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Compress image to 20KB

Drop a photo in and it comes out at 20KB or under. This is the tightest target here, so expect visible quality loss.

Sample
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1Images
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2Target
Mechanism

How this works

The tool binary-searches JPEG quality between 0.05 and 0.95, keeping the last encoding that still fits under 20,480 bytes. At a target this small, quality alone often will not get there, so it then steps the resolution down through a fixed ladder of 1, 0.8, 0.65, 0.5, 0.4, 0.3, 0.22 and 0.15 of the original and searches quality again at each rung. It stops at the first rung that fits.

Limits

What it cannot do

  • 20KB is small enough that a detailed photograph will lose visible detail. Faces soften and flat areas band.
  • If even the smallest rung of the resolution ladder overshoots, the tool reports the size it actually reached rather than handing you a file a form is going to reject.
Questions

Questions people actually ask

Why do exam portals ask for 20KB?
Portals that expect hundreds of thousands of applicants set the limit at the point where storage and bandwidth stay manageable, and a passport-style headshot at 20KB is still legible enough to check against a person. The number is a budget decision on their side, which is why it is rigid and why arguing with the form gets you nowhere.
My photo still looks acceptable. Why did the resolution drop?
Because JPEG quality bottomed out first. Below roughly 0.05 quality the encoder produces blocking so severe the image is useless, so the tool prefers a smaller, cleaner image over a full-size smeared one. The result panel prints the final pixel dimensions and says outright whether the resolution was reduced.
Will a form accept the file this produces?
It will be under 20KB, which is the part we control. Portals frequently also demand exact pixel dimensions or a minimum size underneath the maximum, and this tool enforces neither. Read the instructions on the form before you upload.
Is my ID photo uploaded anywhere?
No. Compression runs on a canvas inside a Web Worker in your own tab, and there is no upload endpoint on this site to receive the file. That matters more than usual here, because a 20KB target normally means you are preparing a passport photo or a signature for an official portal.