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Getting a PDF under 300 KB
At 300 KB there is room for a few scanned pages at a resolution that reads comfortably on screen, or a much longer document if it was created digitally.
Digital PDFs mostly shrink in the lossless pass: we repack the file's internal structure and drop parts nothing uses, without changing how anything looks. Scans shrink by lowering image resolution a step at a time until the file fits.
Tips
- Include only the pages you need. Each extra scanned page counts against the limit.
- If you can rescan, 150 to 200 dpi is plenty for reading on screen and leaves far less to compress away than 600 dpi.
- If a file cannot reach 300 KB, you get the smallest version we could make and a note saying so.
Questions
How many pages fit in a 300 KB PDF?
It depends on what the pages are. Scans share 300,000 bytes, so five scanned pages get about 60,000 bytes each and ten get 30,000. Pages of real text cost far less, so a digitally created document can run much longer than a scan and still fit.
Does a 600 dpi scan lose detail even at the gentlest setting?
Yes, if a lossy step is needed. The first one caps color and grayscale images at 300 dpi, so an A4 page scanned at 600 dpi goes from 4961 x 7016 pixels to 2480 x 3508. That only happens when the lossless pass alone cannot get the file under 300 KB.
Do charts and diagrams lose quality at 300 KB?
Charts drawn as vector graphics, such as those exported from a spreadsheet or drawing program, are kept as shapes and stay sharp at any zoom. A chart pasted in as a picture or screenshot is an image, so it is resampled along with any scans in the file.