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Getting a PDF under 50 KB
50 KB is about the smallest limit you will see for a PDF, and it is realistic for one page. A page exported from Word or a web form is mostly text and is often already under it after the lossless cleanup.
A scanned page is a photo, so it has to shrink. We lower its resolution step by step, as far as 50 dpi for color and 100 dpi for black and white, and keep the first step that fits. Several scanned pages at 50 KB will usually hit that floor, and then you get the smallest file we could make with a note saying so.
Tips
- Upload one page per file. At this size every extra scanned page makes the rest blurrier.
- Scan certificates and marksheets in black and white if the form accepts it. It is far smaller than color at the same sharpness.
- If the scan is a phone photo, crop away the table or desk around the paper first.
Questions
How sharp is a scanned page at the lowest setting for 50 KB?
The last color step is 50 dpi, which makes an A4 page about 413 x 585 pixels. At that size a 10 pt letter is roughly 7 pixels tall, so scanned body text turns soft and small print can smear. Text that is real text in the PDF stays sharp, because only images are resampled.
Why does a two-page scan struggle to get under 50 KB?
Both pages share the same 50,000 bytes, so each gets about 25,000. Every setting is applied to the whole document at once, so the search cannot keep page one sharp and squeeze page two harder. If even the 50 dpi step is too big, you get the smallest file we made and a note saying the target was not reached.
Does a black and white scan keep more detail than grayscale at 50 KB?
Yes. True black and white (one bit per pixel) images have their own steps, from 600 dpi down to 100 dpi. Grayscale follows the color steps, which end at 50 dpi. So at the last step a black and white A4 page keeps about 827 x 1169 pixels, twice the width and height of a grayscale one.