Transcript and file size

[suhasnans]

Dear Forum,

Probably I should post this on a tech forum, but since some of you may have had this problem I am posting it. Indeed, some schools ask you to upload your transcript to their online platform with maximum file size of 1MB. The problem is that the size of my transcript file (PDF) is 3 MB optimized.

So right I am looking for some solutions and suggestions.

Regards

[BlueRose]

Dear Forum,

Probably I should post this on a tech forum, but since some of you may have had this problem I am posting it. Indeed, some schools ask you to upload your transcript to their online platform with maximum file size of 1MB. The problem is that the size of my transcript file (PDF) is 3 MB optimized.

So right I am looking for some solutions and suggestions.

Regards

Happened to me too. Decrease the fidelity of the source image until it's small enough (no, don't shrink it; you need to save it as a jpeg or something else with lossy compression) and then resave it as a PDF, which will be basically the same amount of memory.

[suhasnans]

Happened to me too. Decrease the fidelity of the source image until it's small enough (no, don't shrink it; you need to save it as a jpeg or something else with lossy compression) and then resave it as a PDF, which will be basically the same amount of memory.

Ok I am trying right now. Thank you for your help.

[suhasnans]

Unfortunately it is not working since all the pictures were already optimized in JPEG format.

[Emerson]

I totally just went through this problem an hour ago. This is what I did:

Open the pdf in Preview, then go to "save as," and then click the "reduce file size" under the "Quartz filter" option.

Best of luck!

[eklavya]

Open the pdf in Preview, then go to "save as," and then click the "reduce file size" under the "Quartz filter" option.

this will only work with advanced version of Adobe Acrobat (or any other pdf file viewer). if you don't have it, perhaps someone around you does - your parents (at their home or office), professor, dept secretary, or even the copy center in your university. someone should be able to help you out.

[BlueRose]

What program did you use to scan your transcripts? I would be surprised if it didn't have a way to specify image quality / file size.

I don't think free Acrobat reader does it, nor does the basic Windows picture editor. But I'm pretty sure there's freeware out there that will.

[waddle]

try using Irfanview (freeware) to compress your images

[maximalist]

I had this issue with one of my transcripts too...try saving the PDF in black and white instead of color.

[newms]

You could also insert the images in MS Word (if you have MS Word) and then saving it as a pdf (If you have a version of Word prior to Word 2007 - you can freely install cutepdf to do this). The resulting file should be smaller than the jpg.

[wannabee]

I am not a technical genius and tried every trick in the book. I finally gave up and took the documents to a commercial place and waited while they did the work. They got everything in order and emailed back the attachments. I paid $15 total for four schools. It was an enormous relief. Even they had trouble doing it because one of the schools specified 500KB. They ended up scratching out the background with all the funny doodles but leaving all the print and seals in place.

[UrbanWonk]

This might help someone, as I just went through this--I have a mac, and using Preview's quartz filter made my transcript utterly unreadable. I instead saved it as a jpeg, slid the "quality" down until the file size read below the limit (2.0 MB, but it can go far lower), and then resaved that as a pdf. I tried switching to grayscale & b&w, and that didn't change file size any. Hopefully they don't mark me down for my scan job being a slight bit crooked!

Edited December 2, 2010 by UrbanWonk

[anonacademic]

Thanks for all of your helpful suggestions! Just one of my schools wants scans - and it's turned into a bigger headache than the one that wanted 2 sealed official copies

I had Staples scan my 3 transcripts (the man who helped me did it for free! So nice.) The problem now is that I have them all in the same file and I can't delete pages to create 3 separate files for each of my schools. Of course there are separate Upload buttons for each school on the application.

I've tried everything, including downloading Adobe, saving them as a JPEG, and using Word/TextEdit. I don't understand why I can't delete pages and I am getting frustrated! If anyone has helpful suggestions, I'd be very much obliged.

EDIT: I'm on a Mac, and Preview has been my standby until this point.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Chumlee

[anonacademic]

OK, so I found a way to delete pages without being permitted to use the "delete" or "cut" buttons (I cropped the unneeded pages as far down as I could), but now I'm having the exact same problem as the original poster. My file is too large, much too large, and even when I saved it as black and white it was still way over the limit. (Saving it in Preview under the "Compress file size" option rendered it unreadable.)

So my question is, is it a bad idea to contact the school and ask if I can send it as an email attachment instead?

[waddle]

Chumlee, if you can get access to a Windows computer, download and run PDF Split and Merge--free. Use the 'burst' option; it should work to split up your PDF file into single pages, without changing total file size or quality.

[anonacademic]

Chumlee, if you can get access to a Windows computer, download and run PDF Split and Merge--free. Use the 'burst' option; it should work to split up your PDF file into single pages, without changing total file size or quality.

Thank you! I'll try that.

[luce373]

If the way you're scanning it allows you to copy/paste the scans into a Word document, then you're golden. At least with Word 2007, you can then save it as a .pdf and click "optimize for minimum size". My transcript is 3 pages and ~250 KB. It's a little fuzzy, but I don't know what kind of resolution they're expecting with such restrictive file size limits.

[anonacademic]

If the way you're scanning it allows you to copy/paste the scans into a Word document, then you're golden. At least with Word 2007, you can then save it as a .pdf and click "optimize for minimum size". My transcript is 3 pages and ~250 KB. It's a little fuzzy, but I don't know what kind of resolution they're expecting with such restrictive file size limits.

I did copy/paste into Word but the results were so poor that there was nothing salvageable about the document. I finally had some sort of success - the quality is probably about the equivalent of a kindergartner's first attempts with scissors - so it's not great but it'll have to do. I think it's legible, and that's the main thing. And I totally cosign your last sentence. I had great files (well, kinda) but when I attempted to upload them of courser they were too big. What do you want from me?!?!

[criscamino]

This all looks very useful. Having waded through Harvard's application form for Arts and Sciences, which for some reason feels four times the length of any other Ivy, I've finally got to uploading my (frankly, rather gaudy) Berkeley transcript and it's well over twice the size it should be!