The PDF is rarely the hard part. The portal is. Here is a pack recipe we see work across GST registration annexures, campus placements, and bank KYC — using Pdf Buddy locally so IDs are not in a browser temp folder.
1. Read the limit twice
“2 MB” often means 2 MB after their server re-encodes. Aim for ~70% of the stated cap. Prefer PDF over a zip of JPGs unless they ask for zip.
2. Order like a human reviewer
- Photograph / ID
- Address proof
- Signature
- Supporting annexures
Merge in that order. Split away extra pages (the back of an Aadhaar card if they only want the front — follow their PDF, not Twitter advice).
3. Orientation and crop
Sideways phone scans get rejected by humans even when the parser accepts them. Rotate before merge.
4. Compress last
Compressing then merging sometimes balloons size again. Merge (and OCR if needed), then compress, then spot-check.
5. Filename
rahul-sharma-kyc-2026.pdf beats doc (12).pdf. Some portals display the filename to a clerk.
Tools: merge · split · compress · OCR · JPG to PDF.