How to Reduce PDF Size Under 500KB

Many portals reject PDFs larger than 500KB or 1MB. The best method depends on whether your PDF is text-based, image-heavy or scanned from photos.

What works best

• For text PDFs, structural optimization can reduce size without visible quality loss.
• For scanned PDFs, compress the images before converting them to PDF.
• Remove duplicate pages or blank pages before upload.
• Use black-and-white scanning for simple documents when color is not required.

Suggested workflow

1. Compress images first using Image Compress.
2. Create the PDF using JPG to PDF.
3. Try PDF Compressor for final optimization.