Scan ClanHow to compress a PDF to under 1 MB
Upload forms tend to cap attachments at 1 MB or 2 MB, and a multi-page scan sails past that. Open the document in Scan Clan, choose Compress, and pick a level — the new size is shown before you commit, so you are not guessing and re-doing it.
Step by step
Open the document menu
On the document you want to shrink, and choose Compress.
Pick a level
The estimated size for each is shown alongside it.
Check the number before saving
This is the part that saves the repeat attempt: you can see whether you have cleared the limit while you can still change your mind.
Save or share
The compressed copy is what you send.
If it is still too big
Split the document and send the pages that are actually needed. Most forms asking for "proof of address" want one page, not the eleven-page statement it came in.
Re-scan with a lower capture resolution. Capture resolution is a setting, and dropping it makes every page smaller from the start — which beats compressing a needlessly large photo afterwards.
Use Black and White for text pages. A page of text carries no information in its colour, and a one-bit page compresses far harder than a colour photograph of the same sheet.
Why scans get so large
A scanned page is a photograph, not text. A PDF produced by a word processor stores letters as instructions and weighs almost nothing; a scan stores several million pixels per page. That is why ten scanned pages can outweigh a hundred typed ones, and why compression has something to work with in the first place.
See also: how to scan a document to PDF on Android.