# Is there a way to compress a pdf? **URL:** \ **Category:** Organize & Compress\ **Tags:** audit\ **Created:** [October 29, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://altosignpdf.com/community/t/is-there-a-way-to-compress-a-pdf/59 "2026-10-29T22:29:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![user\_x](https://altosignpdf.com/community/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/67e7ee/32.png) [@user\_x](https://altosignpdf.com/community/u/user_x)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://altosignpdf.com/community/t/is-there-a-way-to-compress-a-pdf/59/1 "2026-10-29T22:29:57Z")
My PDF is too big to upload because of the size limit on the portal, and nothing I’ve tried has made it smaller yet. Is there a way to compress it? ---
**Author:** ![someone73063](https://altosignpdf.com/community/user_avatar/altosignpdf.com/someone73063/32/21_2.png) [@someone73063](https://altosignpdf.com/community/u/someone73063)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2026, 10:30pm UTC](https://altosignpdf.com/community/t/is-there-a-way-to-compress-a-pdf/59/2 "2026-10-29T22:30:00Z")
That is annoying, especially when a portal has a tight limit. Try a PDF compressor and choose medium compression first, then check that the text and images still look alright before uploading. If it is mostly scanned pages, reducing image resolution to about 150 dpi usually makes the biggest difference. ---
**Author:** ![noobPhantom07](https://altosignpdf.com/community/user_avatar/altosignpdf.com/noobphantom07/32/22_2.png) [@noobPhantom07](https://altosignpdf.com/community/u/noobPhantom07)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2026, 4:53am UTC](https://altosignpdf.com/community/t/is-there-a-way-to-compress-a-pdf/59/3 "2026-10-31T04:53:50Z")
Had the same thing last month with a signed report full of photos. I used Adobe Acrobat’s reduce file size tool and it cut it down enough for our portal without wrecking the drawings. If you don’t have that, try printing to a new PDF and pick a lower quality setting in the print dialog. ---
**Author:** ![nicholasb23](https://altosignpdf.com/community/user_avatar/altosignpdf.com/nicholasb23/32/31_2.png) [@nicholasb23](https://altosignpdf.com/community/u/nicholasb23)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 10:23am UTC](https://altosignpdf.com/community/t/is-there-a-way-to-compress-a-pdf/59/4 "2026-11-01T10:23:15Z")
What worked for me was opening it in Preview on my Mac and exporting a lower quality copy. If it’s a scan, rescanning at 150 dpi instead of 300 made a big difference. If that’s not an option, tell me whether it’s scanned or typed text and I’ll suggest another route. ---
**Author:** ![henry2010](https://altosignpdf.com/community/user_avatar/altosignpdf.com/henry2010/32/24_2.png) [@henry2010](https://altosignpdf.com/community/u/henry2010)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2026, 5:23pm UTC](https://altosignpdf.com/community/t/is-there-a-way-to-compress-a-pdf/59/5 "2026-11-02T17:23:23Z")
I run into this all the time with blueprints and long site contracts. You can easily shrink it down using [pdfcap.com](http://pdfcap.com). Just upload your file there and hit the compress tool, which usually halves the file size without messing up the text. What sort of device are you trying to do this on? ---
**Author:** ![jennifer.08](https://altosignpdf.com/community/user_avatar/altosignpdf.com/jennifer.08/32/32_2.png) [@jennifer.08](https://altosignpdf.com/community/u/jennifer.08)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2026, 11:38pm UTC](https://altosignpdf.com/community/t/is-there-a-way-to-compress-a-pdf/59/6 "2026-11-03T23:38:42Z")
@nicholasb23 Same here, the Preview export trick saved me with a stack of scanned tax forms at the library. One tip: after compressing, zoom in on a signature or small print to make sure it’s still readable. One thing to avoid is running the compressor on the same file twice, it gets blurry real fast. Learned that the hard way with a patron’s lease. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_pal](https://altosignpdf.com/community/user_avatar/altosignpdf.com/shy_pal/32/33_2.png) [@shy\_pal](https://altosignpdf.com/community/u/shy_pal)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2026, 5:08am UTC](https://altosignpdf.com/community/t/is-there-a-way-to-compress-a-pdf/59/7 "2026-11-05T05:08:20Z")
first thing i’d check is the source file. if it came from a word doc or google doc with big photos in it, those images are probably what’s bloating the pdf. shrink the images in the original doc, then re-export to pdf and it’ll usually be way smaller. ---
**Author:** ![hunter99](https://altosignpdf.com/community/user_avatar/altosignpdf.com/hunter99/32/34_2.png) [@hunter99](https://altosignpdf.com/community/u/hunter99)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2026, 5:23pm UTC](https://altosignpdf.com/community/t/is-there-a-way-to-compress-a-pdf/59/8 "2026-11-06T17:23:13Z")
Yeah, keep a backup first then try compressing. AltoSignPDF has a compress tool, usually knocks size down a lot if it’s got images or scans in it.