Two megabytes is the kind of limit set by email gateways, learning-management systems, tender portals and job sites that take a CV with a portfolio attached. The files that hit it are rarely scans. They are project reports with a dozen screenshots, slide decks exported to PDF with a photograph on every page, brochures laid out in a design tool and dissertations full of charts, and they arrive at 5MB, 20MB or more.
On this page the limit is fixed at 2MB and the compressor begins as soon as the file is added. Documents like these are often rescued by the first stage alone, which rewrites the PDF in a tighter structure: objects nothing on a page refers to are dropped and the internal tables are packed, and nothing on the page moves. The result card says whether that was enough.
How to use it
- Drop the exported report, deck or brochure on the box above.
- Wait while the three stages run in order, each tried only if the one before left the file above 2,048KB.
- Note the stage named on the result card and compare the before and after sizes.
- Download the copy and, if a chart or logo looks wrong, read the note on vector graphics below.
Why exported PDFs weigh more than they need to
Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs and page-layout applications tend to write generous PDFs. A 4MB photograph placed in a document is often stored at full camera resolution even if it appears as a thumbnail, and each save can leave earlier versions of objects behind. The structural re-save on this page keeps only what the pages refer to and packs the rest; for a twenty-slide deck that can mean a drop from 15MB to under 2MB without any picture changing.
When the photographs themselves have to give
If the re-save leaves the file above 2MB, the second stage goes through the embedded images one by one, lowering their JPEG quality in steps and measuring the whole document after each, then scaling the largest ones down if quality alone is not enough. Diagrams drawn as vector shapes, text, table borders and form fields are left alone by this stage. A brochure with eight full-page photographs normally fits in 2MB with each picture still sharp at screen size, since 250KB a page is a healthy budget for an A4 photo.
What a rasterised fallback costs a designed document
The third stage exists for files that still do not fit, and for designed documents it is the one to avoid. Every page is rendered as a single picture, so vector charts, logos and crisp diagonal lines become pixels that soften when zoomed, and the text can no longer be selected or searched. The page dimensions in centimetres are kept, so it prints at the same size. On a 2MB budget this stage is uncommon for a document under fifty pages; if the card reports it, shrinking the largest photographs before export is the better route.
Frequently asked questions
- Will my charts and logos stay sharp?
- Yes, as long as the result card says "structure only" or "photos re-compressed, text kept". Vector graphics are stored as drawing instructions and pass through those two stages untouched. They only become pixels if the third stage has to run.
- Why did a 12MB deck shrink to 2MB with no visible difference?
- Because most of those 12MB was never on screen: full-resolution originals of pictures shown small and leftover objects from earlier saves. The re-save keeps only what the pages reference, so the pixels you see are the same ones as before.
- Does a 2MB limit mean 2,000KB or 2,048KB?
- The compressor uses 2,048KB, which is 2,097,152 bytes, and nearly all upload checks count the same way. If yours rounds to 2,000,000 bytes, type 1950 into the size box on this page and run it again; the file will then clear either reading.
- My portfolio is sixty pages and 40MB. Will it fit in 2MB?
- Usually. Sixty pages leave about 34KB each, and when the weight is in photographs the first two stages get there with pictures still clear at screen size. If the card reports pages saved as pictures instead, shrink the largest photographs in the source file and export again.