What actually happens is image work. Embedded photos and scans are resampled towards the level’s resolution target, re-encoded with the browser’s JPEG encoder, and kept only if the new version is genuinely smaller; identical streams shared between pages are stored once. Text is never turned into pixels, so it stays sharp and selectable. If even the Email & web candidate lands above 100 KB, the honest fixes are structural: extract only the page the portal needs, or split the file and send the parts separately. Everything runs in your browser and the original file is left untouched.
How it works
- Drop the PDF and open Compress — three real candidates are computed on your device
- Read the byte size on each card; Email & web is the smallest
- Download the one under 100 KB, or extract just the pages you need if none fits
Questions people ask
Which PDFs can realistically reach 100 KB?
Short text documents — a letter, a form, a CV — are usually there already or get there with lossless cleanup. Single-page scans and small photos get there at the Email & web level, which resamples images to 96 DPI. Multi-page scans and image-heavy brochures normally cannot; Bindery shows you the real number rather than pretending.
Will the text or my signature become blurry?
Text stays text: it is never rasterized, so it prints and zooms as sharply as before. Images are resampled, and at 96 DPI a scanned signature is still legible on screen but visibly softer in print. Check the result at 200% zoom before you rely on it, and keep the original.
What if nothing lands under 100 KB?
Reduce what the file contains instead. Use Extract pages to pull out only the page the form asks for, or Split under a size to break the document into parts that each fit. Both run locally, and your original is never modified.