PDF Too Large for Tax Portal Upload? Shrink It on a Mac

There is no single cap. The portals we read range from 2 MB to 1 GB, and some count per file while others count the whole return. Check your own software’s page, because versions and products differ.

Two details matter. The Thomson Reuters figures apply to uncompressed PDFs, so read that page before assuming compression changes your outcome there. And the IRS page limits PDFs to 120 pages each: a 200-page client binder needs splitting, which Smol does not do.

A scan is a photograph of each page. In our scanned PDF test, a three-page agreement as a text PDF was 87,788 bytes. The same pages scanned at 300 PPI in color were 5,017,560 bytes and held no text at all.

So the one lever that matters is resolution. Smol’s PDF presets cap the long edge of the page images at 600, 900, 1,200, 1,800 and 2,400 pixels for Tiny, Small, Medium, Large and Original, which is a pixel cap, not a DPI target. On a letter page that worked out to about 55, 82, 109, 164 and 218 PPI in that test. The preset explainer, what the PDF presets actually do, has the detail.

A PDF saved straight from software, such as a bank statement or a QuickBooks report, is already text and vectors. It has little to shrink, and some generators compress by almost nothing.

Start at Medium for scanned returns and client paperwork, step to Large if small print such as 1099 box numbers must stay sharp, and check the output size. Smol sets quality and pixel size, not output bytes, so it cannot promise a file lands under your cap.

Drop the folder in, pick a preset, run it, and read the largest output file. If that one is under your cap, every other one is too.

1. 1

   Copy the client folder to your Mac

   Smol writes a copy next to each original with a _compressed suffix and, by default, does not overwrite anything.

2. 2

   Drag the folder into Smol

   Mixed batches work: scanned PDFs, receipt photos and statements can go in together. The batch PDF guide covers 100-file runs.

3. 3

   Choose the PDF preset or the image setting

   Medium for scans, Large for fine print, JPG at quality 75 for receipt photos.

4. 4

   Run it and sort by size

   Smol shows the savings for each file. If compressing would make a file larger, Smol keeps the original. Open one result at full zoom and read the numbers.

5. 5

   Upload the compressed copies

   Keep the originals in the client file. For scans with no text layer, see the OCR note below.

To compress receipts into a PDF, shrink each photo first, then convert the photos to PDF. A phone photo is far larger than a receipt needs. A receipt is mostly white paper, and Smol fits images inside 2000 × 2000 pixels by default, which usually keeps the print readable.

• iPhone photos arrive as HEIC. Use Compress with output JPG, not Convert, because Convert ignores the quality setting and writes a large JPEG. See HEIC to JPG on a Mac.
• Image metadata, including GPS, is stripped by default. That keeps the location of the client’s purchase out of the file.
• Smol converts one image to one PDF. To make a single multi-receipt PDF, combine pages in Preview, then compress that PDF with a preset.
• Thermal receipts fade. If a total is hard to read at quality 75, raise it to 80 and compare.

Intuit’s QuickBooks Online attachments article lists the file types it accepts (PDF, JPEG, PNG, DOC, XLSX, CSV, TIFF, GIF and XML) and says files of 0 KB are not supported. It states no size cap on that page, so the QuickBooks attachment size limit for your plan is whatever the upload error says.

This page does not quote a Xero file size limit, because we could not confirm a figure from Xero itself. Look up the Xero file size limit in Xero Central for your region before you batch a client’s receipts. Whichever number you find, the same rule applies: compress the receipt or invoice, check the output, and attach that.

HEIC is not on Intuit’s list, which is another reason to output JPG for phone receipts. Test one file in your capture or bookkeeping tool before you run a whole batch.

• You need to redact Social Security numbers or account numbers. Smol does not redact; use a PDF editor.
• The scan needs to be searchable. Smol does not OCR. Run OCR first with a tool such as OCRmyPDF, then compress: that path took our test scan from 5,017,560 to 288,609 bytes (94.2%) with the text layer intact.
• The file is over a page limit, such as 120 pages at the IRS tool. Smol does not split or merge PDFs.
• The PDF was exported by software, such as a statement or ledger report. It is mostly text already and may barely shrink.
• You need a pixel-identical result. Smol always re-encodes; and even Original is not lossless.
• Your office runs Windows. Smol is macOS only.

Offices with several Macs

A solo practitioner needs Solo at $29 once. A three-person office fits Team at $49 once, one Mac each; a four-person office buys Team plus Solo, or five Enterprise seats at $20 each. Presets live on each Mac, so write your house settings down and recreate them. Prices are on the buy page. Client files stay on the machine, which also matters for your own confidential documents policy.