Compress an Image to Under 200 KB

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200 KB is a forgiving limit: enough for a detailed document scan or a reasonably large photograph without obvious compression artefacts. Drop your image in and it is compressed to fit.

What to expect

Can every image reach 200 KB?

Most photographs and document scans reach 200 KB with no visible change at all. This is the range where compression stops being a compromise and simply removes detail nobody was going to look at.

Document portal uploads

A common per file limit where the portal expects a scan rather than a thumbnail.

Web and blog images

A sensible ceiling for images on a page, where total weight affects load time.

Email attachments

Small enough that a set of images stays well inside any mail server limit.

The part people skip

Pixels first, then quality.

File size follows from pixel count. Squeezing a 4000 pixel wide photo down to a small target asks the encoder to describe twelve million pixels in a few kilobytes, and it will, badly. Reduce the dimensions first and the same target becomes easy.

Crop away what is not the subject

Paper around a signature, desk around a document, background around a face. Empty space costs pixels like anything else.

Resize to what is needed

Up to about 1600 px on the long edge for a photograph, more for flat document scans.

Then compress to the limit

Quality comes down until the file is under 200 KB, and stops there. Aim just under the limit rather than far below it: unused bytes are quality discarded for nothing.

Resize first

Need a different size?

Pick the limit you actually have to meet, or set any figure you like on the main compressor.

Under 20 KB Under 50 KB Under 100 KB Under 500 KB Under 1 MB Any size

Common questions

Questions answered.

Will 200 KB look noticeably compressed?

Usually not. At this size a typical photograph keeps enough data that the difference from the original is hard to see without comparing them side by side at full zoom.

Can I get a multi-page scan under 200 KB?

Each page separately, yes. If you need all the pages in one file, convert to a PDF instead and compress that, since a PDF holding several pages compresses more efficiently than several separate images.

Does resizing still help at this size?

Yes, and it is still the first thing to try. A 4000 px photo squeezed to 200 KB looks worse than the same photo resized to 1600 px and then compressed lightly to the same 200 KB.

How does it hit an exact size?

It compresses, measures the result, and narrows in on the quality setting that lands just under your target rather than far below it. Stopping at the first setting that fits means you keep as much quality as the limit allows, instead of always getting the harshest setting.

Should I resize before compressing?

For a tight target, yes, and it is the single biggest thing you can do. File size follows from pixel count, so reducing the dimensions first means the quality setting does not have to work as hard. Compressing first and resizing afterwards throws away quality and then throws away the pixels you paid for it with.

Is my image uploaded anywhere?

No. The compressor runs entirely inside your browser. Your image never leaves your device, there is no account, and there is no queue. That matters most for the files these limits usually apply to, which are identity documents, signatures and photographs of your face.

What if the target cannot be reached?

You get the smallest version that could be produced. When a target is impossible it is usually because the image has more pixels than the target has bytes to describe them, and the fix is to reduce the dimensions rather than to compress harder.

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