Compression in TotPDF has three levels. Balanced and Strong keep text, links and bookmarks: they only slim down photos and scans. Maximum turns every page into an image and shrinks the most, but the text is no longer selectable.
Why a PDF is so heavy
It's almost always the images. A phone photo or a page scanned at 300 dpi can take more space than all the text in the document. So Balanced and Strong lower the resolution of images (to 150 or 96 dpi) and save them again as JPEG. Text, fonts and vector drawings aren't touched.
Which level to choose
Start with Balanced: it's sharp enough to read and print. If the portal still says the file is too big, try Strong. For a long scan where you don't need to copy text, Maximum is usually the smallest. A text-only PDF will barely change at any level, because there are no images to shrink.
How to try it without losing the original
- Open Compress PDF and choose a copy of the document.
- Choose a level. The note underneath tells you what's kept.
- Click Compress PDF and check the size before and after.
- Open the result and zoom in on small print, tables and stamps.
What you lose
With Balanced and Strong, only detail in the images. With Maximum, also selectable text, forms, links and bookmarks. Every level invalidates digital signatures, because the file changes. If the result isn't smaller, TotPDF gives you back the original, untouched.
Maybe you only need fewer pages
If the document has pages you don't need to send, remove them first with Organize pages or Extract pages. A page you drop always weighs less than a page you compress.
Files stay on your device
TotPDF processes documents in your browser without uploading them to any server. Device memory still sets limits: Maximum supports up to 500 pages, and very large files work better on a computer. Always keep the original.
Tools
Extract PDF pages · Split PDF · Compress PDF · PDF to images