How to reduce photo and PDF size to the limit you need

A portal accepts files up to 1 MB and your phone takes 6 MB photos. What to reduce first so the quality suffers least, and how to hit the limit exactly.

BOMBA DESIGN editorialNovember 13, 20269 min read

Files compressed to a set limit in the BOMBA DESIGN tool — **File compressor:** the tool shows “before and after” for every file.

A government portal accepts a document photo of up to 1 MB. A job site takes a CV of up to 2 MB. A marketplace wants a product picture under 500 KB. Email will not send a message with more than 25 MB of attachments. And a phone takes photos of 5–8 MB each.

File size depends on two things: the number of pixels and the strength of compression. Both can be reduced – the only question is where to start so that quality suffers least.

Key points

Lower the compression quality first: up to a point the eye does not notice.
If that is not enough, reduce the picture dimensions in pixels.
A PDF is compressed by turning its pages into pictures – the text can no longer be selected afterwards.

How-toHow to reduce a file to the size you need

Open the toolGo to the File compressor.
Choose the limit100 KB, 500 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB or your own size in kilobytes.
Upload the filesUp to 30 at once: photos, PDFs and other files.
Download the resultThe tool shows “before and after” for each file. Take them one by one or as an archive.

ReferenceTypical file size limits

Where you upload	Usual limit	What to do
Forms and government portals	1–5 MB per file	Reduce the photo to 1 MB
Email	20–25 MB per message	Compress the PDF or send a link
Job sites	2–5 MB	Compress the CV PDF
Marketplaces	0.5–10 MB per photo	Limit the longest side
Messengers	They compress by themselves	Send as a file, not as a photo

Limits differ between services and change from time to time – look for the exact figure in the error message or in the site’s help section.

QualityWhat happens to quality

Photos. A JPG at 70–80 % quality is almost indistinguishable from the original and weighs several times less. The difference shows only at strong magnification.

Logos and graphics. Pictures with a transparent background are saved as PNG – a lossless format, so to make them smaller the pixel dimensions have to be reduced.

PDF. Pages are redrawn as pictures at a lower resolution. Scans and presentations compress well, but afterwards the text cannot be selected or searched. For contracts where the text matters it is better to split the document into parts.

Word, Excel, video, archives. These formats are already compressed inside. An archive will not shrink them – only removing unnecessary pictures from the document helps.

HonestlyCompression does not replace the right files

The tool reduces what you already have. If your logo has to be compressed, converted and cropped every time, the problem is not the size – it is that you do not have a full set of files. Together with a logo we hand over every format and size at once: vector for print, PNG for the website and social media. See how we design logos.

Keep the original. A compressed file is a copy for uploading, not a replacement for the source photo or document.

ReferenceHow much ordinary files weigh

1 MB is 1024 KB. To see how much you will have to compress, compare your file with typical ones.

File	Typical size	After reducing
Phone photo	3–8 MB	0.3–1 MB with no visible difference
Scan of an A4 page, 300 dpi	1–3 MB	150–400 KB
Screenshot	0.5–3 MB	100–400 KB
PDF presentation with photos	10–50 MB	2–8 MB
Text-only PDF	50–300 KB	No need to reduce

The figures are approximate: size depends on the camera, the amount of detail in the shot and the scanner settings.

FormatsJPG, PNG or WebP: which format is lighter

Format	Used for	Notes
JPG	Photos, document scans	The smallest size, but no transparency
PNG	Logos, screenshots, graphics with a transparent background	Lossless; photos weigh 5–10 times more in it
WebP	Website images	Lighter than JPG, but not every portal accepts it
PDF	Multi-page documents	Size depends on the pictures inside

If a portal asks for “JPG or PDF up to 1 MB” and your photo is a PNG or an iPhone HEIC, the simplest thing is to turn it into a JPG: the file shrinks several times even before compression.

TipDocument photos for portals and forms

The whole document in the frameAll four corners visible, nothing cut off. A cropped document is rejected more often than a blurry one.
Even lightNo flash, no glare and no shadow from the phone. Best of all by a window in daylight.
Check legibility after compressionZoom in on the file: small text and the document number must be readable. If not, choose a larger limit.
Do not compress twiceEach new JPG compression degrades the picture. Always compress the original, not an already reduced copy.
Name the file clearlyLatin letters, no spaces: passport-1.jpg. Some portals do not accept other characters in a file name.

AlternativesHow to reduce a file without a tool

On iPhone. Email the photo to yourself from the built-in Mail app: before sending, the phone offers a size – small, medium, large or actual.

On Android. Many gallery apps have “Resize” in the edit menu. The name and location depend on the phone maker.

On Windows. Open the photo in Paint → “Resize” → enter a percentage → “Save as” JPG.

On Mac. Open the photo in Preview → “Tools” → “Adjust Size”.

These methods reduce a picture “by eye”: hitting the limit exactly rarely works the first time. The tool adjusts the quality itself until the file is smaller than the set size.