has hit a wall someone else built: an upload form that stops at 10 MB, a mail server that bounces the attachment, a portal with a limit from 2009. The file is usually a scan - a signed contract, a passport page, a receipt, a brochure photographed on a phone - and those are exactly the files Rebuild shrinks dramatically, because they were never text to begin with.

How It Works

Your PDF is opened by your own browser. pdf.js, the library Firefox uses to display PDFs, reads and draws the pages; pdf-lib writes the new file. Nothing is uploaded, there is no queue and no account, and closing the tab is all the deleting there is to do. Rebuild works one page at a time with a counter, so a long document does not freeze the tab, and the tool checks for a real text layer first: if it finds one, it says plainly that Rebuild is the wrong choice for that file.

Its Real Limits

A PDF that is already lean will not get much smaller without becoming pictures. There is no magic setting; if Tidy saves 1%, that is the honest answer, and the tool says so rather than showing you a green tick. A result larger than the input is reported as a failure and the original is offered back. Encrypted files can be rebuilt but not tidied. If you only need part of a document, taking the pages you want with PDF to image will beat any compressor, and for pictures on their own the image compressor does the same job with the same honesty.

Then Put It Online

Publish A Share Page puts the before and after numbers and a picture of page one on a live OxyPages link with HTTPS, in seconds and with no account - useful for showing a colleague what came out before you email the file itself. The link lasts 30 minutes unless you claim it, claiming is free, and from there you can choose your own address or connect a custom domain on a paid plan. Instant publishing caps a page at 5 MB. See how it works for the rest.