The cap is on the PDF, so the PDF is what gets measured
A form that asks for a certificate “as a PDF under 200 KB” checks the PDF's length, not the pictures inside it. So this page builds the whole PDF on every pass — JPEG pages embedded as they are, no re-compression inside the PDF — and moves one quality across all pages until the file fits, the best quality first that still does.
- 1Add the pictures and put them in order.
- 2Choose A4, Letter or picture-sized pages, the orientation and the margins.
- 3Keep 150 DPI unless the cap forces you lower: that is about the least that keeps typed text readable on A4.
- 4Type the cap. The first pass is the lowest quality, so an impossible cap is known after one pass, not eight.
- 5Download the PDF whose size was printed.
- Every page is a baseline JPEG from MozJPEG, so any PDF reader opens it.
- Greyscale writes one-channel JPEGs — a third fewer bytes for black-on-white documents.
- The PDF has no filename, path, author or date in it.
Text in the PDF is a picture of text.
The pages are images: they cannot be searched or selected, and nothing is recognised. A form that wants a typed or searchable PDF needs the original document, not a photo of it.
Questions people arrive with
Is the 200 KB the size of the PDF, or of the pictures?
The PDF. The pictures are encoded, put into the PDF, and the finished PDF's length is what the search compares with your cap — the same bytes you download. The result line prints the exact figure.
Which kilobyte does the form mean?
This page counts a kilobyte as 1,024 bytes, the stricter reading: a PDF under 200 KB here is under 204,800 bytes, so it also passes a portal that counts 200,000. The byte figure is printed under the cap.
Why does it say not reachable?
Because at the lowest quality, at the resolution chosen, the pages still add up to more than the cap. The page offers what can still give — greyscale, a lower resolution (below 150 DPI small print may become unreadable), or fewer pages — and does not quietly pick one for you.
Is my file name inside the PDF?
No. The PDF carries no title, author, filename, path or dates — only the pictures and a Producer line naming this site. Nothing is uploaded to make it; it is assembled in this tab.
Can I mix photos and scans?
Yes, up to 30 pictures, in the order you set with the arrows. Each gets its own page, centred and never stretched, on A4, Letter, or a page the picture's own size.
Elsewhere on this site
- Compress document photoFlatten and clean a photo of a certificate first; it can leave as a one-page PDF too.
- Compress image to KBWhen the form wants the picture itself, not a PDF.
- Photo and signature size for Indian formsThe sourced figures forms publish, with dates.
