Why a quality slider doesn't solve this
Most compression tools ask you to pick a quality percentage — 80%, 60%, 40% — and show you the resulting file size after the fact. That's backwards for a form with a hard limit. You want to start from the number the form gave you (say, 50 KB) and work out what quality gets you there, which usually means compressing, checking the size, and re-exporting two or three times before you land under the limit. If you're doing that by hand in a generic photo editor, it's trial and error every time.
The three things that actually change file size
1. Pixel dimensions
A 4000×3000 photo has 12 million pixels to encode; a 1000×750 version of the same photo has under a million. Reducing the pixel dimensions is often the single biggest lever you have — a photo doesn't need to be full camera resolution to satisfy a portal that just wants a recognisable face.
2. Compression quality (for JPG)
JPEG throws away visual detail the eye is less sensitive to. Lower quality settings mean more detail thrown away and a smaller file, up to a point — below a certain quality, you start seeing blocky artefacts.
3. File format
JPG is lossy and compresses well. PNG is lossless — it never throws away detail, which is great for screenshots and diagrams but means it usually can't shrink nearly as far as a JPG of the same photo. If a form doesn't specify PNG, exporting as JPG usually gets you a smaller file at the same visual quality. HEIC (the format iPhones save photos in by default) compresses well, but most government and exam portals don't accept it at all — check the form before you upload straight off your phone's camera roll.
A simple manual method
If you're doing this without a dedicated tool: convert the photo to JPG, export at a fairly high quality (say 85%), and check the resulting size. If it's over your target, either lower the quality a step and re-export, or — usually more effective — reduce the pixel dimensions by 20-30% and re-export at the same quality. Repeat until you're under the limit. Two or three passes is normal. What's slow about this manually is the repeated export-and-check loop; an app that searches for the right quality and dimension combination automatically saves you the guesswork.
Exam and government portal size limits
Every portal sets its own number, and they change without notice, so treat any list — including this one — as a starting point to double-check against the form in front of you, not a substitute for reading it. These are the limits Wajeez's own built-in portal guide currently uses:
| Portal | Typical photo limit |
|---|
| India — UPSC / SSC exams | 50 KB |
| India — JEE / NEET | 50 KB |
| India — CAT exam | 80 KB |
| India — Passport Seva | 100 KB |
| UAE — ICA / visa portal | 50 KB |
| Saudi Arabia — Absher | 50 KB |
| Kuwait — PACI | 40 KB |
| Qatar — Metrash2 | 50 KB |
| Egypt — government portal | 50 KB |
| Bahrain — eGovernment | 50 KB |
| Jordan — government portal | 100 KB |
| Philippines — DFA passport | 100 KB |
Most of these limits are on the low side — under 100 KB — which is exactly the range where a full-resolution phone photo (often 2-4 MB) needs serious compression, not a light touch.
It's not just the KB number
A file that's under the size limit can still get rejected for the wrong reason. Check the file type the form actually accepts — plenty of government portals take JPG only and reject PNG or HEIC outright. Some also specify pixel dimensions or an aspect ratio for photographs (a passport-style photo, for instance) separately from the KB limit — satisfying one doesn't satisfy the other.
How Wajeez does this automatically
Wajeez is a Kiducate app that takes the manual process above and automates it: enter the exact KB size your form asked for, and it searches for the highest quality that still fits under it, on your device — no uploading, no repeated exporting. It handles JPG, PNG, and HEIC (HEIC photos convert to JPG automatically, since most upload forms won't take HEIC), includes the portal list above as tappable presets, and can batch up to 10 photos in one pass with a before/after comparison slider. If your form wants a compressed PDF rather than an image, that arrives in version 1.2, up to 30 pages, as part of the Everything unlock.
Download Wajeez on the App Store →
Frequently asked questions
Can Wajeez compress a PDF instead of a photo?
Not in the App Store version today, which handles JPG, PNG and HEIC photos. PDF compression arrives in version 1.2, with the same exact-size targeting for documents up to 30 pages, included in the Everything unlock.
Why won't my PNG go below a certain size no matter what I do?
PNG is a lossless format, so it can't be compressed the way a JPG can. If your form accepts JPG, converting to JPG before compressing usually gets you a much smaller file at a similar visual quality.
Does compressing to a smaller KB size ruin the photo?
It reduces detail, and the effect gets more visible as the target gets smaller relative to the original. For photos going into a small ID-style box on a form, that trade-off is usually invisible; for anything printed large, keep the target as generous as the form allows.
Are the portal limits on this page guaranteed to be current?
No — treat them as a starting point. Portals change their requirements without notice, so confirm the exact figure on the form you're filling in before you submit.