Tool 6.1

Compress PDF: make it small enough to upload

Make a heavy PDF lighter so a job, university or bank portal accepts it. Our server resamples its images to 72, 150 or 300 dpi. Up to 50 MB.

Uses our serverWhen you press the button, the PDF goes over HTTPS to our server (api.ethorns.com), passing through Cloudflare, our network provider. It's compressed in memory inside a sealed container with no internet access and deleted as soon as the result is sent back; we keep no copy, and the file name is never sent.

How to use it

Drop the PDF, or click to choose it. Nothing is uploaded yet.
Choose how small: Smallest file (72 dpi), Balanced (150 dpi, the default) or High quality (300 dpi).
Press Compress PDF. The file goes to our server, and the lighter copy downloads by itself, with the size before and after.

When a portal says your PDF is too large

Job sites, university admissions, government procedures and bank forms often refuse a PDF over a certain size. The usual reason is a scan: a scanner or a phone app saves every page as a large photo.

Compressing rewrites the PDF with lighter images. Ghostscript, the program that does it on our server, resamples each image to the level you choose: 72, 150 or 300 dpi (dots per inch: how much detail an image keeps). Real text and vector drawings, like logos and charts made of lines, aren't pictures, so they stay sharp.

Example: a 14 MB scan for a 5 MB limit

You scanned your diploma and grade certificates at a copy shop: certificados.pdf, 8 pages, 14.2 MB. The university's admissions form only accepts files up to 5 MB.

Drop the file, leave Balanced selected and press Compress PDF. A few seconds later certificados-compressed.pdf downloads, and the status line reads ✓ Downloaded certificados-compressed.pdf (14.2 MB → 2.1 MB, −85%). That name is set by your browser; the server never sees it.

Before uploading it, open the copy and zoom in on the smallest print. If it reads well, you're done. If the portal still refused it, Smallest file would cut more, but it looks soft when printed.

Why some PDFs barely shrink, and what compressing breaks

A PDF exported from Word or Excel is mostly text and usually light already, so there's little to gain: if the copy isn't at least 3% smaller, the tool tells you so instead of downloading it. If the file is heavy because of pages nobody asked for, Split PDF removes them on your device, without uploading anything.

Rewriting a PDF breaks any digital signature inside it, so compress first and sign afterwards, or send the signed original as it is. A file that asks for a password to open can't be compressed: open it, save a copy without the password and try again.

FAQ

Is my PDF uploaded to a server?

Yes. It's one of the few eThorns tools that use our server; Merge, Split and Sign PDF, JPG to PDF and PDF to JPG run on your device. The PDF is compressed in memory in a sealed container with no internet access, deleted as soon as the smaller copy is sent back. The service's log records only which operation ran, whether it worked and how long it took.

Does compressing make scanned text blurry?

It can, because in a scan the words are part of the picture. At Balanced they usually stay easy to read; at Smallest file, small print may blur.

Is there a size limit?

50 MB per file, and a few conversions per minute per person. Our server does one or two conversions at a time, so at busy moments it may ask you to try again in a minute.

Can I compress several PDFs at once?

One at a time. If the portal wants a single file, join them first with Merge PDF, which runs on your device, and then compress the result.

Which level should I choose?

Balanced (150 dpi) for almost anything you send online. Smallest file (72 dpi) when the limit is very tight and the document will only be read on a screen. High quality (300 dpi) when it will be printed.

6.2Word, Excel, PowerPoint to PDFTurn a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file into a PDF without installing anything: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .doc, .xls, .ppt, .odt or .rtf.
6.3PDF to WordTurn a PDF into a Word document you can edit: paragraphs, tables and images come back as a .docx.
6.4Scanned PDF to text (OCR)Make a scanned PDF searchable, or get its text as a .txt file.
6.5PDF to SVGTurn each page of a PDF into an SVG for Illustrator, Inkscape, Figma or a browser, sharp at any size.
6.6Remove PDF passwordGet a copy of a protected PDF that opens without a password, or without print and copy limits, using the password you know.
6.7Merge PDFCombine several PDFs into one in your browser.
6.8Split PDFExtract pages from a PDF, split it into one file per page, or remove the pages you don't need.
6.9Rotate PDFTurn every page of a PDF, or only the ones you choose, 90° either way or 180°, and save the file that way.
6.10Delete PDF PagesType the pages to delete, like 2, 4-6, and download a copy of the PDF without them, the rest in their original order.
6.11PDF Page NumbersStamp page numbers on a PDF as 1, 1 / 12 or Page 1 of 12, in one of six positions, from any start number, skipping the cover if you want.
6.12Watermark PDFStamp a word like DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL across the pages of a PDF, diagonal or horizontal, with the opacity and size you choose.
6.13JPG to PDFTurn JPG, PNG and WebP images into one PDF in your browser.
6.14PDF to JPGConvert each page of a PDF into a JPG or PNG image in your browser.
6.15PDF to PNGConvert PDF pages to PNG images in your browser: lossless, with crisp text and lines.
6.16Sign PDFDraw your signature or upload a photo of it, place it on any page of a PDF and download the signed file.

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