How to reduce a PDF to 100 KB, 200 KB or 1 MB for government forms
Government and recruitment portals often limit each document to 100 KB, 200 KB, 500 KB or 1 MB. A scanned certificate from a phone can easily be 3 MB. Here is how to bring it down without making it unreadable.
Step 1: Try exact-size compression
Open Compress to exact size, add your PDF and type the limit from the form. The tool first tries to shrink the file without any loss. If that is not enough, it saves the pages as images at the highest quality that still fits your limit. There are ready pages for common limits: 100 KB, 200 KB, 500 KB and 1 MB.
Step 2: Remove pages the form does not need
Every page adds size. A blank back page, an instruction sheet or a duplicate copy can be removed with Remove pages or Remove blank pages before you compress.
Step 3: Use grayscale for black-and-white documents
Certificates and mark sheets are usually readable in grey. Colour pages take far more space, so allowing grayscale (on by default in Compress to exact size) helps reach small limits. You can also convert the whole file with Grayscale & night mode.
Step 4: Split a long file
If a 20-page document still will not fit in 200 KB, the portal probably expects it to be uploaded in parts. Split PDF by size cuts it into files that are each under a size you choose.
Making the PDF in the first place
- Photos of documents: JPG to PDF or Scan to PDF, which turns phone photos into clean black-and-white pages.
- Several certificates in one file: Merge PDF, then compress the merged file.
Check before you upload
Open the compressed file and zoom in on the smallest text, such as roll numbers and dates. If anything is hard to read, try a slightly larger limit if the form allows it, or split the file instead of squeezing it further.