Getting under a size limit
Most Indian portals (passport, UPSC, SSC, bank KYC) cap photos at 20–200 KB. Two levers reduce size: quality, which trims detail invisibly down to about 70%, and scale, which reduces pixel dimensions. A 4,000-pixel phone photo scaled to 25% is 1,000 pixels, plenty for any form, and compresses to a few hundred KB.
Suggested settings
For a 50 KB target, try quality 70 and scale 30. For WhatsApp or email, quality 75 and scale 50 keeps photos sharp on screens while cutting size by 80–90%. PNG screenshots compress best if you convert them to JPG first.
Frequently asked questions
Does compressing reduce quality?
Slightly at quality below 80; above that the difference is invisible on screens.
How do I get a photo under 50 KB?
Set quality 70 and scale 30, then adjust scale up or down until the output size fits.
Can I compress PNG files?
Yes; for large reductions convert PNG to JPG, since PNG is lossless.