Compress a multi-page PDF to 300 KB

Target size is set to 300 KB, room for a few scanned pages at a clear resolution.

300 KB for documents with several pages

A 300 KB limit usually comes with a document that has more than one page: a set of mark sheets, a degree certificate with its back side, an experience letter, or a few pages of bank statements. Each extra page is another picture to fit into the same space.

This page is set up to compress a PDF to 300 KB. The pictures on every page are made smaller together, in steps from 150 DPI down to 72 DPI at most, and the first step under 300 KB is the one you get. Pages are never dropped or merged, and the page order, text, fonts and links stay exactly as they were.

If one scan in the set is much heavier than the rest, such as a phone photo of a page with a busy background, it takes most of the room. Cropping or scanning that page again often makes the whole PDF fit.

How to compress a PDF to 300 KB

1
Select the multi-page PDF
Up to 25 MB on the free plan. All of its pages are compressed together.
2
Leave the target at 300 KB
Or choose another size, or type your own in KB.
3
Compress and save
The new size is shown, and you are told plainly if 300 KB could not be reached.

Before you compress a long PDF

Put the pages in the order the form expects. Compressing keeps the order exactly.
Leave out blank pages and back sides with nothing on them.
If the form takes one file per document, compress each document on its own.

Questions people ask

How do I compress a PDF to 300 KB?

Select the PDF here and press Compress; Target size is already 300 KB. The file size, in KB, is what goes down. Every page stays in the PDF, at the same size on paper, with its text.

Will every page of my PDF be kept?

Yes. A result is only kept if it has the same number of pages and the same text as your file. If a step would lose anything, it is thrown away and the next one is tried.

Can I make one page smaller and leave the others sharp?

Not here: the same setting is used on every page. If one page is far heavier than the rest, scan or photograph it again with less around the edges, and put the PDF back together with JPG to PDF.

Does 300 KB here mean 300,000 bytes?

Yes: 1 KB here is 1,000 bytes. A form that counts 1,024 bytes per KB allows a little more, so a file under 300 KB here passes there too.

How long does it take?

Usually a few seconds for a short PDF. A long scan can take a minute or two, because the tool may try more than one setting before it finds the one that fits.