PDF & documents
How to reduce PDF size for upload
A PDF is almost always too big for one reason: it contains photos or scans. Once you know which kind of PDF you have, getting it under the upload limit takes a minute.
By the CALQEVA editorial team2 min read
First, find out what kind of PDF you have
Open the PDF and try to select a word. If you can, it is a text PDF, made from Word, a website or a bank's system. These are usually small already, and if one is large, it is because of photos inside it. If you cannot select anything, it is a scanned PDF: every page is a picture, often several megabytes each when taken with a phone.
This matters because the right fix is different. Text PDFs should keep their text; scanned PDFs can be compressed much harder because they are images anyway.
Compress it
Open Compress PDF and add your file. Start with Recommended, which shrinks the photos inside the PDF while leaving text sharp and selectable. The before and after sizes are shown, so you know immediately if it is under the portal's limit.
If it is still too big, try Strong. For scanned PDFs, Extreme usually gives the biggest reduction: each page is turned into a compressed image at a resolution that is still easy to read and print. Text in the result cannot be selected, so keep your original.
What common upload limits mean in practice
Check the unit carefully: 1 MB is 1,024 KB on most portals, so a 1.2 MB file is over a 1 MB limit even though it looks close. As a rough guide for documents made from phone photos:
- Up to 2 MB or 1 MB: Recommended or Strong is usually enough for a few pages.
- 500 KB: Strong for text PDFs with photos; Extreme for anything scanned.
- 200 KB or 100 KB: realistic for one or two scanned pages with Extreme. For more pages, remove what is not needed first.
Still too large? Three fixes that work
When one compression pass is not enough, change what goes into the PDF:
- Remove pages the portal does not need. A bank statement for one month does not need all twelve. Use Split PDF to keep only the relevant pages, then compress.
- Rebuild a scanned PDF from smaller photos. Resize each page photo to about 1,200 to 1,600 pixels wide with the Image Resizer, then combine them with JPG to PDF. This often produces a much smaller file than the original scan.
- Split one large upload into two. If the portal allows more than one file, upload the document in parts instead of forcing it into a single small file.
What not to do
Do not zip the PDF; most portals only accept .pdf files. Do not take a screenshot of each page either: screenshots look sharp on your phone but print poorly and can be rejected as unclear. Do not convert the file to a different format unless the portal asks for it.
Check that the compressed PDF is readable before uploading. Zoom in on the smallest text, such as account numbers and dates. If anything is blurred, use the next level down.
Your documents stay on your phone
Bank statements, salary slips and ID proofs contain exactly the information you should not upload to unknown websites. Every PDF tool on CALQEVA runs inside your browser, so the file is processed on your own device and never sent to a server.
Try it with your own numbers
- Compress PDFNewMake PDFs smaller for email and upload limits, keeping text sharp. Extreme mode for scanned documents.
- Split PDFNewExtract the pages you need, delete pages, or split every page into its own PDF.
- JPG to PDFHotTurn photos and scans into one PDF, one image per page. A4, Letter or image size, with margins and rotation.
Keep reading
- How to scan documents into a PDF with your phonePhotograph marksheets, certificates and ID cards so they are sharp and readable, then turn them into a single, correctly ordered PDF ready to upload.
- How to reduce a photo to 20 KB or 50 KB for online formsWhy exam and job portals reject photos, what '20–50 KB, 200 × 230 px' actually means, and how to hit the exact size on your phone in a minute.