How to Make/ Scan PDFs Smaller (Using Phone App)?

Hi all, just trying to scan / upload invoices.

I have a Canon scanner. Slow as a wet week, and the file size is too big.

Someone said to use PDF scan app on phone. It's faster, but PDFs are still 1mb each. Got about 1000 to send. Not even close to doable?

Only option in PDF scan is high quality. No other choice. Can chose image or doc. I went with doc.

Really want a black and white only option.

Any better apps/ ideas?

Comments

  • +1

    Microsoft Office Lens?

  • +1

    Is the ATO still on your back?

  • +1

    Local library? I used mine to scan in their big copy/scanner and could feed 100 at a time.

    • Nice, how much they charge for scanning and printing btw?

      • My local is free scanning and 10 cents per page to print black and white.

        • Nice thanks

  • +2

    Google drive or OneDrive will do it - Personally I prefer Google Drive but it is blocked for my work.
    If the file is still too large just drag and drop them here
    https://tinywow.com/pdf/compress

    • I know this isnt the same context as OP

      https://imgur.com/a/UEvmin4

      If you know a way to get multiple, >500 page files from 100+ mb to a handful, would happily pay.
      Don't care about pristine quality, just readable.

    • Cheers…this is my plan ..

      Never considered Google drive can be blocked??
      What about a URL in an incognito tab?

      • Government department - blocked due to possibility of malicious files bein stored on drive and getting into our system - hardware also blocked for a time (usb's unable to connect to external drives) until we explained there is no other way we can upload field data from equipment other than by plugging into a USB drive …… IT and security (and Safety) are here to make life hard.

        • +1

          No usb… Any chaffing from the tin foil hats?

  • Google Drive on phone.

    With the scanner, you could scan to image, reduce quality and convert to PDF. Maybe imagemagick.

    1mb each. Got about 1000 to send. Not even close to doable?

    Should be fine. Are there limits to upload location?

  • This should work. What it does is extract the images from the pdf, shrinks them or lowers their quality and reinserts them into the PDF.

    https://www.adobe.com/au/acrobat/online/compress-pdf.html

  • Got about 1000 to send. Not even close to doable?

    are you actually scanning that many?

    1000x 10s/scan > 2.5h continuous scanning

    definitely recommend scanner with auto paper feeder, assuming invoices are A4

    • @tunzafun001, you can also tweak the scanner settings to output only greyscale and scan at a specific resolution to keep file sizes small.

  • HP smart app. but its not very fast. You need a scanner with auto document feeder so that you can pile up documents in batches

  • +1

    If I need to make my PDFs smaller I usually just google "PDF Compress" and use an online service.

    Can usually reduce a 1MB file down to 50/100kB.

    • That's significant..cheers.

  • Just scanned a colour A3 newspaper ad in iOS, 603KB pdf. An A4 sheet with less than 5% text, 222KB

  • hold the phone further away from you?

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