fits

Compress scanned PDF

Scans are the heaviest PDFs there are. fits shrinks them to portal-ready sizes — text stays readable, the file stays on your device.

0 B of your file sent·0 B (page + engine)
Drop your PDF here
or click to browse · paste a copied PDF· up to 500 MB

Why scans are huge — and how fits shrinks them

A scanned PDF stores every page as a photograph, usually captured at 300 or 600 DPI. A ten-page contract that would be 200 KB as a normal text PDF easily reaches 20–50 MB as a scan — which is exactly what visa portals, government forms, and email attachments reject. The fix is not to zip the file (PDFs barely zip) but to re-encode the page images at a resolution that still reads cleanly on screen and in print.

fits detects scanned documents and offers modes built specifically for them. For black-and-white paperwork, Sharp & small re-encodes pages as crisp 1-bit images — the same trick fax machines and office copiers use — which keeps letterforms sharp at a fraction of the size. For signed or stamped contracts, Crisp & colour keeps colour exactly where the stamp and signature sit and renders everything else as clean black-and-white text. And the regular size chips work on scans too: pick the portal ceiling and fits downsamples to fit it.

All of this happens in your browser. Scanned paperwork is usually the sensitive kind — contracts, IDs, medical letters — and with fits it never leaves your device: no upload, no server-side copy, and the byte counter at the bottom of the page stays at zero the whole time.

Common questions (4)
Why is my scanned PDF so big?
Because every page is stored as a photo, typically at 300–600 DPI. Ten scanned pages can outweigh a thousand pages of normal text PDF. Re-encoding the page images at a sensible resolution is what actually shrinks the file.
Will the text stay readable after compression?
Yes. fits picks resolutions that keep letterforms legible, and for B&W paperwork the Sharp & small mode keeps text edges crisp at very small file sizes. If a target is too aggressive to stay readable, fits tells you instead of delivering mush.
My contract has a stamp and a signature — will they survive?
Use the Crisp & colour chip: it keeps full colour in the detected stamp and signature regions and renders the rest as crisp black-and-white text. Typical result: an 18 MB scanned contract lands around 2 MB.
Can a scan really get under 500 KB or 200 KB?
Often, yes — especially B&W documents via Sharp & small. Photo-heavy or colour scans have a higher floor. Drop the file in and the chips show you the estimated size for each target before you commit.