# How to Compress a PDF and Reduce Its File Size on Windows 11 URL: https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-compress-pdf-reduce-file-size-windows-11/ Published: 2026-11-08 | Author: Ankit Kumar Tags: Windows 11, PDF, Documents, Files Summary: PDF too large to email or upload? Find what makes it big, re-export from Word at minimum size, fix oversized scans, and compress a finished PDF offline. Recommended app: Quick File Converter, https://www.mytechnician.tech/apps/file-converter/ (Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9MTH938Z7S55?hl=en-us&cid=mytechnician-web). Optional; every step below uses built-in Windows tools. ## The Problem An upload portal says "maximum 5 MB" and your PDF is 38 MB. Or an email bounces because the attachment is too large. Many email services limit attachments to about 20 to 25 MB in total, and job, visa, and benefits portals are often far stricter. Text barely takes any room in a PDF. A 100-page report of plain text can be under 1 MB. Size comes from **images**: photos, logos, and, most of all, scanned pages, where every page is a full-resolution picture. ## Quick Checks First 1. **Check the size.** Right-click the PDF → **Properties**. Note the size so you can tell whether each step helped. 2. **Is it a scan?** Open it in Edge and try to select a sentence. If you can't, every page is an image, and Step 3 or Step 4 is where the saving is. 3. **Do you need every page?** Cutting pages is the fastest saving of all: see [split a PDF or extract pages](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-split-pdf-extract-pages-windows-11/). ## Step 1: Re-export from the Original Document If the PDF came from a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file you still have, export it again with a smaller setting: 1. Open the original file. 2. Choose **File** → **Save As** and pick **PDF** as the file type. 3. Under **Optimize for**, choose **Minimum size (publishing online)**. 4. Save under a new name and compare the size. If it is still big, reduce the pictures before exporting: select an image, choose **Picture Format** → **Compress Pictures**, clear **Apply only to this picture**, and pick a lower resolution such as **Web (150 ppi)**. ## Step 2: Remove What Nobody Will See * **Huge photos in a document:** a phone photo can be 4000 pixels wide even when it is printed 5 cm across. Compressing pictures (Step 1) fixes that. * **Unused pages:** blank pages at the end of scans and duplicated cover sheets all add size. * **Embedded attachments:** some PDFs carry other files inside them. A PDF tool can list and remove these. ## Step 3: Rescan at Sensible Settings For paper documents, the scanner settings decide the file size: * **Resolution:** 200 to 300 dpi is plenty for reading and for OCR. 600 dpi makes files roughly four times larger than 300 dpi for no visible benefit on screen. * **Color mode:** use **Grayscale** or **Black and white** for text. Color multiplies the size. * **Format:** save straight to PDF from the scanner app rather than scanning to separate high-quality images and joining them later. ## Step 4: Compress a Finished PDF When you only have the PDF, a compressor has to resample the images inside it. 1. **Start gentle.** A light setting often halves a file with no visible change. 2. **Check readability.** Zoom to 100% on small print, signatures, and stamps. If they blur, go back one level. 3. **Avoid Print to PDF as a "compressor".** Printing a PDF to a new PDF often makes the file larger and removes links and form fields. 4. **Avoid upload sites for personal files.** Compression websites receive the whole document. > **Need to hit a size limit exactly?** [Quick File Converter](https://www.mytechnician.tech/apps/file-converter/) compresses PDFs on the PC at four strengths, from light to extreme. You can also give it a target size, and it uses the gentlest setting that fits, so the result stays as sharp as the limit allows. It never returns a file bigger than the original. ## Step 5: Send It Another Way If the file must stay large (architectural drawings, print-ready brochures): * Share it from **OneDrive** with a link instead of attaching it. * Split it into parts the portal will accept. * Ask whether the recipient accepts a ZIP file. ZIP saves little on PDFs, but it lets you send several files as one. ## FAQ ### Why is my PDF so large? Almost always because of images: scanned pages, photos, or high-resolution graphics. Text and fonts are small by comparison. ### How do I reduce PDF size without losing quality? Remove what is not needed first (extra pages, attachments, hidden data), then compress images lightly. Re-exporting from the original document at Minimum size gives the cleanest result. ### Can Windows 11 compress a PDF without extra software? Not a finished PDF. Windows has no PDF compressor. If you have the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint original, Office can export a smaller PDF. ### What is a good size for emailing a PDF? Under 10 MB is safe for almost any recipient. Check the limit of the portal or mail service if you are close. Related: [merge PDF files](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-merge-pdf-files-windows-11/) and [free up disk space on a full C: drive](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/free-up-disk-space-c-drive-full-windows-11/). --- Source: https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-compress-pdf-reduce-file-size-windows-11/ (My Technician, free Windows 10/11 troubleshooting guides). Related tool: Quick File Converter (Quick File Converter is an offline file converter for Windows. Convert PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and images on your PC, no uploads to the cloud.): https://www.mytechnician.tech/apps/file-converter/ More guides: https://www.mytechnician.tech/llms.txt