# Merge Scanned Documents into One PDF Under 200 KB for an Application Portal

> Combine phone scans and existing PDFs into a single file under 200 KB. A measured step order, the page-size setting to change, and how to keep text sharp.

**Canonical:** https://trydocsy.com/blog/merge-scanned-documents-pdf-under-200kb
**Last updated:** 2026-09-28
**Published:** 2026-09-17
**Privacy:** Runs in your browser; the file is never uploaded.

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Scholarship, admission and recruitment portals often give you one upload slot and a small limit, while your documents are a mix of phone photos, scanner PDFs and certificates downloaded as PDFs. This walk-through combines them into a single file under 200 KB, in an order we tested so the result stays readable.

## Short answer

Turn photos into a PDF with [Image to PDF](https://trydocsy.com/convert/image-to-pdf) using the A4 page size, merge all the scanned pages with [Merge PDF](https://trydocsy.com/pdf/merge), compress that scanned part to a little under the limit with [Compress PDF](https://trydocsy.com/pdf/compress), and only then merge in any digital PDFs. Our three scanned pages went from 1,661,799 bytes to 147,820, and the final four-page file with the digital certificate was 148,884 bytes.

## A typical requirement

The West Bengal scholarship portal's NMMSE 2026 instructions are a good example of the rules you'll meet. Certificates such as income and caste certificates are uploaded as scanned PDF documents, and the maximum size of each scanned PDF is 200 KB. The photo is separate, a JPG of up to 50 KB. Other portals phrase it differently, sometimes with a minimum as well, so read your own notice for the exact numbers and which documents go into which slot.

When one slot must hold several pieces of paper (a two-sided mark sheet, an ID card front and back, a covering letter), you have to merge before you upload, and merging is where file sizes get out of hand.

## Why merged scans are so big

Merging and converting don't compress anything. When you turn JPG photos into a PDF, the image-to-PDF tool places each JPEG inside the PDF exactly as it is. Our two A4 scans at 300 DPI were JPEG files of 767,229 and 722,294 bytes, and the two-page PDF made from them was 1,491,215 bytes, just the two images plus about 1.7 KB of PDF structure. Merging PDFs works the same way: it copies pages across, so the merged file is roughly the sum of its parts.

That is good news for quality, because nothing degrades until you choose to compress. It also means the compression step has to do all the work at the end, and its settings decide whether the result is readable.

> **Change Fit to Image to A4**
>
> The image-to-PDF tool defaults to a Fit to Image page size, which makes each page as many points wide as the photo has pixels. A 2481-pixel scan becomes a page about 87 cm wide. It looks fine on screen but prints huge and confuses some portals' previews. Choose A4 (or Letter) before converting.

## Two step orders, measured

Our set of documents: a colour mark-sheet scan and a grayscale ID scan (both JPG), a letter already scanned to PDF at 150 DPI, and a one-page certificate downloaded as a digital PDF with real text. We tried two orders to reach 200 KB.

*Byte counts from the site's tools, measured 17 September 2026 in Microsoft Edge*

| Step | Order 1: merge everything, then compress | Order 2: compress scans, then add digital PDF |
|---|---|---|
| Two JPG scans to A4 PDF | 1,491,215 | 1,491,215 |
| Merge | All four pages: 1,662,862 | Three scanned pages: 1,661,799 |
| Compress, Target Size | 200 KB target: 186,669 | 190 KB target: 147,820 |
| Final merge | Not needed | Certificate added: 148,884 |
| Certificate text selectable? | No, turned into an image | Yes, unchanged |

Both finished well under 200 KB, and at 100 percent zoom the scanned text was equally readable in each. The difference is the certificate. The compressor redraws every page as a JPEG picture, so in Order 1 the certificate's crisp vector text became a compressed image and could no longer be selected or searched. In Order 2 it went in untouched and added only 1,064 bytes, because a text-only PDF page is tiny.

Compression doesn't change page size. The compressor renders each page to a JPEG and draws it back onto a page with the original page's dimensions, so a scan that was A4 before compressing is still A4 afterwards and prints the same way.

