Compress PDF is worth opening when a scan or a photo export is too heavy to email. It is the wrong tool when the file is already a small text document. The compressor redraws each page as a JPEG and builds a new PDF from those images.

What we measured

A 1,146-byte text PDF came back at 7,854 bytes. The page shows both sizes so you can see the trade. A phone scan of a signed form usually goes the other way, because the original pixels were far larger than the JPEG the tool writes.

Use it when

  • The PDF is a scan, a photo, or an export from a camera app.
  • You need a smaller attachment and you do not need to select the text later.
  • You can check the before-and-after sizes on the page and keep the original if the new file is bigger.

If you need the words in Word instead, use PDF to Word. If you only need one page as a picture, use PDF to JPG. The roundup is on the tool map.