Why you need a small image file
Application portals such as Workday, Taleo, and university admission systems often cap uploads at 1–2 MB, and headshots for LinkedIn or ID badges typically need to be under 100–500 KB. A modern phone photo is 3–8 MB.
Which setting should I use?
- Headshot for an application: JPG, quality 80, max width 800 px → usually 60–120 KB.
- Portfolio images for the web: WebP, quality 75, max width 1600 px.
- Scanned documents or screenshots with text: PNG keeps text crisp; use JPG only if size is critical.
Photo rules by country — check before you resize
"Attach a photo" means different things depending on where you are applying, and getting it wrong is one of the few genuinely avoidable rejections:
- United States and Canada. Do not attach a photo to a resume at all. US and Canadian employers generally strip or discard resumes with photographs because a visible face creates a discrimination-claim exposure during screening. Keep the headshot for LinkedIn, where the recommended upload is square and at least 400 × 400 px.
- United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Same convention — CVs are photo-free, and recruitment agencies routinely remove identifying details before passing a CV to the client. Photos belong on the profile, not the document.
- Much of continental Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Poland) still expects a photo on a CV. If you are applying there from one of the four markets above, that is the one case where the headshot goes in the document.
- University and visa portals are the strictest. UCAS, Common App and the Australian and Canadian student-visa systems each publish exact pixel dimensions and maximum file sizes for ID photographs; read the field's own hint text, because it usually differs from the portal's general upload limit.
Getting under a stubborn limit
When a portal still refuses a file, work down this list in order rather than dragging the quality slider to the floor:
- Reduce the dimensions first. File size scales with area, not with width, so halving 3000 px to 1500 px removes about three quarters of the data before any quality loss is visible. Most portals display a headshot at under 400 px, so 800 px is already generous.
- Then drop quality, but stop at about 60. Between 80 and 60 the file keeps shrinking and almost nothing visible changes. Below 50, compression artefacts show up first around hair, spectacle frames and the edge of a shirt collar — exactly where a human reviewer looks.
- Crop before you compress. A tight head-and-shoulders crop discards background pixels that were costing you file size and improves the photo besides.
- Switch format last. WebP is typically 25–35 % smaller than JPG at matching quality, but only use it where you control the destination. If the upload field lists accepted types, obey that list exactly.
One thing compression will not fix: a scan of a document that is unreadable at 1 MB is still unreadable at 200 KB. For scanned transcripts, references and certificates, keep PNG, keep the resolution, and split a multi-page scan into separate uploads if the portal allows it.
Privacy
Compression runs on your device using the browser's canvas API. Your photos never leave your computer or phone.
That is worth spelling out, because a headshot and a scanned passport page are exactly the kind of files you should be reluctant to hand to a free website. There is no upload step here to opt out of: open your browser's network tab while you compress and you will see no request leave the page. It is also why the tool works offline once loaded, has no account, and places no cap on how many files you run through it.
FAQ
What file size do job application portals actually accept?
Workday, Taleo, SuccessFactors and most US, UK, Canadian and Australian university portals cap uploads at 1 to 2 MB, and dedicated photo fields are often 100 to 500 KB. A photo straight off a modern phone is 3 to 8 MB, so it will be refused untouched.
Will compressing ruin my headshot?
Not at sensible settings. Quality 80 at 800 px wide is visually identical on screen and usually lands between 60 and 120 KB. Below about quality 50 you will start to see blocking around hair, glasses and high-contrast edges.
Should I choose JPG, PNG or WebP?
JPG for photographs and headshots, PNG for screenshots and scanned documents where text must stay crisp, WebP for images on your own website. Choose JPG whenever you are uploading somewhere you do not control — some older application portals still reject WebP outright.
Are my photos uploaded to your server?
No. Compression uses your browser's canvas API on your own device, so the files never leave your computer or phone. That is also why there is no account, no queue and no limit on how many you process.