Make your PDF ready to upload
Drop photos, PDFs or iPhone pictures, tell us what the form asks for, and get one PDF that meets it: under the size limit, on A4 or Letter, and in black & white if needed.
Choose photos or PDFs
or drop them here · several at once, any mix
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How to use it
- Choose the photos and PDFs the file has to include, in the order you want them. You can add more later.
- Tap what it’s for, or type the maximum size you were given. Pick A4 or Letter, and black & white only if it’s required.
- Tap “Make it ready”. You get one PDF and a checklist of what it meets.
What it does, in one step
Upload forms tend to ask for three things at once: a single file, under a size limit, and often on A4 or Letter. That usually means converting photos, merging, compressing, checking the size and starting over when it doesn’t fit. Here you say what they ask for and it happens in one go:
- Each photo and page goes onto a sheet of the size you chose, upright and centered.
- We work from the gentlest compression to the strongest and keep the first one that fits, so you lose as little as possible.
- Whenever possible, your PDF pages are copied as they are and their text stays text. Only if there’s no other way to fit do they become images.
Measured cases
We tested on a desktop computer with phone photos of a 4-page certificate, taken at 12 megapixels (3.5 MB in all), and with test PDFs. Times include trying each level.
| What went in | Required | What came out | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 photos of the certificate | 1 MB | 1006 KB in 0.2 s | No quality lost (2200 px on the long side) |
| The same 4 photos | 200 KB | 164 KB in 1.4 s | 850 px: 11 pt text reads well, 8 pt fine print takes effort |
| The same 4 photos | 100 KB | 84 KB in 1.6 s | 600 px: normal text gets hard to read. It fits, and we ask you to check it |
| 4 photos plus a 5-page PDF | 2 MB | 1020 KB, 9 pages | The 5 PDF pages keep selectable text |
| A 6-page scanned PDF (3.7 MB) | 1 MB, on Letter | 914 KB in 0.5 s | Pages as 1800 px images: the scan was already an image |
Limits, measured
- What always becomes an image: photos, and everything when you choose black & white. We tell you before processing.
- Very small limits: the size is shared across pages. With 4 pages, 200 KB still reads well and 100 KB doesn’t. If a result drops below readable, we warn you; if it won’t fit at all, we tell you the smallest size we reached.
- Certificate-based digital signatures: any change breaks them. If the document comes signed, upload it as is or ask whoever signed it for a lighter copy.
- Photos come out without camera details or GPS: placing them on the sheet saves them again, without that data.
Only need to shrink a PDF that’s otherwise fine? Compress PDF gives you more control. Want to check what details it carries before you send it? Run it through What’s hidden in your PDF.
Questions
How small can a PDF get before it’s unreadable?
It depends on the number of pages, since they share the budget. In our test, 4 photographed pages came out at 164 KB with normal text easy to read; at 84 KB it was a struggle. When a result drops below that point, we say so, so you can check it before uploading.
Why did my PDF’s text turn into an image?
Either you chose black & white, which turns everything into images, or the size limit couldn’t be met by copying the pages as they are. The result shows how many pages kept selectable text, for example “5 / 9”.
Can I change the page order?
Pages follow the order in which you choose the files. If something’s out of place, remove it with the cross and add it again with “Add more”: it goes to the end.
Other tools
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