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Getting a PDF under 1 MB
Job sites and applicant tracking systems often cap resumes, cover letters and portfolios at 1 MB. A resume exported from Word or Google Docs is usually well under that already. Oversized ones are almost always carrying a large photo or come from a design tool.
Text and vector graphics stay sharp at every setting. Only embedded images are resampled, so a headshot or logo gets smaller while your text stays crisp.
Tips
- PDFs exported from design tools often embed images at full resolution, which is exactly what we reduce.
- Keep your text as real text rather than a scanned image, so applicant tracking systems can read it.
- The download is named yourfile.fit.pdf. Rename it to something like firstname-lastname-resume.pdf before you apply.
Questions
Will applicant tracking systems still read my resume after compressing it to 1 MB?
Text that is real text in your PDF stays text, so it can still be selected and read by software. Only embedded images, like a headshot or logo, are resampled. A resume that was scanned or exported as one big picture has no text to read before or after, because the tool does not add text recognition.
How big does my headshot stay in a 1 MB resume?
A photo printed 1.5 inches wide is 450 pixels across at the first step's 300 dpi, and it only goes lower if the file still does not fit. Even the 150 dpi step leaves it 225 pixels wide. Text around it is not affected by these steps.
Can a 20-page design portfolio get under 1 MB?
Twenty image-heavy pages share 1,000,000 bytes, which is 50,000 bytes a page, the same budget as a whole one-page 50 KB file. Expect the stronger settings. If even the last one cannot fit, you get the smallest version with a note, and a shorter selection of work may be the better upload.