# PDF Compression Cheat Sheet: Target Sizes and Settings — free download from DollarWise (dollarwise.xyz)

Find your scenario, hit the target size with the recommended settings. Test one page first when quality matters.

## Email

- Everyday email (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo): target under 10 MB — 150 DPI, JPEG quality 70, grayscale for text-only pages. This size always delivers and never triggers bounce warnings.
- Email absolute ceiling: most providers reject attachments over 25 MB — 200 DPI, JPEG quality 75, keep color only on pages with photos or charts.
- Corporate Exchange servers: many cap at 10 to 20 MB per message including encoding overhead — target 8 MB to be safe, 150 DPI, JPEG quality 65.
- Emailing to yourself as backup: same as everyday email, but prefer PDF/A format for long-term archiving.

## WhatsApp and messaging

- WhatsApp documents: hard limit of 16 MB — compress to under 15 MB for safety, 150 DPI, JPEG quality 65, grayscale where possible.
- WhatsApp images sent as photos (not documents): WhatsApp recompresses aggressively — send as a document to preserve your compression settings.
- Telegram documents: limit of 2 GB, so compression is about sending speed, not limits — 150 DPI, JPEG quality 70 is plenty.
- Signal and Messenger: treat like WhatsApp — stay under 15 MB per file.

## Web forms and portals

- Job applications and HR portals: most cap at 5 to 10 MB — 150 DPI, JPEG quality 70, grayscale text, flatten transparency before exporting.
- University admissions portals: commonly 5 MB per document — 150 DPI, JPEG quality 60, grayscale, one document per upload slot.
- Government service portals: limits vary from 2 to 10 MB — prepare a 150 DPI, JPEG quality 60 grayscale version as your universal fallback.
- Freelance platform proposals: keep under 10 MB so clients on phones can open them — 150 DPI, JPEG quality 70.

## Kindle and ebooks

- Send to Kindle: keep under 50 MB — 150 DPI is plenty for e-ink screens, JPEG quality 70, grayscale recommended for text.
- Kindle personal documents via email: the @kindle.com address accepts up to 50 MB per email — same settings as above.
- EPUB conversion sources: compress images before converting; oversized source PDFs produce bloated ebooks.

## Visa, passport, and immigration

- Embassy document uploads: commonly capped at 2 to 5 MB per file — 150 DPI, JPEG quality 60 to 65, grayscale, one document per file.
- Passport photo pages and ID scans: 150 DPI is enough for on-screen verification — never submit 600 DPI color scans to a portal.
- Multi-page supporting evidence: split into individually named files under each cap rather than one giant merged PDF.

## Court and legal filings

- Court e-filing systems: most accept 25 to 35 MB per filing — 200 DPI, JPEG quality 75, keep color only for exhibits and evidence photos.
- Exhibits with photos: keep exhibits in color at 200 DPI but compress text sections to grayscale 150 DPI, then merge.
- Certified and stamped copies: scan at 200 DPI grayscale; stamps remain legible and files stay small.

## Recommended settings reference

- DPI rule of thumb: 300 DPI is for print, 150 to 200 DPI is for screens and uploads, and anything above 200 DPI on a web upload is wasted megabytes.
- JPEG quality ladder: 80 to 85 for photo-heavy pages where quality matters, 70 to 75 for general use, 60 to 65 for strict upload caps.
- Color versus grayscale: switching text pages from color to grayscale typically cuts file size by 50 to 70 percent with zero readability loss.
- Black and white line art: use 1-bit black-and-white (not grayscale) for scanned text with no photos — smallest possible size.
- Fonts: embed only the fonts used, subset them, and avoid embedding full font families.
- Before exporting: flatten transparency, discard hidden layers, and remove embedded thumbnails and metadata you do not need.

## Troubleshooting

- File still too large after compression: split the PDF into parts under the limit rather than crushing quality — two clean 12 MB files beat one unreadable 24 MB file.
- One heavy page ruins the average: compress image-heavy pages individually at lower quality and keep text pages light, then merge.
- Text looks blurry after compression: you lowered DPI too far — raise back to 150 DPI and reduce JPEG quality instead; DPI affects text sharpness most.
- Colors look washed out: JPEG quality is too low for photo pages — isolate photo pages at quality 75 and compress the rest harder.
- Always check the final file at 100 percent zoom before submitting: text must stay crisp and photos recognizable.