Free tool · No signup required

Compress a scanned PDF

Shrink camera and flatbed scans that balloon into huge PDFs.

Compress PDF

Drop your PDF here
or click to browse · PDF file

Target size

Pages are re-rendered and recompressed toward this size — best for scans and photo-heavy PDFs. Text stops being selectable in the result.

Wand picks

Favorite charms

Jump straight into a ready-made PDF spell.

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About this tool

Compress a scanned PDF

Scanned PDFs are mostly images, so they compress well. Imgician re-renders each page and rebuilds a smaller file toward your target size — the same approach that works poorly on tiny text-only PDFs but shines on phone scans and multipage document photos.

  • Built for image-heavy scans, not tiny text PDFs.
  • Set any target size your portal requires.
  • On-device processing keeps IDs and statements private.
  • Free, no watermark, no signup.

How it works

  1. Drop in your scanned PDF.
  2. Enter a target size (try 500KB–2MB for many forms).
  3. Press “Cast the Spell”.
  4. Download the compressed scan.

FAQs

PDF questions, answered

Straight answers about merging, splitting, and keeping your documents private.

Will decreasing PDF size make text unselectable?

Yes for this compressor: pages are rasterized so the file can shrink reliably. It’s best for scans and photo PDFs; keep a copy of the original if you still need selectable text.

How do I compress a PDF to a size you choose?

Open Compress PDF, drop your file, enter a target size in KB, then cast the spell. Imgician re-renders each page and rebuilds a smaller PDF aimed at that size.

Does compressing a PDF reduce text quality?

Yes — this compressor rasterizes each page to an image to guarantee a smaller file on any PDF, so text is no longer selectable in the result. It’s best for scans and photo-heavy PDFs. Short, text-only PDFs are often already small enough to skip compressing.

Will the compressed PDF ever be larger than the original?

No. If a PDF is already under your target size, Imgician keeps the original file rather than re-rendering it unnecessarily.

Is PDF compression private?

Yes. Every page is rendered and recompressed in your browser — your PDF is never uploaded to Imgician’s servers.

Are my PDFs uploaded to a server?

No. Merge, split, and page extraction all run in your browser using pdf-lib — your documents are never uploaded to Imgician’s servers and we don’t store the files you process.

Is Imgician’s PDF toolkit free?

Yes. Merge PDF and Split PDF are free, with no signup, no watermark, and no page limit imposed by a server.

Can I also turn images into a PDF?

Yes — that lives with the image tools: use the image to PDF converter to turn one or more photos into a PDF, optionally compressed to a target KB.

Does merging or splitting reduce PDF quality?

No. Pages are copied as-is from the source PDF into the new file — nothing is re-rendered or re-compressed, so text and images keep their original quality.

Will this work with password-protected PDFs?

Encrypted or password-protected PDFs may fail to open. Remove the password in the app that created it first, then merge or split the unprotected file here.