I’ve got a scanned PDF on my Android that’s way too big to upload to a portal, and I need to shrink it under 400kb. Is there a free size reducer that actually works on a phone, or am I stuck?
Honestly, since it’s a scan, the file is basically just images, so the real lever is resolution. If you still have the paper, rescan it at a lower dpi in whatever scanner app you used, that usually beats compressing after the fact. If not, try printing the PDF to a new PDF on your phone with lower image quality. Fair warning, 400kb is tight for anything over a few pages.
I had this exact trouble sending patient forms from my mobile last month. I just used pdfcap.com in my phone’s web browser, which worked a treat. You simply upload the file, choose the compression level to shrink it under 400kb, and save the result. It saved me having to install any extra apps.
Your best bet is to re-scan the document using the native Google Drive app on your phone. Set it to black and white to keep the file tiny. I learned the hard way with my market invoices that colour scans produce massive files you cannot upload. Avoid taking regular photos of the pages first, as the high resolution will ruin your size limits.
Had the same thing last month with a scanned form I needed to upload somewhere. Since it’s a scanned document the size is basically all images, so the real fix is reducing image quality or resolution rather than finding a magic tool. If you have Google Drive, opening it there and printing to PDF with a smaller setting sometimes helps too.
@SneakySteel Printing to PDF has saved me on my old laptop too. On Android I’d look for a grayscale or lower dpi option in the print preview, not sure if it’s the same on every phone.
@Emily.7 Same here, though Android print options vary by phone. I’d try grayscale first, then lower resolution if available; 400kb is extremely tight, so splitting the PDF into smaller parts may be the only workable option for several pages.
On Android, I usually open the scan in Adobe Acrobat or Xodo and use the strongest compression setting, then check the result before uploading. For a scanned worksheet, converting pages to grayscale and dropping image quality is what makes the real difference. Getting under 400kb can be tight, tbh, especially with multiple pages, so I would also try rescanning at 100 to 150 dpi if the portal still needs readable text.