Compress an image to 20 KB

Get a photo or scanned signature under 20 KB - a common limit on online application forms. The tool lowers quality and size only as much as needed, on your device.

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    Why forms ask for photos under 20 KB

    Online exam and recruitment forms frequently ask for a signature under 20 KB, sometimes a photo too. Phone cameras produce photos of 2-5 MB, so a photo straight from the camera is far over the limit. Shrinking it means lowering the JPG quality, reducing the pixel dimensions, or both.

    Doing that by hand takes trial and error. This page does the search for you: it encodes the photo several times, homes in on the best quality that fits, and only reduces the dimensions when even low quality is not enough.

    Tips for the best result

    • Crop first. Every pixel you remove is quality you keep. A head-and-shoulders crop needs far fewer bytes than a full-frame photo.
    • Use JPG. For photos it gives the most detail per kilobyte that any form will accept. Choose PNG only for scans of signatures or text with a plain background.
    • Check the dimensions. If the form specifies them in pixels, set them under Resize so the size limit is not reached by shrinking the photo more than needed.

    How your files stay private

    Most free converters upload your file, process it on their server and send the result back - so a copy of it passes through somebody else's machine. This page does all of the work in your browser instead. The files you choose are read into memory on your own device, processed there and handed back as a download; none of their contents is transmitted. You can switch off Wi-Fi after the page has loaded and it keeps working.

    Frequently asked questions

    How do I compress a photo to 20 KB without losing quality?

    Some quality is always traded for size, but this tool keeps as much as possible: it tries the highest JPG quality first and only lowers it - or reduces the pixel size - as far as needed to get under 20 KB. For ID photos and forms the result is usually indistinguishable from the original at normal viewing size.

    Will the photo still meet the form's pixel requirements?

    If the form also asks for exact dimensions (for example 600 × 600 px), choose Custom size under Resize and enter them, then keep the size limit. The tool resizes first and then compresses to the limit.

    Why is my result slightly under the limit?

    The tool aims for the largest file that still fits, so a photo set to 20 KB typically comes out a few KB below it. Forms reject files that are even one byte over, so a small margin is deliberate.

    Is my photo uploaded?

    No. Compression runs in your browser with WebAssembly encoders, so the photo never leaves your device. That matters for passport scans, ID photos and signatures, which are exactly what size-limited forms ask for.

    Can I compress several photos to the same size at once?

    Yes. Drop them all in; each one is compressed to the limit separately and you can download them together as a ZIP.