Your Chromebook has limited local storage and you've got a 60 MB PDF taking up too much space. Or you need to email it and the attachment limit just laughed at you. ChromeOS has nothing built in for compression.
The compress flow
Open Chrome. Go to Flint's compressor. Drag the PDF in or pick from Files. Choose Light, Medium, or Heavy. Hit compress. Download the smaller file.
Medium drops most scans 50–80% with no visible quality loss. 30 seconds total.
Combined with trimming
If the PDF is huge because it has 200 pages and you only need 10: split the PDF or delete unnecessary pages first, then compress the remainder. A trimmed-compressed PDF is dramatically smaller than just-compressed.
Storage and Drive considerations
Many Chromebooks have 32 GB storage or less. Compressed PDFs save serious space, especially for students with hundreds of class PDFs. Smaller files also sync to Drive faster — useful when network speed is the bottleneck.
FAQ
Will compression work offline?
No — Flint needs an internet connection. For offline Chromebook work, Android-app compressors from the Play Store work without network. For everyday connected use, browser is faster and lighter.
How much can I compress without losing quality?
Medium usually drops 50–80% with no visible quality change. Heavy goes further at minor cost — fine for archives. Light is gentle and good for client-facing work.
Can I compress files from Drive?
Save the PDF from Drive to your local Files or download it, then upload to Flint. After compression, upload back to Drive. Two manual steps but no API auth needed.
Big PDF crashing your Chromebook's storage? Compress in Chrome and reclaim the space.