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How to make a PDF smaller than 1 MB or 2 MB for an online form

"File too large. Maximum 2 MB." It usually happens at the last step of an application. Scanned pages are the main culprit: each page is a full photo. The fix is to compress the PDF, choosing the right level for the limit you need to meet.

Open the tool: Compress PDF

Step by step

  1. Open Compress PDF on Convert Magician and drop your file.
  2. Start with Recommended. It shrinks scanned pages a lot while keeping them readable.
  3. Check the new size shown on screen. Still too big? Choose Strong and compress again.
  4. Download the smaller file and upload it to the form.

Good to know

  • Light compression keeps text selectable and quality untouched, but saves less on scans.
  • If one huge page is the problem, remove pages you do not need with Remove pages before compressing.
  • You never get a file larger than the original: if compression cannot help, you keep the original.

Questions

How small can a PDF get?

A typical scanned page goes from 1–3 MB to 100–300 KB with Recommended. Text-only PDFs are usually small already.

Will it still be readable?

Yes for normal documents. For tiny print or detailed drawings, use Light or Recommended rather than Strong.

Open the tool: Compress PDF

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