Compress JPEG to 10 KB
Ten kilobytes is about the size of a few paragraphs of plain text, so a JPEG only fits when the picture is small and simple. This page finds the best quality that stays at or under 10 KB and shrinks the dimensions only if it has to.
Compress Image
or drop JPG, JPEG, JFIF … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Never shrink below this width when downscaling. 0 means no minimum.
Optionally set the dimensions before compressing. Forms that specify pixels as well as KB need both.
Pixels for the side you chose above.
The search for the target size will not go below this quality; it downscales instead.
4:2:0 halves color resolution and saves a lot on photos; 4:4:4 keeps sharp edges on text, logos and screenshots.
Lossy PNG quantises colors (like TinyPNG) and is far smaller; lossless keeps every pixel.
How to use this tool
- 1
Crop, then upload
Crop the signature or photo tightly first, then add it here. Up to 20 files per run, 95 MB each; PNG, HEIC and WebP inputs are fine.
- 2
Keep the 10 KB JPEG target
Target size is 10 KB and Output format is JPG. Set Resize first to the form's pixel width if it names one.
- 3
Compress to JPG
Press Compress to JPG, check the size shown next to each file, and download.
How do I get a JPEG under 10 KB?
Crop tightly, keep the picture to a few hundred pixels at most, and compress here: the tool picks the highest quality that fits 10 KB and reduces dimensions only if quality alone is not enough.
Where a 10 KB JPEG limit comes from
A hard 10 KB ceiling usually belongs to a signature field, a thumb impression or a small identity thumbnail on an application or account form. Systems that store an image for every applicant set the limit very low, and the database or the old upload script behind them simply refuses anything larger. Unlike a 50 KB or 100 KB limit, 10 KB leaves no slack for a full-size photo.
Read the wording carefully. Many recruitment notices give a band such as 10–20 KB, which makes 10 KB the minimum, not the target. For those, aim near 15 KB. This page is for the forms whose rule is a maximum of 10 KB, and for anyone who needs the smallest readable JPEG they can get, such as an email signature image or a tiny avatar.
Pixel dimensions that fit in 10 KB
140 × 60 px
Signature strip
Usually well under 10 KB at high quality
300 × 100 px
Wide signature
Fits 10 KB on white paper with dark ink
150 × 200 px
Thumbnail photo
Fits at medium quality
300 × 300 px
Square avatar
Upper limit; plain backgrounds help
Kilobytes follow pixels. Every JPEG starts with roughly half a kilobyte of fixed headers and tables, and the rest of the budget is spent on 8 × 8 pixel blocks. A 140 × 60 px signature has about 130 of those blocks; a 300 × 300 px photo has about 1,400. Divide 10 KB by the number of blocks and you see why photos need medium quality while signatures can stay sharp.
When the source is bigger than the target allows, the tool first searches for the highest quality that fits, stopping at Lowest quality allowed (40 by default). If that still is not enough and Allow downscaling is on, it reduces the dimensions step by step until the file fits. The guide to reducing image size in KB walks through the same trade-off for other limits.
What helps and what hurts at 10 KB
Helps
- Tight crop around the signature or face
- Plain white or light background
- Dark ink with even daylight
- Strip metadata on (the default)
- 4:2:0 Chroma subsampling
Hurts
- Full-resolution phone photos
- Shadows and paper texture
- Noise from low-light shots
- EXIF thumbnails and camera tags
- Busy patterned backgrounds
Metadata matters more at this size than anywhere else. A phone photo can carry camera tags and a small preview image inside its EXIF block, which on their own can approach the whole 10 KB budget. Strip metadata is on by default here, so all of that goes before any quality is spent. For files that are not JPEG to begin with, compress image to 10 KB offers the same target with other output formats.
10 KB JPEG: common questions
Can any photo be compressed to 10 KB?
Any photo can be made that small, but not at any size. A full phone photo has to lose most of its pixels to get there, so it ends up around postage-stamp size. If the form allows more pixels than that, it probably also allows more than 10 KB; check the notice again.
The form says 10 to 20 KB. Is a 10 KB target right?
No. This page aims at or just under 10 KB, which can land at 9.8 KB and fail a 10 KB minimum. Aim for the middle of the band with compress JPEG to 20 KB or set Target size to 15.
Why is my 10 KB signature blurry or blotchy?
Usually the image was too large in pixels, so quality had to drop to the floor. Crop away the empty paper, set Resize first to a width near 140–200 px, and run it again. The same 10 KB spread over fewer pixels looks much cleaner.
Does a grayscale JPEG help reach 10 KB?
A little. A signature scanned in gray has almost no color information, and the encoder spends few bytes on it either way. The bigger gains come from cropping, a white background and fewer pixels.
Can I stop the tool from shrinking the image below a certain width?
Yes. Under Advanced settings, set Minimum width to the smallest width the form accepts. If 10 KB cannot be reached above that width, quality drops to Lowest quality allowed instead, and you can lower that floor too.
Is the result a normal JPEG that upload checks accept?
Yes. It is a standard .jpg with the usual JPEG header, so file-type checks that read the content, not only the name, recognize it.