My phone photos of expense receipts take up a lot of space. How do I shrink them and keep them readable?
Compress them in one batch as JPEG at around quality 70, then zoom the preview into the smallest number on the receipt. If it reads clearly, download; if it looks fuzzy, raise the quality. Receipts are mostly paper and text, so they shrink well, but the real test is whether the small digits stay readable, not how the picture looks overall.
What has to stay readable
Before choosing a quality, decide what you will need from each receipt later. Usually that is the supplier's name, the date, the total, the tax amount if any, the supplier's tax number and the receipt number. These are sometimes printed very small, especially on thermal point-of-sale receipts. Those numbers are your quality benchmark, not the general look of the photo.
How to compress and check
- Gather the month's receipt photos and add them to the Image compressor, up to 30 at a time.
- Choose JPEG and start at quality 70.
- The preview shows the last image in the list. Make that your hardest receipt, such as a faded thermal one, so the test is the toughest. You can remove and re-add images to change their order.
- Zoom the preview into the tax number and amounts. If digits look smudged, or a 3 could pass for an 8, raise the quality to 80 and check again.
- Look at the Change column and the Total line to see what you saved, then press Download all.
Better photos compress better
- Shoot the receipt on a flat, dark surface in even light, without your phone's shadow on it.
- Get close so the receipt fills most of the frame. Empty space around it adds size for nothing, and you can trim it later with the Image cropper.
- Photograph thermal receipts early, because their print fades over time and no compression or editing brings it back.
- Avoid shaky shots. Compression does not create sharpness; it only preserves what is there, to varying degrees.
A tidy monthly archive
After downloading, extract the ZIP into a folder named for the month, such as 2026-09. If your accountant prefers a single file, combine the month's photos into one PDF with Images to PDF, which places JPEG images into the document as they are, with no extra compression. As for the originals, do not rush to delete them: if a receipt may be needed as proof, by an accountant, an authority or in a dispute with a supplier, ask the party involved what they accept, and keep the clearest copy you have.
Common questions
Should I turn receipts black and white to shrink them further?
The compressor does not change colors. Compressing at quality 70 usually gives a good saving without that.
Are my receipts uploaded to any server?
No, compression runs in your browser, which matters because receipts can carry your business details.
Is this method fine for official documents?
For your own archive, yes. For anything an authority requests, check their exact requirements.