Compress JPG to 200 KB

200 KB is probably the most common size limit for image uploads on application forms. It is large enough for a sharp portrait or a readable photo of an ID card, yet small enough that an unedited phone photo will almost always be rejected. This page is preset to 200 KB so you can go straight from the original file to an upload-ready JPEG.

Common 200 KB uploads

Forms for jobs, admissions, scholarships and exams often use 200 KB for:

• A formal photo, sometimes with a specified background colour.
• A selfie holding an ID card, used for identity checks.
• A photo or scan of a national ID card.

For instance, the 2023 SSCASN technical FAQ from Indonesia's civil service agency asked for JPG or JPEG files for the photo, selfie and ID card, with the size shown inside the system. That is typical: the format and the size limit are set by the portal, and its current instruction is what you should follow.

How the 200 KB target is hit

The browser decodes your image, shrinks it to 2400 px on the longest side if it is bigger, and encodes it as JPEG at the starting quality (84% by default). If the file is above 188,000 bytes, which is 200,000 bytes minus a 6% margin, the tool lowers quality by 10 points and tries again. It can do this up to 7 times and never goes below 18% quality. If the file is still too big at the 18% floor, the tool then shrinks the pixel dimensions step by step (never below 640 px on the longest side) and shows the final dimensions in the result.

Most phone portraits fit on the first or second attempt, so the quality reported in the result is often in the 70s or 80s.

Getting a better-looking result

1. Crop first. Remove ceiling, floor and empty wall around the subject. Fewer pixels of background leave more of the budget for the face or card.
2. Use even light. Noise from a dim room takes extra bytes and looks grainy after compression.
3. Hold the camera straight. For ID cards, a straight, flat shot avoids glare and keeps text sharp.
4. Check the quality number. If it dropped below about 40, zoom in for blocky edges and consider cropping tighter.

If the form needs a red or blue background for your photo, prepare it with the red background ID photo tool and then bring the result here if it is still too large.

What stays private

The image is processed in the tab and is never uploaded. Re-encoding strips EXIF data, so camera model and GPS location are not passed along to the portal. Only page-view analytics are collected; file names and contents are not. Give the file a clear name before uploading, such as ktp-scan.jpg or selfie-with-id.jpg.