Compress PDF files down to a size that will actually send

1. Open the PDF you want to make smaller.
2. PDFCheetah checks what is inside it on this device and offers the sizes it can reach.
3. Choose the size you want, then select Make this PDF smaller.
4. Select Download to save the smaller PDF.

Where the saving comes from

PDFCheetah finds the pictures inside your PDF, works out how large each one is actually drawn on the page, and re-saves the oversized ones at a resolution that suits how they are used. Everything else is left exactly as it was — text stays selectable and searchable, vector artwork stays sharp at any zoom, and links and form fields keep working. No option turns a page into a picture. The work happens on this device.

What is left alone

Pictures already the right size for the page keep every pixel they have, but they are still re-saved at the quality you chose — and kept only if that comes out smaller. Left exactly as they were: anything not stored as a JPEG, plus JPEG 2000 and JBIG2 images, spot colors, black-and-white scans, and pictures that carry transparency. CMYK pictures are re-saved as screen colors, so check a file headed for a printing press. A PDF protected with a password is refused rather than processed, because opening it would need the password you have not been asked for.

When a form sets a size limit

If a site refuses files over 100 KB, 200 KB or another size, choose that limit before you start. PDFCheetah keeps the best picture quality that fits, lowering it one step at a time only as far as the limit needs, and checks the real size of the finished file before it says the file fits. A PDF whose size is mostly text and fonts, or a long scan, may not get under a small limit at all; you are told so, and nothing is changed. When the pictures had to be lowered to fit, the pages on screen show the smaller copy so you can check it before you upload it. For the three limits people search for most, a page each says which documents can get there and some forms that ask for it: compress a PDF to 100KB, compress a PDF to 200KB and compress a PDF to 1MB.

Why some PDFs barely get smaller

A text-heavy PDF carrying large embedded fonts will barely change. Shrinking those means rebuilding the fonts, and PDFCheetah does not do that yet: done badly, it destroys a document’s searchable text. When the smaller copy is not actually smaller, PDFCheetah keeps your original and tells you so instead of handing you a bigger file. If you are trying to get under an email attachment limit, that limit belongs to the mail servers at both ends rather than to PDFCheetah, so find the number you have to beat and compare the estimated sizes here against it.