Grayscale sits only on the last three rungs, so a document that can fit in colour keeps its colour. When the setting that fits is not the top rung and leaves more than a fifth of the limit unused — under 800 KB — Bindery measures one setting halfway to the next higher-quality rung and keeps it only if it is larger and still fits, so less of your megabyte goes unused. If nothing fits, Bindery says why — text, fonts and structure alone exceed 1 MB, or the pictures are still too heavy at the lowest setting — shows the smallest size the file reaches, and offers to split it into parts under 1 MB. If every file goes to the same CMS or ticketing tool, Save these settings as my default keeps the 1 MB limit for next time. Text is never rasterised, and nothing leaves your browser tab.
How it works
- Drop your PDF — Compress opens with the limit set to 1 MB and computes the three level sizes on your device
- Bindery measures real settings and selects the highest-quality version at or under 1 MB, naming it — for example “images at 150 DPI, quality 60”; the search itself does not count as a job
- Press “Compress to …” — the button shows the measured size — and download; if the file cannot fit whole, choose “Split into parts under 1.0 MB”
Questions people ask
Does Bindery count 1 MB as 1,000,000 or 1,048,576 bytes?
As 1,000,000 bytes, the decimal megabyte. That is slightly stricter than 1,048,576, so a file Bindery puts under 1 MB also clears a 1 MB limit counted in binary megabytes. The limit is checked against the file you actually download: on the free plan the small “Made with Bindery” line is added before the final size check, and if it tips the file over 1 MB the search runs again with less room. If your form states a different figure, type it into the size box — “950 KB” and “1,5 MB” both work.
What if my scan still will not fit under 1 MB?
Then Bindery cannot get the whole document under 1 MB in one file — even its lowest setting, 50 DPI in grayscale, comes out too big. “Split into parts under 1.0 MB” hands that smallest version to Split with the 1 MB limit already set, and Split measures each part by really writing it; a page that is over 1 MB on its own still becomes its own part and is flagged. Those parts are small but soft. If the form or ticket accepts several attachments and you would rather keep the original quality, split the original file instead — any page over 1 MB on its own stays over as its own part, so check the flags — or use Extract pages when only a few pages are needed.
My 1 MB limit is for a government or visa portal — is size all I need to check?
Often not. Upload-ready’s Government or visa portal destination starts at this same 1 MB limit and also checks that the file is unlocked, has no fillable fields, no scripts and no embedded attachments. It fixes what it can in one pass — Fit to size included — checks again, and gives you a plain-text report of every check and change. It does not know a particular portal’s exact rules and cannot promise acceptance, so set the limit the portal states; the report itself notes that portals can have rules it does not cover, such as file names or page counts.