JPG to PDF under 500 KB

Turn phone photos of a document, about 4 to 8 pages, into one PDF under 500 KB that stays readable. Put the pages in order and see the size. Free, no upload.

How do I turn photos into a PDF under 500 KB?

To turn JPG photos into a PDF under 500 KB, SafeResize puts them on A4 or US Letter pages and lowers the sharpness until the PDF is 500,000 bytes or less, which passes whether a website counts 1 KB as 1,000 or 1,024 bytes.

500 KB in bytes	500,000 bytes, or 512,000 bytes when 1 KB is counted as 1,024 bytes, as Windows does
500 KB in MB	0.5 MB, or 0.488 MB as Windows counts
The PDF you download	500,000 bytes or less, so both counts accept it. Windows shows it as 488.3 KB or less.
Each page gets, shared evenly	About 250 KB with 2 pages, or 100 KB with 5
Sharpness of each page	150 DPI first, then 120, 100, 80 and 60 DPI, stopping at the first that fits

Before you start

500 KB is a roomy limit for a PDF made from phone photos: enough for a document of several pages, such as a certificate with its annex, a bank statement or a signed contract, if the photos are taken well. Each phone photo is often 2 to 5 MB, so the pages still have to shrink a lot.

The tool below opens with "Under 500 KB" chosen. Add your photos, put them in order, and press "Make my PDF". It saves the pages at 150 DPI and lowers the picture quality until the PDF fits, and lowers the sharpness only when that is not enough. The result page shows the size, the number of pages and the DPI.

Tips

Crop each photo to the page on your phone first. The PDF keeps the whole photo, table and shadows included, and every bit of table takes space from your text.

Take all the photos in the same even daylight. Grainy photos from a dim room need more space for the same sharpness.

More than about 8 pages? Check the result closely, or make two PDFs if the form allows more than one file.

What we measured: 1 to 15 pages in 500 KB

The tool has two sample photos of printed pages lying on a table, 1800 × 2400 pixels each. We repeated them to make documents of 1 to 15 pages and turned each into an A4 PDF under 500 KB, in Color. Below are the DPI and the JPG quality the tool settled on, with sizes as the result page shows them. The sample photos have random grain, so another run can differ a little. With these grey pages, Black & white changed little; it saves more on pages with colour.

1 or 2 pages: 150 DPI at 85%, the best it uses. Two pages came to about 450 to 470 KB.

3 to 6 pages: 150 DPI, from 77% for 3 pages down to 47% for 6.

8 to 12 pages: still 150 DPI, from 33% for 8 pages down to 12% for 12. Small print may look blocky.

15 pages: 120 DPI, at 19%.

Questions and answers

How many pages fit in a 500 KB PDF?

In our test with the sample page photos, up to 6 pages kept a fair picture quality (47% or more), 8 to 12 pages fitted with a low one, and 15 pages needed a lower sharpness. Your own pages may fit more or fewer, and the result page tells you the size.

Is 500 KB the same as 0.5 MB?

Yes, by the metric count: 500 KB is 500,000 bytes, or 0.5 MB. Windows counts 1 KB as 1,024 bytes, so it shows a file of 500,000 bytes as about 488 KB. SafeResize keeps the PDF under 500,000 bytes, so it passes both ways.

Should I use this page or Compress PDF to 500 KB?

Use this page when you have photos or scans as JPG or PNG files. If you already have a PDF that is too big, use Compress PDF to 500 KB instead: it makes an existing PDF smaller.