300KB is a comfortable upload limit that lets you keep good quality while still meeting size rules on many forms and portals. Here's how to reach it cleanly.
Reaching 300KB
Choose 300KB as your target in a size-based compressor and download the result. With this much headroom, most multi-page scanned documents stay perfectly legible.
Good for multi-page documents
Because 300KB is more generous, it suits documents with several pages — like a multi-page application or a short scanned booklet — where 100KB would force unacceptable quality loss.
Step by step
- Set the compression target to 300KB and add your file.
- Let the tool search for the setting that fits, then review the output at 100% zoom.
- If it overshoots, remove any pages you do not need and run it again.
What usually goes wrong
300KB across 20 pages is not the same as 300KB across two
The limit is for the whole document. A long file has far less room per page, so it may need grayscale as well as compression.
Scans hit a floor
A colour scan has a point below which further compression only adds blockiness. Grayscale first, then compress.
Check the pages you did not look at
Compression is applied throughout. It is the diagram on page 11, not the title page, that usually suffers.
Frequently asked questions
Why not just compress everything to the smallest size?
Over-compression throws away quality you didn't need to lose. Always aim for just under the portal's actual limit.
What if my PDF cannot reach 300KB?
Convert it to grayscale first, which typically removes a third of the size, or split the document and upload the part that is actually required.
Does compressing to 300KB affect the text?
No. Text in a PDF is stored as instructions, not pixels, so it stays sharp at any file size. Compression works on the embedded images.