PDF workflow guide
Reduce PDF size without surprises
PDF compression methods make different trade-offs. KeepFile's compressor redraws pages as images, which can reduce image-heavy files but changes how text behaves.
What this compressor changes
Compress PDF renders each page and builds a new PDF from the rendered images. This can help with scans, slides, or pages dominated by photographs. The output pages may look similar, but their text is no longer a selectable text layer. Search, copy-and-paste, screen-reader access, and small text clarity can be affected.
When to use it
- Try it when a scanned or image-heavy PDF is too large to email or upload elsewhere.
- Avoid it when preserving searchable text, accessibility structure, signatures, forms, or vector diagrams is important.
- If the original is already compressed, the new file may be no smaller. Compare the reported file sizes before deciding.
Choose a setting and review
Higher quality generally preserves more visual detail and produces larger files; lower quality can save more space while making text and edges look rough. Start with a higher setting for documents with small print. Open the exported file at normal reading size and zoom in on dense text, diagrams, and fine lines. Check several pages, not just the cover.
Alternatives
If you need editable or searchable text, use the original authoring application to export with its “reduced size” or “optimized PDF” option, or use a PDF optimizer that preserves the text layer. For a scanned file that needs searchable text, OCR is a separate step; KeepFile's PDF to Text tool extracts existing selectable text and does not perform OCR.