How to Compress a PDF to 200 KB, 100 KB or 1 MB

To get a PDF under a limit such as 200 KB, open Compress PDF, choose Medium, type the limit into Target size (KB, optional) and click Compress PDF. If the first pass is still too big, stronger settings are tried automatically until the file fits or the options run out. It all happens in your browser, so marksheets, ID scans and bank statements are not uploaded anywhere.

There are ready-made pages with the target already filled in: compress PDF to 100 KB, 200 KB, 500 KB and 1 MB, plus 50 KB, 300 KB and 2 MB.

Why is my scanned PDF so big?

A scan or a phone photo is a picture of a page, stored pixel by pixel. A 12-megapixel phone camera produces 4000×3000 pixels per shot. An A4 page needs far fewer to be readable: at 150 DPI it is about 1240×1754 pixels, less than a fifth as many. A PDF made straight from phone photos carries all those extra pixels.

A PDF exported from Word or a browser is different. Its text is stored as characters plus font outlines, which is already compact. That is why a 30-page typed report can be smaller than a 3-page scan.

EasyConvert's compressor works on the images inside the PDF. It downscales oversized ones and re-encodes them as JPEG. Text, fonts and vector drawings are left exactly as they are, so typed text stays sharp and selectable.

What do Light, Medium and Heavy actually do?

Each level caps the longest edge of every image and sets a JPEG quality:

• Light — best quality: up to 3000 px, quality 85%
• Medium — recommended: up to 2000 px, quality 70%
• Heavy — smallest file: up to 1400 px, quality 55%
• An extra-strong setting (900 px, quality 40%), used only when you have set a target and Heavy is not enough

To relate that to paper: an A4 page is about 11.7 inches tall, so 2000 px along the long side works out to roughly 170 DPI, 1400 px to about 120 DPI and 900 px to about 77 DPI. Around 120 DPI is comfortable for reading normal print on screen. At 77 DPI, large text is still legible but small print and handwriting start to blur.

Tiny images such as icons and lines are skipped, and an image is only swapped when the new version is clearly smaller. If no smaller file is possible at all, nothing downloads and the tool says the PDF is already well optimised.

How do I compress a PDF to a target size?

1. Open Compress PDF, or a ready-made page such as Compress PDF to 200 KB.
2. Upload the PDF. If it is password-protected, you will be asked for the password.
3. Pick a starting level. Medium suits most documents; start at Light if you want the best quality that still fits.
4. Enter the limit in Target size (KB, optional). For a 200 KB portal limit, enter 190 to leave a little headroom.
5. Click Compress PDF. Progress shows each image being optimised.
6. Read the message: it gives the old size, the new size and the percentage saved. The file downloads with "-compressed" added to its name.

With a target set, levels are tried in turn starting from the one you picked (Light, Medium, Heavy, then the extra-strong setting), each time from your original file. The first result that fits is used. If none fits, you still get the smallest version, with a note that the target was not reached.

The tool counts 1 KB as 1,024 bytes, so a 200 KB target means 204,800 bytes. Some portals, and some file managers such as the macOS Finder, count 1 KB as 1,000 bytes. Aiming about 5% below the stated limit covers both.

How small can a PDF realistically get?

Divide the limit by the number of pages. A 200 KB limit over 10 scanned pages leaves about 20 KB per page: tight, but usually workable for a clean black-and-white text scan at Heavy. A 100 KB limit for 10 full-colour photo pages is unlikely to stay readable.

If a file will not fit:

• Remove pages you do not need with Delete PDF Pages: blank backs of scans, instruction pages, duplicates.
• Rebuild it from the photos with Image to PDF Under KB, which compresses each image to fit a limit as it creates the PDF.
• Split it if the portal accepts more than one file.

What if one file can't get small enough?

Use Split to Size Limit. Enter Maximum size per file (MB) and click Split by Size. Pages stay in order and are packed into parts that each stay under the limit, delivered in a ZIP with the page ranges in the file names. Pages are copied unchanged, so splitting costs no quality.

Two things to know. The field is in megabytes, with 1 MB counted as 1,024 KB, so for a 200 KB limit enter about 0.19 rather than 0.2. And a single page that is bigger than the limit on its own ends up alone in an oversized part, so compress first and split second.

How do I find out what is making my PDF big?

Open PDF Size Breakdown, upload the file and click Analyse File Size. It shows Where the bytes go (images, fonts, page content, metadata, attachments and more), Weight per page and the largest images with their dimensions. It only reads the file and changes nothing.

Use it to choose the fix:

• Images dominate: compression will help a lot.
• Fonts dominate, or fonts are embedded in full: compression will not help much. Re-export from the original app with font subsetting switched on, or split the file.
• A few pages are much heavier than the rest: delete or replace those pages.
• Embedded attachments: a PDF can carry other files inside it, and the portal still counts their size.

Common mistakes

• Compressing an already compressed file. Each pass loses detail for little gain. Start from the original.
• Expecting a text-only PDF to shrink. A PDF from Word with no pictures is already compact.
• Cutting it too fine. A file of exactly 200 KB by one count can be 205 KB by another. Leave headroom.
• Not opening the result. Zoom in on the smallest print before you upload. If you cannot read it, neither can whoever checks it.

Quick answers

How do I compress a PDF to under 200 KB?

Open Compress PDF to 200 KB on EasyConvert, upload the file and click Compress PDF. It tries progressively stronger image compression until the PDF is under 200 KB, and tells you if that is not possible.

Why won't my PDF compress any smaller?

Most of its size is text, fonts or vector graphics, which the compressor deliberately leaves untouched, or its images are already well compressed. PDF Size Breakdown shows which one it is.

Does compressing a PDF make the text blurry?

No. EasyConvert only downscales and re-encodes the images inside the PDF; typed text, fonts and vector drawings are kept exactly as they were.

What can I do if my PDF still won't fit the upload limit?

Delete pages you do not need, or split the file into parts under the limit with Split to Size Limit if the portal accepts several files.

Is 1 KB 1,000 or 1,024 bytes when compressing a PDF?

EasyConvert's compressor counts 1 KB as 1,024 bytes, but some portals and file managers use 1,000. Aim about 5% under the stated limit to be safe.