## Step by step (the order we recommend)

1. Collect everything in one folder and name files in the order they should appear, such as 1-marksheet.jpg and 2-id-front.jpg.
2. Open Image to PDF, add the photos, choose A4 as the page size, check the order, and press the Convert button (for two photos it reads Convert 2 Images to PDF). Download the PDF.
3. Open Merge PDF, add that file plus any other scanned PDFs, drag them into order, and press the Merge button, such as Merge 2 PDFs. Download the merged PDF.
4. Open Compress PDF, choose Target Size, type a number a bit below your limit (190 for a 200 KB limit), click KB, and press Compress. The unit starts on MB, and a target of 190 MB would barely shrink anything.
5. Open Merge PDF again and combine the compressed scans with any digital PDFs such as downloaded certificates. Put them in the order the portal expects.
6. Check the final size in your file manager and open the PDF once to zoom into the smallest print before uploading.

> **Why aim below the limit**
>
> Leaving 5 to 10 KB of room covers the pages you add in the last merge and any difference between how the portal and the tool count kilobytes. This compressor counts 1 KB as 1,024 bytes.

## When the limit is very tight

Three or four scanned pages fit comfortably in 200 KB. Ten pages will not look good at that size, because each page gets about 20 KB. Before lowering the target further, work through these:

- Leave out anything the notice didn't ask for, such as blank reverse sides and instruction pages.
- Crop scans to the paper edge before converting. A phone photo that includes the table around the document wastes bytes on wood grain.
- Photograph documents in good light rather than dim indoor light. Noise from a dark photo is expensive to compress and ugly when compressed.
- If the portal accepts separate uploads per document, use them. Each file then gets its own 200 KB.

## Problems you might hit

- “is password-protected and was skipped” when merging: a downloaded bank or university PDF may be encrypted. Remove the password (you need to know it) and merge again.
- An image won't convert: unusual formats and CMYK JPEGs are re-encoded through the browser, and if that fails the image is skipped with a message. Re-save it as a normal JPG and retry.
- Pages in the wrong order: fix the order in Merge PDF before compressing, because every extra round of compression costs a little quality.
- Compression stops with a timeout: keep the tab visible while it runs. Browsers slow down background tabs, and the tool stops after 90 seconds.
- Photos larger than 20 MB each: the image-to-PDF uploader turns them away. Resize the photo first; you don't need 50-megapixel scans for a portal.

## How we measured

- Samples: a 2481 × 3507 px colour scan (767,229 bytes) and grayscale scan (722,294 bytes) of a one-page A4 notice, rasterised with Pillow; a one-page 150 DPI scanned PDF of the same notice (171,037 bytes); and a one-page certificate PDF with standard-font text generated with pdf-lib (1,637 bytes). All synthetic, no real personal documents.
- Tools: /convert/image-to-pdf (A4), /pdf/merge and /pdf/compress (Target Size, KB) from the development build of 17 September 2026, driven in Microsoft Edge. Sizes are the downloaded files.
- Checks: page count, page dimensions and selectable text read with pypdf; scan readability judged by eye on a crop of 11 pt text.

## Frequently asked questions

**Q: Does merging PDFs reduce their size?**
A: No. Merging copies pages into one file, so the result is about the total of the inputs. In our test three scanned pages of 1,491,215 and 171,037 bytes merged into 1,661,799 bytes. Compress after merging to shrink it.

**Q: Should I compress each file before merging?**
A: Compress the scanned pages together in one pass, then add digital PDFs afterwards. Compressing files one by one makes it harder to hit a total limit, and compressing a digital PDF turns its text into an image.

**Q: Can I merge JPG and PDF files together directly?**
A: Merge PDF accepts PDF files only. Convert the JPGs to a PDF first with Image to PDF, then merge that PDF with the others.

**Q: My portal says under 200 KB but my 195 KB file is rejected. Why?**
A: Some portals count 1 KB as 1,000 bytes, so 195 KB by the 1,024 convention is 199,680 bytes, just under 200,000, and a few bytes of rounding can tip it over. Aim for 190 KB or lower to be safe.

**Q: Are my documents uploaded when I merge and compress them here?**
A: No. Conversion, merging and compression run inside your browser tab and the files stay on your device until you upload the final PDF to the portal yourself.

## Tools used in this guide

- [Image to PDF](https://trydocsy.com/convert/image-to-pdf) — Convert images to a PDF document
- [Merge PDF](https://trydocsy.com/pdf/merge) — Combine multiple PDF files into one document
- [Compress PDF](https://trydocsy.com/pdf/compress) — Shrink a PDF to a target size in KB or MB; pages are re-rendered as images

## Sources

- [Govt. of West Bengal Scholarships Portal: NMMSE instructions (document upload limits)](https://banglarshiksha.wb.gov.in/scholarships/nmmse_instructions.php) (read September 17, 2026)

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