PDF Compressor

Scanned documents are the reality of Nepali professional life. Government forms, citizenship certificates, property documents, and contracts are physical papers that get scanned. These scans often produce files in the 5–20 MB range — too large for email attachments and government portal uploads that have 2 MB limits.

Why scanned PDFs are large

A 4-page scan at 300 DPI produces approximately 10–20 MB as a raw TIFF. When saved as PDF, each page is stored as an embedded image. The PDF wrapper adds minimal overhead — the bulk is the image data. Compressing the PDF means compressing those embedded images.

Compression levels

- **Low (Screen quality)**: Downsamples to 72 DPI, suitable for viewing on screen. Not suitable for printing. Maximum compression. - **Medium (Web quality)**: Downsamples to 150 DPI. Good for web and email. Readable when printed at A4. - **High (Print quality)**: Downsamples to 300 DPI. Full print quality. Moderate compression.

Text-based PDFs

If your PDF was created digitally (not scanned), text and vector graphics don't compress the same way as images. The tool still removes redundant streams and optimizes the file structure, achieving 10–30% reduction.

Upload limits on Nepali government portals

Many Nepal government portals (IRD, immigration, land revenue, SEBON) have file size limits of 1–5 MB. The medium compression setting is usually sufficient to bring scanned documents under these limits while maintaining legibility.