Prepare a PDF for court e-filing

Most federal courts want text-searchable PDFs, no passwords, and each file under the court's own size cap. This page shrinks the file and keeps any text it has.

Free to use
Works on any device
Deleted after processing

Text stays vector-sharp
Sized for email
Every page kept
The original is untouched

PDF

Choose the brief or exhibit you need to file

Text stays sharp at every level · your upload is deleted as soon as the smaller file is built

Drag & drop file here

or choose a file from your device

Everything Compress PDF can do

Make a PDF file lighter for email, upload or storage by re-encoding the images inside it, while every page stays. Free, in your browser.

How hard it squeezes

Light: barely touches image quality, so the document stays print-ready
Recommended: clearly smaller, still good on screen and on paper
Strong: the smallest result, made for photo-heavy documents
To a size: 100 KB, 200 KB, 500 KB, 1 MB or a size you type
Only the images inside are resampled

What stays sharp

Text stays vector text, not a picture of text
Fonts stay embedded, so it opens the same everywhere
Line art and diagrams keep their clean edges
Every page kept, and the page count stays the same
Page size, orientation and order all unchanged

The size you end up with

The before and after size, both shown on the result screen
The percentage saved, measured from the two real files
When a size limit cannot be reached, the smallest size it could make, said plainly
Your original file stays exactly as it is on your computer
One compressed PDF to download, named after your document

How it works

Prepare PDF for court e-filing in three steps

Add the brief or exhibit

One PDF at a time. If it asks for a password when it opens, unlock it first: the court will refuse it, and so does this page.

Recommended is chosen

Scanned pages are kept at 150 DPI and real text is never turned into a picture. Pick To a size if your court gives a megabyte cap.

Download and file

The result shows the new size. Check it against your court's limit and split anything still too large into attachments.

Step by step

Prepare PDF for court e-filing: a visual walkthrough

The three screens of a run on this page with our 4-page searchable exhibit scan: adding the file, the level chosen for court filings, and the smaller file ready to download.

Drop the exhibit on the page
Use the box or Choose File. A PDF saved straight from your word processor is already searchable; scans are what usually push a filing over the cap.
Keep Recommended, or set your court's cap
Recommended is highlighted. If your court's rules name a size, choose To a size and type it in kilobytes, for example 35000 for 35 MB, then press Compress PDF.
Download the smaller file
The result shows the size before and after and the pages of the new file. Download it and attach it in CM/ECF.

Court-style files run through this page

We wrote a 4-page exhibit (letters about a lease), saved it as a PDF, printed it to a 300 DPI gray scan, and made a third copy of that scan with a hidden text layer, as scanner software does when it reads the words. Each went through this page on Recommended. Measured on October 24, 2026.

File	Before	After	Searchable text	Pictures
Searchable scan, 4 pages	6.7 MB	918 KB	8,728 characters, identical	300 DPI to 150 DPI
Plain scan, 4 pages	6.7 MB	913 KB	none before, none after	300 DPI to 150 DPI
Exhibit saved from a word processor	48 KB	32 KB	8,728 characters, identical	no pictures
20-page color scan	45.3 MB	4.5 MB	none before, none after	300 DPI to 150 DPI

We compared the text of the searchable scan before and after, character for character: it matched. The pages also looked the same: drawn at 100 DPI, fewer than 0.001% of the plain scan's pixels changed by more than 25 of 255.

No result was encrypted, carried scripts or had form fields, three things the District of Oregon lists among the reasons CM/ECF rejects a PDF.

A password-protected copy of the exhibit was refused with the message to remove the password first.

The rules we checked, and where

There is no single size limit for federal e-filing: each district sets its own in its CM/ECF manual or local rules. On 24 October 2026 we read two of them:

District of Oregon, CM/ECF user manual: files with JavaScript, encryption or password protection are rejected; all PDF documents must be text-searchable; unflattened fillable forms are not allowed; PDF files over 75 MB are not accepted and must be split into attachments.
Central District of California, Local Rule 5-4.3.1: individual PDF files shall not exceed 35 MB, and larger ones must be divided.
The Southern District of Illinois manual lists the same rejections for encryption, passwords and JavaScript.

A checklist before you press submit

Run through these for every document and attachment:

Under your court's cap? Look it up in its CM/ECF manual, then compress here or split the file.
Text-searchable? Press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) in your PDF reader and search for a word you can see. If nothing is found, the page is a picture.
No password? If the file asks for one when it opens, remove it with Unlock PDF.
One document per file, named the way the court asks.

What this page will not do

It does not read the words on a scan and add a text layer, and it does not flatten form fields. For a filing that must be searchable, save the PDF from the original Word or other file whenever you can: the Oregon manual calls that the preferred method, and our word-processor exhibit was searchable from the start. Some courts and archives ask for PDF/A; our PDF to PDF/A tool makes that, but convert after compressing, because compressing a PDF/A file can break it.

Frequently asked questions about Prepare PDF for court e-filing

What is the file size limit for CM/ECF?

It depends on the court. On 24 October 2026 the Central District of California's local rules said 35 MB per PDF, and the District of Oregon's manual said 75 MB. Check your own court's CM/ECF manual.

Will compressing make my brief unsearchable?

No. Real text is never turned into a picture. Our searchable exhibit kept all 8,728 characters, identical before and after, while it went from 6.7 MB to 918 KB.

How do I know if my PDF is text-searchable?

Open it and search (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) for a word you can see on the page. If the reader finds nothing, the page is only a picture of the text.

Why did CM/ECF reject my PDF?

Common reasons in court manuals are a password or encryption, JavaScript, a fillable form that was not flattened, or a file over the size cap. This page fixes the size; Unlock PDF removes a password.

Can this page make a scanned exhibit searchable?

No. It keeps text a scan already has but does not add any. Our plain scan had no text before and none after. Save the PDF from the original document if you can.

Do federal courts require PDF/A?

Not as a general rule for district courts that we could find. The Supreme Court's e-filing guidelines do ask for PDF/A; check the court you file in.