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Getting a PDF under 400 KB
At 400 KB a short scanned document, like a four or five page transcript or a lease, usually fits at around 100 to 150 dpi. That is sharp enough to read small print on screen.
Documents with photos or colored backgrounds are the harder case, because every page is a full-color image. Those step down further, and the result is the gentlest setting that still fits under 400,000 bytes.
Tips
- Remove blank pages, including the backs of single-sided sheets that a duplex scanner picked up.
- A document created on a computer, rather than scanned, is often already far under 400 KB. Try the original file before a scan of a printout.
- Zoom in to 100% on the result and read one line of small print before you upload it.
Questions
What does 125 dpi mean for a scanned page in a 400 KB PDF?
An A4 page at 125 dpi is about 1034 x 1462 pixels, and 10 pt text is about 17 pixels tall. That step uses JPEG quality 65. At the 96 dpi step the same text is about 13 pixels tall.
Does getting under 400 KB change the fonts in a digital document?
The fonts look the same. When a lossy step runs, each embedded font is cut down to the characters your document actually uses and stored compressed. A short lease or letter that embeds complete font files saves the most this way, since the unused characters are dropped.
Why does a page with a tinted or patterned background need a lower setting for 400 KB?
Plain white areas compress to almost nothing, while a tint, texture or photo behind the text is detail the JPEG has to store on every page. A transcript on patterned security paper can therefore need a lower step to fit than the same text on plain paper.