Compress a PDF

What compression changes

Compress, found in Pages mode, looks at the images embedded in your document and re-encodes the oversized ones — usually the biggest contributor to a PDF's size — at a lower quality and resolution, the same trade professional photo tools make when you export a smaller file. Choose how aggressively to compress from three tiers: Smaller file (most aggressive size reduction; images may look softer), Balanced (a good default for on-screen and print use), or Higher quality (keeps more detail, at a smaller size saving).

What it preserves

Text, vector drawings, and form fields are never touched — only image data changes, so a compressed document stays exactly as searchable, selectable, and editable as it was before. Compress also knows its limits: images already stored in a format it can't safely re-encode, or that carry transparency, are left alone rather than risk visible artifacts.