How to compress a PDF to 100 KB or 200 KB
Job portals, scholarship sites and exam forms often accept PDFs only under 100, 200 or 500 KB. A scanned certificate from a phone is usually 1–5 MB. Here is how to bring it under the limit without making it unreadable.
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Why scanned PDFs are so big
A PDF made from phone photos stores each page as a large, high-resolution picture. Compressing re-saves those pictures at a sensible resolution. Typed text, links and layout stay the same.
Tips for the smallest file that stays readable
- Scan or photograph the document flat, in good light, and crop away the table around it.
- If colour isn’t needed, choose greyscale — it often halves the size.
- Combine several certificates into one PDF first, then compress the combined file.
- For many pages under a tight limit (like 100 KB), split them into separate PDFs if the portal allows several uploads.
Locked PDFs
Password-protected PDFs (like the e-Aadhaar) must be unlocked before they can be compressed. Open it with its password and save an unlocked copy first.
Step by step
- Open Compress PDF to 100 KB (or pick another size).
- Choose your PDF.
- Leave the target size, or type the limit the portal gives you.
- Press the button and download the smaller PDF.
- Open it to check every page is readable.
Questions
Will the text become blurry?
Typed text stays sharp. Scanned pages are re-saved at a lower resolution; at 100 KB for many pages they can get soft, so check before uploading.
Is there a file limit?
Without an account you can upload files up to the size shown under the upload box.