Loading your local toolbox…
200 KB is the most common ceiling on Indian government and university application portals — enough for a readable scan of one or two pages.
No upload. No watermark. No sign-up. Every tool mentioned here runs inside your browser.
It sits between "clearly readable" and "clearly degraded". A 200 KB single-page scan usually still reads fine; a five-page scan at 200 KB total starts losing small print.
Practical rule: one or two pages at 200 KB looks good. More than three pages, split first.
Do not compress a file you are about to modify. Fix the content first — rotate, crop, delete blank pages, merge — then compress once at the end.
Cropping is the most underrated step: a scan with 15% white margins on each side is spending a large share of its 200 KB budget on nothing.
Start with Safe mode if the PDF came from a computer, such as a typed CV, a letter or an invoice. It keeps the text selectable and does not touch the pictures. It usually saves only 5–30%, so it helps only when the file is already close to 200 KB.
Use Target size for scans and photographed documents, and set the slider to 200 KB. The first attempt draws the pages at 150 DPI and 80% JPEG quality and keeps the result if it fits. If it does not, the tool lowers the quality and resolution step by step, up to six attempts, and keeps the first file that fits.
Open the compressed file and zoom in to 100% on each page. Look at small print, stamps, signatures, faces in photos and the edges of the page. If a stamp or a signature is hard for you to read, it may be hard for the person who reviews it too.
Your original is not changed. Compression makes a new file called name-compressed.pdf, so you can always go back.
If the form wants one PDF with several documents, merge them first with Merge PDF and compress the merged file once. Two or three pages is realistic at 200 KB. A bundle of eight certificates is not. In that case use a larger limit if the portal allows it, or upload the documents separately.
Read the error text. Some forms check the number of pages, the paper size or the colour mode, and a JPG that has only been renamed to .pdf is not a PDF. This tool counts 1 KB as 1024 bytes, but some portals count 1 KB as 1000 bytes, and then a file that is only just under 200 KB can still be rejected. If that happens, try Strong mode or the next lower size on the slider.
Compression runs inside this browser tab. The PDF is read from your disk, processed in memory and saved back to your downloads. It is never uploaded, so it is safe for ID documents, certificates and bank statements.
Open Compress PDF, choose Target size, set the slider to 200 KB and press Compress PDF. The tool keeps the first attempt that fits.
The tool keeps the first attempt that is at or below the limit, and the first attempt can already be much smaller than 200 KB. If you want better quality, there is nothing to change: the best-looking attempt that fits is the one you get.
Only in Safe mode. Target size turns each page into an image, so the text can no longer be selected or searched.
The tool compresses one PDF at a time. To send several documents as one file, merge them with Merge PDF first and then compress the merged file.
The portal may be checking dimensions, DPI, colour mode, or page count rather than just size. Read the error text carefully; some forms demand grayscale or a minimum DPI.
Loading your local toolbox…