How to Compress Scanned PDF Documents Without Losing Text Readability

Published: 2026-03-02 | Read Time: 4 min read

How to tackle multi-megabyte scanner files by downsampling high-DPI scans, applying grayscale thresholding, and optimizing compression.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does running OCR first help compress scanned PDFs?

Yes! Running [PDF OCR](/pdf/ocr) extracts the text layer, allowing you to compress the background image more aggressively without losing text searchability.