How to compress image to 200 KB
- Tap Choose an image and pick the scan or photo you need to shrink.
- The target is already 200 KB. Tap Compress to 200 KB.
- Zoom into the smallest text on the result and check it is still readable.
- Save the file.
Text breaks before faces do
JPEG compression works by throwing away fine differences between neighbouring pixels, which is generous to skin and cruel to letters. A face at heavy compression looks slightly soft; a printed date at the same setting grows a halo and can turn a 3 into an 8. That is why this page asks you to zoom in rather than glance at the thumbnail.
At 200 KB most single-page scans keep their text cleanly. If yours does not, the usual cause is that the scan is far larger in pixels than it needs to be — a phone photograph of an A4 page is often 12 megapixels when 2 would be plenty, and reducing the pixels first leaves far more room for quality.
Photograph a document rather than scanning it badly
Flat, even light and a plain background compress well. A shadow across the page, a patterned tablecloth in the corner, or a photograph taken at an angle all add detail the encoder must spend bytes on and the portal does not want. Straightening and cropping to the paper edge before compressing is worth more than any setting on this page.