Files never leave your device.How it works
How to linearize a PDF
- 1Drop your PDF above (or click to select).
- 2Click Linearize.
- 3Download the optimized PDF.
Frequently asked questions
- What is linearization?
- Also called "fast web view," it reorders a PDF's internal objects so a viewer can render the first page before downloading the whole file — useful for PDFs served over the web.
- Will it make my file smaller?
- Not really — linearization is about load order, not size. To reduce the file size, use Compress.
- Does my file get uploaded?
- No. It's optimized entirely in your browser with qpdf — nothing leaves your device.
Show the first page sooner
When a PDF is served over the web, a plain file has to download in full before anything appears. A linearized PDF — "fast web view" — is reorganized so a browser can display page one while the rest still streams, which makes large documents feel much faster to open online.
What changes
Linearization rearranges the internal object order and adds hint tables; the pages, text, and images are untouched. It's purely about how the file is read, so the content and appearance are identical.
Notes and limits
The reordering runs locally with qpdf, so nothing is uploaded. It doesn't shrink the file — pair it with Compress if size matters. Password-protected files must be unlocked first.
What changes inside the file
A linearized PDF adds a set of hint tables and reorders the file's internal objects so that everything needed to display page one, its content stream, fonts, and images, sits in a contiguous block near the start of the file, with the rest of the document following after. A compatible viewer reads just enough of that first block to render page one, then keeps loading the remainder in the background. None of this touches the visible content: the pages look, print, and read identically to the unlinearized original.
Where the benefit actually applies
Fast web view only helps when a viewer streams the file progressively as it downloads, exactly what happens when a browser opens a PDF embedded in or linked from a web page, or a server serves it with byte-range support. Opening an already-downloaded file in a desktop reader gets no benefit, since the whole file is already local. It's also a one-time optimization: any later edit to the file, adding a page, filling a form, applying a watermark, reorders objects again and undoes the linearization, so it's worth doing as close to the last step in a workflow as possible.
Where this fits in a workflow
Because it's a last-step optimization, linearize after any content changes, and use Compress beforehand if size also matters — the two solve different problems and neither substitutes for the other. If a file won't linearize cleanly because it's structurally damaged, Repair first.