Optimize PDF — Compress, OCR & Repair
Shrink, unlock and rescue your PDFs — compress heavy files, make scans searchable, and repair documents that won't open. Free, no sign-up, no watermark.
Almost every Indian portal you deal with sets a file-size limit, and almost every PDF you're handed breaks one of them. The exam form wants your marksheet under 200 KB. The bank upload rejects anything over 2 MB. The passport site quietly fails when your scan is too big, and the college admission page just spins forever. This hub is for those exact moments — when a PDF is too heavy, unsearchable, or simply broken, and you need it fixed in the next two minutes without installing software or paying for a subscription.
There are three jobs that come up again and again, and each has its own tool here.
Use Compress PDF when the file is fine but too large. This is the workhorse for online forms. SSC, UPSC, IBPS, state PSC, NEET and university admission portals all cap uploads — often at 100 KB, 200 KB or 500 KB for a photo or signature, and 1–2 MB for documents. A phone-scanned marksheet or an Aadhaar/PAN copy can easily be 4–8 MB, which the portal flatly refuses. Compress PDF brings it down to the size the form demands while keeping the text readable. It's also what you want before emailing a fat bank statement, sharing a GST invoice bundle over WhatsApp, or uploading property papers to a government site that times out on large files.
Use OCR PDF when the PDF is a scan and you can't select or search the text. Most documents in India start life on a scanner or a phone camera — a scanned degree certificate, an old rent agreement, a printed bank statement, a government circular saved as an image. To the computer these are just pictures, so Ctrl+F finds nothing and you can't copy a single line. OCR PDF (optical character recognition) reads the image and adds a hidden, searchable text layer underneath. After that you can search inside a 40-page scanned statement for one transaction, copy an address off a scanned form, or make a stack of old documents actually findable. It's the difference between a photo of a page and a document you can use.
Use Repair PDF when the file won't open at all. You've seen the errors — "file is damaged and could not be repaired," a blank grey screen, or a download that stops halfway. This happens when an upload is interrupted on patchy mobile data, when a file is emailed and truncated, or when a portal generates a slightly malformed PDF (government and bank downloads are frequent offenders). Repair PDF rebuilds the internal structure so the document opens and prints again, recovering as much of the content as possible. Before you assume a downloaded challan, admit card or statement is lost, run it through here.
A common real-world flow chains all three. Say you photograph a set of documents for a job application: the scans open fine but they're huge and you can't search them. Run OCR PDF first to make them searchable, then Compress PDF to hit the portal's size cap — and if one of the phone-transfer files arrived corrupted, Repair PDF gets it back before you start. For a small business filing GST, you might repair a glitchy invoice export, OCR your scanned purchase bills so they're searchable at audit time, and compress the monthly bundle so it emails cleanly.
A few honest expectations. Compression trades some quality for size; text stays crisp, but pushing a colour-heavy scan to an extreme target will soften images — aim for the smallest size that still looks clean rather than the smallest possible. OCR accuracy depends on the scan: a straight, well-lit page in clear English reads far better than a blurry, tilted photo, and handwriting won't be recognised. Repair can rebuild a document's structure but cannot invent data that was never downloaded — a file that arrived only 10% complete can only be partly recovered.
Every tool in this hub is free, needs no account, and adds no watermark to your file. Your PDF is processed for the single task you asked for and not kept or shared, which matters when you're handling an Aadhaar card, PAN, salary slip or bank statement. Pick the tool that matches your problem — too big, not searchable, or won't open — and you'll usually be done before the portal's session times out.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I compress a PDF to under 100 KB or 200 KB for an exam form?
Open Compress PDF, upload your file, and choose a stronger compression level to reach a small target like 100 KB or 200 KB. It works best on documents that are mostly text — a marksheet or certificate. If the scan is very high-resolution, scanning at a lower DPI or in greyscale before compressing helps you hit tight caps like SSC, UPSC and IBPS forms without the text going blurry.
Will compressing a PDF ruin the quality or make it unreadable?
No — text and vector content stay sharp because compression mainly reduces the size of embedded images. You only notice softening if you push a photo-heavy or colour scan to an extreme target. The practical approach is to aim for the smallest size that still looks clean, not the absolute smallest possible. For a normal scanned document, the readable text is preserved.
What is OCR and do I need it for my scanned document?
OCR (optical character recognition) turns a scanned image of text into actual searchable, selectable text. You need it if you open your PDF and can't select any words or Ctrl+F finds nothing — that means it's just a picture. OCR PDF adds a hidden text layer so you can search a long scanned statement, copy an address off a form, or make old documents findable. If your PDF already lets you select text, you don't need OCR.
Is it safe to compress or OCR documents like Aadhaar, PAN or bank statements online?
On pdfswing your file is processed only for the task you requested and is not kept or shared, and there's no account or sign-up that ties the document to you. That said, for highly sensitive IDs, only ever use a tool you trust, avoid public or shared computers, and delete the downloaded copy from Downloads afterwards. These are sensible habits for any online document tool, not just ours.
My downloaded PDF won't open or says it's damaged — can it be fixed?
Often, yes. Files get corrupted when an upload or download is interrupted on mobile data, when an email truncates an attachment, or when a portal generates a malformed file. Repair PDF rebuilds the internal structure so the document opens and prints again. It can't recover data that was never downloaded — a file that only partly transferred can only be partly restored — but it's worth trying before you assume an admit card, challan or statement is lost.