---
title: "Compress a PDF without uploading it | Paperwing"
description: "Make PDFs smaller on Windows or Mac with Paperwing, a free desktop app. Pick a level, compress one file or a batch, and keep documents on your computer."
url: https://paperwingapp.com/tools/compress-pdf/
---

1. [Home](https://paperwingapp.com/)
2. [Tools](https://paperwingapp.com/tools/)
3. Compress PDF

Free tool · Windows and macOS

# Compress a PDF without uploading it.

Shrink a PDF to fit an email or an upload form. Choose how hard to compress, run it on one file or a whole folder, and never send your document to a website.

[Download for Windows](https://github.com/rohanvijaykumar/paperwing/releases/download/v1.2.3/Paperwing-Setup-1.2.3-x64.exe) · [Download for Mac](https://github.com/rohanvijaykumar/paperwing/releases/download/v1.2.3/Paperwing-1.2.3-mac-arm64.dmg) · [Download Paperwing](https://paperwingapp.com/download/)

v1.2.3 · Windows 10 and 11 · 188 MB v1.2.3 · Apple Silicon · 192 MB · [Intel Mac?](https://paperwingapp.com/download/#mac) Free for Windows and macOS · v1.2.3 [Other versions](https://paperwingapp.com/download/)

## How to compress a PDF with Paperwing

1. Open Paperwing and drop your PDF on the window, or press Ctrl+O (⌘O on a Mac).
2. Open **All tools** and choose **Compress PDF** , or type “compress pdf” in the search box. Shift+Ctrl+P finds any tool from anywhere.
3. Choose the algorithm (Condense is recommended) and the level (Balanced is a good start). Tick **Convert to Grayscale** if colour doesn’t matter.
4. Run it. The smaller PDF opens in a new tab, so you can compare it with the original before saving.
5. Press Ctrl+S to save it.

## What you can do

- Remove dead weight, optimize images and subset fonts
- Choose a compression level, from light to strong
- Convert to grayscale for a smaller file
- Compress many files at once from Home
- Fix pages that render slowly with **Linearize PDF** or **Rasterize PDF**

## Why do it on your computer

The files people compress are usually the ones they’re about to send somewhere official: passports, payslips, bank statements. Compressing them on your computer means they reach only the place you send them.

**Paperwing is a free, open-source desktop app** for Windows and macOS with more than 100 PDF tools. It works offline, there’s no account, and every tool is free. [Download it](https://paperwingapp.com/download/) or [browse all the tools](https://paperwingapp.com/tools/) .

## Questions

### How much smaller will my PDF get?

It depends on what’s inside. PDFs with large photos or scans shrink a lot; text-only PDFs are already small. Try Balanced first and go stronger if you need to.

### Will compression make text blurry?

Text stays sharp, since it isn’t an image. Strong levels reduce the quality of photos and scans, so check the result before you save.

## Related tools

[**Merge PDFs** Combine several PDFs into one file on Windows or Mac with Paperwing, a free desktop app.](https://paperwingapp.com/tools/merge-pdf/) · [**PDF pages** Turn PDF pages into JPG, PNG, WebP, TIFF or SVG images on Windows or Mac with Paperwing, a free desktop app.](https://paperwingapp.com/tools/pdf-to-jpg/) · [**Split a PDF** Split a PDF into parts or extract pages into a new file on Windows or Mac with Paperwing, a free desktop app.](https://paperwingapp.com/tools/split-pdf/) · [**Make a scan** Make scanned PDFs searchable and copyable with OCR on Windows or Mac in Paperwing, a free desktop app.](https://paperwingapp.com/tools/ocr-pdf/)

## Open your next PDF in Paperwing.

Free for Windows and macOS. No account, no subscription, nothing to sign up for.

[Download for Windows](https://github.com/rohanvijaykumar/paperwing/releases/download/v1.2.3/Paperwing-Setup-1.2.3-x64.exe) · [Download for Mac](https://github.com/rohanvijaykumar/paperwing/releases/download/v1.2.3/Paperwing-1.2.3-mac-arm64.dmg) · [Download Paperwing](https://paperwingapp.com/download/) · [Star on GitHub](https://github.com/rohanvijaykumar/paperwing)

v1.2.3 · Windows 10 and 11 · 188 MB v1.2.3 · Apple Silicon · 192 MB · [Intel Mac?](https://paperwingapp.com/download/#mac) Free for Windows and macOS · v1.2.3 [Other versions](https://paperwingapp.com/download/)