Compress an image to 20 KB
Shrink a signature scan or small photo to 20 KB or less for online applications. Quality goes down to 0.4 and the picture is scaled down when needed. No upload.
Process locally
Files stay in this browser session. Closing or clearing releases them.
Choose files
JPG, PNG, WebP, up to 20
Drop files here, or
Adjust settings
Optional: Target size, Minimum quality, Preserve dimensions
Run
Processes in this browser; cancel at any time
About this task
20 KB is the tightest limit most forms use, typically for a scanned signature or a thumbnail photo in exam and job applications. This page opens the image compressor with a 20 KB target, the lowest “Minimum quality” the tool allows, 0.4, and “Preserve dimensions” off, so it may also make the picture smaller.
Twenty kilobytes holds roughly 300 × 300 pixels of photo, or a signature strip of about 600 × 200 pixels at readable quality. Crop away empty paper around a signature before compressing. A full-size phone photo cannot be compressed this far, so resize it to a few hundred pixels first.
How to do it
- Crop the signature or photo to just the part the form needs.
- Choose or drop the image. JPG works best; PNG and WebP are accepted too.
- Check that “Target size (KB)” is 20, then select Run.
- Look at the result before downloading: at this size, fine strokes and faces can blur.
Common questions
Why is my signature blurry after compressing?
At quality 0.4, JPG smears thin lines on a white background. Crop tighter so that more of the 20 KB goes to the strokes, or sign again with a darker pen. A black-and-white signature can also be saved as PNG, which keeps sharp edges and can be small when it has few colours.
How small will the picture get?
The tool first tries lower quality at full size. From the fifth attempt on, each attempt that is still too large also shrinks the width and height by about 15 percent, so the result can end up at roughly 60 percent of the original size. If even that is too big, you get the smallest version with the code TARGET_UNREACHED.
Can I go below 20 KB?
Yes, down to 10 KB, the smallest target the tool accepts. Below that, very few photos stay recognisable.
Other settings and related tasks
Need other settings? Open the full Compress images tool.