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PixSqueeze

Compress image to 20 KB

For the strictest upload caps — signatures, thumbnails, form photos. Free, no signup, processed on your device.

Drop images here

or click to browse — pasting a copied image works too

Drop a JPG, PNG or WebP — up to 20 files

The 20 KB problem

20 KB is the tightest limit you will commonly meet, and it almost always means a signature upload. Bank applications, exam registrations and government portals across India ask for a scanned signature between 10 and 20 KB, and reject anything heavier with an unhelpful error. Phone cameras produce files two hundred times that size, so nearly everyone hits this wall.

This page is preset to a 20 KB ceiling. Drop the image, and the tool finds the best quality that fits — measuring real encoded bytes, not estimating. When pure quality reduction isn't enough, it steps the dimensions down until the file fits, because at sizes this small, fewer sharper pixels always beat more blurry ones.

Getting a clean signature under 20 KB

  1. Sign in dark ink on plain white paper — blue or black ballpoint works.
  2. Photograph straight-on in daylight; avoid shadows across the paper.
  3. Crop to just the signature first — the crop tool is one click away. Empty paper costs bytes without adding anything.
  4. Drop the cropped image here and compress. Check it is still legible, then download.

Why tight crops compress better

JPEG spends its byte budget describing detail. A signature photo that is 90% blank paper wastes most of its 20 KB encoding nothing, leaving little for the ink strokes that matter. Cropping to the signature concentrates the entire budget on the strokes — which is why a well-cropped signature at 20 KB looks better than an uncropped one at 50 KB. The same logic applies to thumbnails and profile photos: frame tightly, then compress.

Where the 20 KB cap actually shows up

The 20 KB ceiling has a small handful of recurring homes, almost always for a signature field rather than a photograph. Specs are refreshed each recruitment cycle — always re-check the official notification before you upload — but the usual suspects are:

  • UPSC Civil Services Examination — signature image typically 10–20 KB
  • SSC CGL / CHSL / MTS / GD Constable — signature in the 10–20 KB band
  • IBPS Clerk / PO / SO / RRB — signature 10–20 KB
  • SBI Clerk / PO / SO — signature 10–20 KB
  • Passport Seva (online ePhoto application) — both photo and signature commonly fall in the 10–20 KB band
  • State PSCs and police recruitment portals — signature 10–20 KB on most state portals (BPSC, MPSC, RPSC, etc.)

For the accompanying photograph field the next tier up is usually 50 KB — see compress to 50 KB. If the portal specifies pixel dimensions (commonly around 140×60 px for signatures), set those first with the resize tool.

Frequently asked questions

20 KB is tiny — will my image survive?
It depends on content. A signature on white paper, a small logo or a tightly-cropped headshot compresses to 20 KB easily. A detailed full-scene photo will need its dimensions reduced — the tool does that automatically and shows you the result before you download.
What's typically uploaded at 20 KB?
Mostly signatures and thumbnails. Indian government and banking forms commonly cap the signature image at 10–20 KB, and the photograph at 20–50 KB. Forum avatars and database thumbnails also live in this range.
How should I photograph my signature for upload?
Sign with a dark pen on plain white paper, photograph it straight-on in good light, and crop hard to just the signature with the crop tool. A tight crop on a white background compresses far below 20 KB while staying sharp.
Can the tool fail to reach 20 KB?
Only in rare extremes. If even a heavily scaled-down version can't fit readably, you'll get a clear message with the smallest size that was achievable instead of a silently broken image.
Will UPSC, SSC and IBPS portals accept a JPG compressed here?
Yes. The output is a standard baseline JPEG — the same format every Indian government, banking and exam portal accepts. The compression doesn't change the colour profile, embed unusual metadata or do anything else a strict validator would flag. Re-confirm dimensions if your portal specifies them (use the resize tool first), then drop the result here.
Does my signature get uploaded anywhere?
No. The entire compression runs in your browser. For something as forgeable as a signature image, not sending it to any server is the safest possible handling.

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