Folio

Compress a PDF in your browser

Rewrite a PDF locally to trim structure and metadata. No upload. Scans of paper may not shrink.

Compress a PDF here when a mailbox, a government upload, or a chat app rejects the file for size — and the PDF is a digital export, not a fat photograph of paper. Rewriting happens in the tab. Nothing is sent to a compression farm.

Three presets. High copies pages and leaves title, author and keywords. Balanced and Maximum strip those fields and save with object streams, which often trims sloppy exports. Compare the sizes before you download. If the new file is barely smaller, keep the original; Folio will not invent savings by blurring scans.

Everything runs in your browser. Your PDFs are not uploaded to a server, there is no account wall, and downloads have no watermark.

Quality

How it works

  1. 1

    Drop one or more PDFs. Each file is checked in this tab. Passwords are refused.

  2. 2

    Pick High to keep metadata, Balanced as the default, or Maximum to drop title and author.

  3. 3

    Tap Compress. Pages are copied in memory. Image scans are not downsampled.

  4. 4

    Compare original vs new size. Download only if the saving is worth the rewrite.

What compression can and cannot change

A PDF is a container: pages, fonts, images, leftover objects, metadata. Folio copies the pages into a new file. That can drop unused objects and pack streams. It does not downsample images, it does not run a JPEG encoder on photos of paper, and it does not OCR. A 300 dpi colour scan stays heavy because the weight is the pictures, not the wrapper.

Text that was already text stays selectable. Fillable fields often do not survive, because we do not rebuild the form catalog. If you still need to type into the PDF, do not compress it here. Password-protected files are refused; remove the password in the original app first.

Choosing High, Balanced or Maximum

High is the conservative rewrite: keep metadata, skip object streams. Use it when a picky portal hashes files or when you want the smallest behaviour change. Balanced is the default for invoices, letters and slide decks. Maximum is the same rewrite as Balanced for page content, with metadata cleared — pick it when title/author do not matter and you want the tightest save Folio offers.

You can drop several PDFs and get a ZIP of compressed copies. Each file still has to pass the size guard on its own. If a phone tab dies, do one file on a laptop instead of five on the phone.

Gmail and Outlook caps. If before and after look alike, the file is probably a scan — why scans stay heavy. Chat sends fail earlier: WhatsApp. Compress does not merge files; that is the homepage.

Full guide: compress without uploadingWhen Gmail refuses a brochure

Frequently asked questions

Do my PDF files leave this device?+

No. Folio merge, split and compress run in this browser tab with JavaScript. The PDF bytes are read into memory on your phone or computer, rewritten there, and offered back as a download from that same tab. We do not provide an upload API for documents, we do not store PDFs on a server, and closing the tab discards the bytes. That is the difference from typical online PDF sites, which send the file to a machine you do not control.

Is Folio free? Is there a watermark or a daily cap?+

The three tools are free. Downloads are not stamped with a Folio logo, a URL or a ‘trial’ banner. We do not reset a counter at midnight. The practical limits are your device memory and the per-file size guard (currently 80 MB), not a paywall. The site is supported by advertisement placeholders that sit after a finished action and in the footer — never over the Merge, Split or Compress button.

What do High, Balanced and Maximum actually change?+

All three copy the pages into a new PDF. High keeps document title, author and keywords and does not pack objects into compressed streams. Balanced and Maximum clear those metadata fields, set producer to Folio, and save with object streams, which often trims files that were exported carelessly. None of the three recompresses photos inside a scan. Pick High when you want the smallest behaviour change; pick Balanced as the default; pick Maximum only if you do not care about title/author fields.

Do interactive forms still work after compress or merge?+

Not reliably. Folio copies page content into a new PDF. Fillable fields, checkboxes, dropdowns and JavaScript actions often belong to a form catalog that is not rebuilt. A form that you still need to type into should not be compressed or merged here — keep the original. A form that is already filled and flattened as marks on the page will usually still look filled, because those marks are page content, but it may no longer be editable.

Why does a scanned PDF barely get smaller?+

Most of a scan’s weight is the photograph of the paper, stored as images inside the PDF. Folio’s compressor rewrites the document structure: it can drop leftover metadata and pack objects more tightly. It does not downsample those photos, it does not run JPEG again, and it does not OCR the page into text. If the file is a 300 dpi colour scan, expect little or no saving. Born-digital PDFs (exports from Word, invoices, slides) shrink more often because they carry fonts, unused objects and fat metadata rather than photos of paper.

Does the text stay selectable after compress?+

Yes for text that was already real text, not a picture of text. Folio does not rasterize pages into a single image, so copy-paste and find-in-document still work on digital PDFs. A scan remains a scan: you cannot select words that were never encoded as text. If you need searchable scans, run OCR in a dedicated tool first, then use Folio only to merge or split the result.

How large can a PDF be, and can I process a batch?+

Each file is rejected above 80 MB before we try to parse it, because a larger PDF will often crash a tab. Merge accepts two or more PDFs in one go. Compress accepts one or more and zips the results if you add several. Split works on one PDF at a time so page numbers stay unambiguous. A ‘batch’ that is really twenty 40 MB scans will still be limited by RAM; if the tab struggles, do fewer files per pass.

When do ads appear, and do you ask me to click them?+

Ad slots are reserved after a successful download and in the footer, plus a mid-page slot below the how-it-works block. Until Google marks the site Ready they are placeholders, not live ads. We do not pay you to click, we do not instruct you to click, and we do not place ads over Merge / Split / Compress. Please do not click ads as a favour — that violates Google policy and can close the account.

Who runs Folio and how do I contact you?+

Folio is a local-first PDF utility maintained as a public tool, not a venture product with a sales team. For a bug, a broken PDF that should have worked, or a privacy question, email ultaultimatum@gmail.com. Include the page URL, the browser, and what you expected. Do not attach the PDF unless we ask — the whole point of this site is that documents stay with you. We do not offer phone support.

Gmail said my PDF is too large. What should I click?+

If you can select text in the PDF, open Compress and try Balanced, then Maximum. If you cannot select text, it is probably a scan — Compress will barely help. Split out the pages the recipient needs, or recapture the paper at a smaller size. Folio does not email the file and does not give you a Drive link. Details: the email size guide.

Will Folio shrink a scanned ID or a stack of photographed pages?+

Almost never in a way that matters. Those files are heavy because of the pictures inside, not because of PDF metadata. Folio does not downsample images and does not OCR. Split if you only need some pages. See the scans guide. Do not upload an ID to a random compressor.

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