Compress PDF to 200KB

1. 1

   Put the pages in one PDF

   If you have several scans, merge them first, in the order the reviewer expects. One document fits a 200 KB cap more easily than it sounds, as long as every page is a sensible size.

2. 2

   Add it and read the size breakdown

   The panel shows how much of the file is pictures, fonts and page content, and how large the biggest picture is — the clue to which page is eating the budget.

3. 3

   Compress in Strong

   The page opens in Strong: pictures at 96 DPI, text untouched. On Pro the 200 KB target is filled in and searched automatically.

4. 4

   Check the size line and the pages

   The result says whether it is under 200 KB, and the page previews and quality score show whether every page is still readable.

200 KB is twice the budget of the strictest portals, and that doubling matters most for documents with more than one page. A document exported from a word processor or spreadsheet can hold dozens of pages in 200 KB, because its pages are text rather than pictures. A scan is the expensive case: at 96 DPI with sensible compression, a scanned A4 page usually needs somewhere around 40–100 KB, depending on colour and how busy the page is — so two to four scanned pages is the realistic range.

Typical budgets

• Text-born PDF: text and fonts are small; the tool can merge duplicate embedded fonts and strip metadata, and many such files are already under 200 KB.
• Two to four scanned pages: usually fit in Strong — check the estimate before you press anything.
• Five or more scanned pages: often need grayscale, a lower-resolution rescan or splitting into separate uploads.
• Photos inside a report: each one is recompressed at 96 DPI, which is what brings a picture-heavy PDF down.

Application packs are often several documents joined together — a certificate, an ID card, a declaration. A merged PDF carries each source's fonts and metadata separately, and a single oversized page can use most of the budget on its own.

How to keep a combined PDF small

• Merge first, compress once: compressing the combined file lets the duplicate fonts from each part be merged into one.
• Find the heavy page: the size breakdown names the largest picture and its resolution; one 600 DPI page can outweigh all the others.
• Drop what is not asked for: blank backs and instruction pages cost bytes and are rarely required.
• Keep the order the form asks for: reviewers look for documents in the order the notice lists them.

Getting under the limit is half the job; the reviewer still has to read the pages. After compressing, the tool draws pages of both documents, compares them, and checks that every character of text survived.

What the result tells you

• Size line: whether the file is under 200 KB, in plain words.
• Page quality score: how closely the compressed pages match the original, with the weakest page's score shown.
• Text check: confirms the selectable text is identical — in every mode except Flatten.
• Previews: before-and-after pictures of pages from across the document, not just the first one.

Most upload forms treat 200 KB as 204,800 bytes; a few count 200,000. The size line here uses 1,024-byte kilobytes, so if a form rejects a file shown as 196 KB or more, it is counting in thousands and needs a little more margin. Limits also vary between portals and application rounds, so go by the number in your own form's instructions.

• PDF compressor — all modes
• Compress PDF to 100KB
• Merge PDFs
• Split a PDF
• Remove PDF pages
• Photos to PDF
• Resize image to 150KB