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Compress a PDF on Mac

Drop the PDF in, pick Compress, and set the image quality. The document is never uploaded, on this page or in the app.

Conversion Successful
100% local. Your file is processed in this tab and never uploaded.

Why convert on your Mac instead of online

Preview can export a smaller PDF on a Mac, using a filter nobody has updated since about 2009, and the result is either barely smaller or unreadable. Attachment limits do not care. So people paste the contract, the medical scan, or the tax return into a compression site, which is exactly the category of document that should not be traveling anywhere. This page compresses in the browser tab instead.

Drop the file and pick Compress from the format list. The pictures inside the PDF are re-encoded at the quality you choose and the text is left exactly as it was, which is why scans and photo-heavy reports collapse while the words stay sharp and selectable. A PDF that is only text has nothing to re-encode, so it comes back unchanged and the estimate will tell you so before you run it. Try 60 to 70 percent on a scan first and compare.

Other things to do with a PDF

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I compress a PDF on a Mac without Acrobat?
Drop it into the converter above and pick Compress from the format list. An image-quality slider runs from 40 to 90 percent. No Acrobat, no subscription, no upload.
How much smaller will it get?
Scanned documents and image-heavy decks often fall by most of their size, since the pictures are nearly all of the weight. A PDF that is only text will not move at all, because there is nothing in it to re-encode.
Will the text still be selectable?
Yes. Only the embedded images are re-encoded, so the text layer, the fonts, and the links come through untouched. You can still search and copy from the compressed copy.
Is the file uploaded to compress it?
No. The images are decoded and re-encoded in your browser through pdf-lib, which is why the page works with the network disconnected.
Can I compress a stack of PDFs at once?
The browser handles one at a time. The desktop app compresses through Ghostscript and takes a whole folder in one run.

A folder of PDFs to shrink?

The desktop app compresses through Ghostscript on your Mac, keeps text intact where it can, and runs the whole folder at once.

Get TeraConvert for MacmacOS on Apple Silicon. One-time Pro purchase, 14-day money-back guarantee.