PrivatePDF

Remove the images from a PDF

Images are almost always what makes a PDF too big to email. A report whose text is 200 KB and whose photographs are 30 MB is a 30 MB document — and compressing it only gets you so far, because the pictures are already compressed. Removing them entirely leaves a small document that still reads correctly, with its text, tables and layout exactly where they were. The same operation is also the reliable way to get rid of a picture you did not mean to publish.

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How it works

  1. 01Open the PDF.
  2. 02Read the panel — it counts the images and shows roughly how much of the file they account for.
  3. 03Adjust the size threshold if you want to keep small graphics such as logos and rules.
  4. 04Export.

The text and layout are untouched

Only the pictures go. Every paragraph, table, heading and page break stays exactly where it was, and the space an image occupied is simply blank — so the document still paginates the way the original did and still prints to the same number of pages. That is usually what you want when the goal is to send someone the contents rather than the presentation.

The pixels are gone, not hidden

This matters if you are removing something sensitive. The image data is overwritten in the exported file rather than merely unlinked from the page, so it is not sitting in the file waiting for anyone who opens it in a hex editor. A drawn box over a photograph hides it from a reader and leaves the photograph in the document; this does not. It also cannot be undone in the exported file, which is the other side of the same coin — keep your original.

Small graphics are kept by default

Every PDF is full of images you would not think of as pictures: a rule drawn as a one-pixel gradient, a bullet glyph, a logo in a footer. Removing those spoils the look of the page for almost no saving, so anything under 32 pixels is left alone. Lower the threshold to zero if you genuinely want everything gone.

When to compress instead

If you need the pictures but need them smaller, use the compression tool — it downsamples oversized images and re-encodes them, which typically takes a large document down a long way while keeping it readable as a document with pictures in it. Use this one when the pictures are not the point, or when they need to not be there at all.

Questions

Will the pages shift around?
No. Nothing moves — the image is removed from where it was, leaving white space. Page count, pagination and text position are identical.
Can the images be recovered from the exported file?
No. The image data is overwritten rather than unlinked, so there is nothing left in the file to recover. Keep your original if you might want them back.
Does it remove scanned pages too?
Yes, and that is worth knowing: a scanned document is entirely images, so removing them leaves blank pages. The panel tells you how many images it found before you export.
Is the file uploaded?
No. The images are removed by your own browser, which is the point when what you are removing is something you do not want seen.