Compress PDF files on Mac quickly and reliably.
Mac PDF Compressor software. Makes it easy to reduce PDF size on Mac.
Instant download - no email required
Over 3 million users worldwide
14-day free trial
Trusted by 3+ million happy customers
“Love NXPowerlite - use it all the time for PDF compression. It works a treat”
— Geoff Wheatley, Theatreserve
Mac PDF compressor features
Trusted PDF Compressor Software
NXPowerLite was first released in 2001 and the software has been regularly improved ever since. It is super-reliable and backed by incredible support.
Official Adobe® PDF Technology
NXPowerLite uses the official Adobe® PDF Library, the same technology that Adobe® use to build Acrobat®. This library provides the perfect strong foundation for our Mac PDF compressor.
Offline PDF compressor
Compress PDF files on your local Mac computer, without the need for an Internet connection. It's 100% offline software. Compress files directly from Finder using the right-click menu options.
Avoid PDF Split & Merge
Avoid having to split and merge PDF files in order to send them, compress pdf files instead and keep your documents small and intact.
Compress PDF For Email
No more bounce backs with large emails. Our simple PDF compressor automatically reduces email attachments so they fit within mailbox limits.
Compress + No format change
Compressed PDF files stay in the same format with the same .pdf file extension.
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macOS 13 (Ventura)
macOS 12.0 (Monterey)
macOS 11.0 (Big Sur)
macOS 10.15 (Catalina)*
How to compress PDF files on Mac in four easy steps
Steps
Install NXPowerLite PDF compressor software for Mac.
Drag your PDF file onto the NXPowerLite icon.
Hit the 'Optimize' button to reduce file size.
NXPowerLite will compress and deliver you a smaller file.
How does the Mac PDF compressor reduce the size of PDF files?
PDF files are most often scanned physical documents or documents that have been created entirely digitally often referred to as 'native' or 'born digital' PDFs. NXPowerLite is able to reduce the size of both types of PDF by resizing images, adjusting image formats and quality levels while removing background or hidden data that isn't needed for normal use of the file.
Scanned PDF files
Scanners often capture document pages as high resolution images without compression. So even documents that appear to be just text can often be entirely images. By reducing the resolution of these images and choosing an efficient image encoding these files can be dramatically reduced.
Native PDF files
PDF files generated from an electronic source - such as a Word document, a computer generated report, or spreadsheet data - will usually be formed of a combination of text and images. For this type of file NXPowerLite ignores the text and focuses on resizing and choosing the best format for the embedded images.
How it works
Resize images
Images are often inserted into PDF files at much larger sizes than necessary. For example, a photograph taken by a digital camera might contain five million or more pixels, but most of this detail will not be visible unless 'zoom' controls are used. NXPowerLite can scale these images down to target a particular resolution for display or print.
Convert images to more efficient formats
PDF files allow a wide range of inefficient image formats to be stored inside them natively. NXPowerLite converts bi-level (black and white) images to lossless JBIG2 encoding, which typically generates files one third to one fifth the size of CCITT Group 4 encoding. NXPowerLite also converts many other image types to JPEG where appropriate.
Adjust the JPEG quality of images
NXPowerLite can also apply additional compression to images that are already in the JPEG format. This can squeeze out impressive additional savings without noticeable loss of quality, even at 100% zoom.
Remove private application data
Applications that create PDF files, such as Adobe Photoshop or Acrobat, can store information within a PDF for use when editing the file. This information can only be used by the application which created the file and is not needed to display the PDF. For most cases we recommend deleting this data, as it will have no effect on the use of the PDF file.