Image compressors only shrink files, leaving users stuck with upload size minimums

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Many government and university portals require uploaded photos to fall within a specific file size range, such as 20 KB to 50 KB, rather than simply under a maximum limit. However, every widely used online image compressor is designed only to reduce file size, with none offering a minimum file size target or range-based control. This creates an impossible situation where resizing a photo to the required pixel dimensions, say 200×230 pixels, naturally produces a JPEG well below the minimum threshold, causing silent upload failures. A developer has identified two technical workarounds: optimising JPEG quality upward to hit the size floor naturally, or padding the file using a JPEG comment segment that decoders ignore and that leaves the visible image unchanged. The author argues the root cause is a widespread gap in image tooling that has gone unaddressed because making files larger has never been a common user need until bureaucratic file-size floors made it one.

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