Does my PDF get uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole thing runs in your browser on your own device. Your file is never sent to a server, we never see it, and nothing is stored. That makes it safe for confidential construction drawings, NDA documents, and client files, unlike an Adobe compress PDF style cloud tool that uploads your file first.
How much smaller will my PDF get?
It depends on what is inside. PDFs that carry heavy embedded images shrink a lot when you turn on image re-encoding. PDFs that are mostly vector lines and text (typical CAD exports) shrink less, because there is little waste to remove. We re-pack the file efficiently and strip leftover metadata either way, and we show you the exact before and after size. If a file is already tight, we keep the original rather than hand you a bigger one.
Will compressing hurt the quality of my drawing?
The structural re-save (efficient packing plus metadata cleanup) is lossless, so lines and text stay pixel-perfect. Image re-encoding is optional and lossy by design, so embedded photos and scans get softer the lower you set the quality. For drawings you want crisp, leave image re-encoding off or keep the quality high.
Is it really free, and is there a watermark?
It is free, with no signup, no email, and no watermark added to your file. It is a small thank-you tool from the team behind Ncored.
I work with heavy CAD drawings all day. What about those?
Compressing is the easy part. The hard part is opening and marking up a 50-200 MB+ AutoCAD, Revit or ArchiCAD export without your PDF tool freezing on scroll and zoom. That is exactly what we built Ncored for, a fast desktop PDF editor for large construction drawings on Windows and Apple Silicon Mac. There is a free 14-day trial at ncored.com.