When 20 KB Is the Law
Exam registrations, visa applications, government portals and bank forms often enforce brutally small upload limits — and 20 KB is the classic. A phone photo is 2–5 megabytes; getting it 100–250× smaller by hand means endless rounds of guess-compress-check. This tool automates the whole loop: it binary-searches JPG quality levels, and if quality alone can't get there, it progressively scales down dimensions — always landing on the best-looking file that fits under 20 KB.
What Fits in 20 KB?
More than you'd think, if the dimensions are right. 20 KB comfortably holds a clear 300–400px photo — exactly the size portals display. What doesn't fit is a 4000px camera image at any quality, which is why automatic downscaling matters. The tool outputs JPG, the format every uploader accepts, with white backgrounds applied to transparent PNG sources.
Tips for Best Results at Tiny Sizes
- Crop first: a tightly cropped face or signature wastes no budget on background.
- Good lighting helps: noise (grain) is expensive to compress; clean, well-lit photos look better at 20 KB.
- Signatures: photograph on plain white paper — flat backgrounds compress beautifully.
Other Common Limits
Different portal, different number? Use compress to 50 KB or compress to 100 KB, or set any custom target in our JPG compressor. All of them run privately in your browser — important, since these are usually identity documents.