How to compress a PDF for government and exam forms (under 100 KB or 200 KB)

Almost every online application — exams, scholarships, passports, jobs, bank KYC — asks for documents as a PDF under a strict size: often 100 KB, 200 KB or 500 KB. A single page photographed on a modern phone can easily be 3–5 MB, so the gap between what you have and what the portal accepts is huge. The good news: you can close it without making the document unreadable.

Why scanned PDFs are so large

A phone camera captures 12 megapixels or more in full colour. When that photo becomes a PDF page, all of that detail comes along — far more than anyone needs to read a certificate. Size comes from three things: the number of pages, the pixel resolution of each page, and colour. Reduce any of them and the file shrinks.

The order that works best

1. Remove pages you don’t need. A blank reverse side or an instructions page doubles the size for nothing. Use Remove PDF Pages and type the page numbers.
2. Convert to black & white if the form allows it. Mark sheets, certificates and letters rarely need colour. Grayscale PDF often halves the size on its own.
3. Compress to the exact limit. Open Compress PDF to 200 KB (or 100 KB) — the tool tries progressively stronger settings and stops at the highest quality that fits.
4. Check legibility. Open the result and zoom to 100%. If you can read the smallest text and the seal or signature is clear, you are done.

If the document is still too big

• Split multi-page uploads: some portals accept one file per document type, so a 6-page file may not be necessary.
• Crop away borders and the table surface visible around the paper before converting photos with JPG to PDF — empty space costs bytes.
• Photograph in good daylight. Shadows and grain look like “detail” to a compressor and make files larger.

Why do it in the browser?

These are exactly the documents you should not be uploading to random websites: ID cards, mark sheets, bank statements. Every tool on Thepaperwork runs on your own device — the PDF is compressed by your browser and never sent to a server. You can even switch off Wi-Fi after the page loads and it still works.