Wiki: How to create a pdf file to upload for OCI application

[megatop]

Creating the master jpeg file
1. Open MS Paint. If not sure how, open Windows -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Paint. Stretch the image borders to create a huge working space so that we can paste multiple documents in the white area. Save this image as a jpeg or jpg.

Filling the master file with documents
2. Now open all the scanned/ smartphone pictures of your documents to be uploaded in multiple windows of "MS Paint".
3. In each of the window, crop the image so that you remove unnecessary borders etc and trim to just display the document.

4. Repeat the steps below for each of the document you have opened. Save the image periodically after pasting each document image.

a. Press Ctrl+A to select all of the window content.
b. Alt-tab to select the MSPaint window we opened in Step 1.
c. Press Ctrl+V to paste the content . Drag & arrange the pasted image side-by-side with other pasted images from previous steps.
d. If the pasted image is too big, reduce zoom level so that its comfortable to work on other parts of the image.

5. Now you must have one big saved image containing multiple documents. Make a copy of this master file before proceeding. Go to File Explorer, do a Copy n Paste of the image file for a backup.
6. The tricky part here is that you finally need a .pdf file that is 500kb or less. Lets do that.

Resizing the master file to fit size
7. Click on Resize. Select 'Percentage' and make sure 'Maintain Aspect Ratio' is selected.
8. Change the initial value of 100 to, say, 50 and try saving the image. This must reduce the file size considerably. If it is still above 500kb, press Ctrl+Z to undo the re-size and try a lesser number until you reach the dream number of 500kb.
9. You might also face the opposite where the file size has gone down too much with a loss of quality of the image. Undo the re-size and try a higher number than before.
10. In case you feel you have messed up with the original image, delete it, make a copy from the backup you created in step 5 and start the resize process once again.

Convert image to a pdf document
11. At this point you must have a jpg file that is just under 500kb. Once this is ready, go to http://smallpdf.com/jpg-to-pdf
to convert the image to a pdf document. This is the site I used for the conversion process. Please feel free to use any other tool to achieve the result.
12. This process further reduces the file size which is good. You might also want to keep the jpg file size a little above 500kb so that the pdf ends up being a little less than 500kb.

[rmukherjee]

The above guide is very good. One suggestion to improve it - please use Paint.NET, a free image editor for Windows with a reasonable set of features, instead of Microsoft Paint, which is very, very basic and should be avoided.

For example, Paint.NET can crop a scanned or digital photo using a fixed ratio (e.g. 1:1 or 3:1), useful for cropping the photo and signature in the specified ratios. You can also select an area and move the selection around.



It also lets you resize with no quality-loss or jaggedness and specify the target size in pixels, cm or inches. I've found a 900 x 900 (1:1) pixel image works well for the OCI photo and 900 x 300 (3:1) for the signature.



Finally Paint.NET also lets you save the image at a quality-factor (also known as JPEG q-factor) of your choosing to "hit" the target size of 200kB. In the below screenshot for example choosing 99 resulted in an image larger than 200kB. In general a quality-factor of 85 and above is fine, most eyes cannot tell the difference.



Once you have the JPEG in the correct size you can use any software or website (e.g. smallpdf.com as advised above, or jpg2pdf.com) to create the PDF. Do note that the PDF can be a little bigger than the JPEG assuming the JPEG is not altered by the software/website, however it really depends on the site and how much compression they apply to the JPEG - e.g. jpg2pdf.com transformed a 181kB JPEG to a 77kB PDF for me.

[rmukherjee]

If anyone wants to combine multiple images into one PDF, you can use a PDF Editor like Foxit Phantom PDF or Nitro Pro.

Here's a GIF example of combining a specimen UK passport with a specimen naturalisation certificate using Phantom PDF.

Foxit Phantom PDF is what I use, it has a 30 day free trial and costs £80 to buy. Nitro Pro costs about £130.

Foxit and Nitro both have a free reader, but at least Foxit's free Reader does not allow you to combine multiple images into a PDF. Not sure about Nitro Reader, perhaps someone can advise.

There are also free software like ImageMagick which can combine multiple files into one PDF, but they're more difficult to use.

There are free online tools like https://online2pdf.com/convert-images-to-pdf which can convert multiple images to one PDF, however you should be aware of the risks of uploading scans of your sensitive documents (like naturalisation certificate and passport) to a site run by people you do not know.