Scanning and file size rules for document uploads

The rule behind all the others

An admissions officer or a case handler processing hundreds of files does not write to you about a bad scan. They mark the requirement unmet and move on. The application then sits waiting for a document you believe you already submitted.

So the standard is not "can I read it". It is: can a stranger, on a mid-range monitor, in a hurry, read every stamp, every signature and every digit without zooming.

Settings

Colour is not optional

This is the single most common technical mistake in a Bangladeshi document set. Attested documents carry their value in the stamps: the education board seal, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sticker, the embassy legalisation, the registrar's signature. In greyscale, a blue stamp over black print becomes grey on grey and can be almost invisible.

Scan in colour even though the file is larger. If the file is then too large, reduce the resolution slightly or optimise the PDF — never convert a stamped document to black and white to make it fit.

Getting the size down without ruining it

In order of preference:

1. 1Scan at 300 dpi rather than 600. Most people's oversized files come from scanning at the maximum setting. 600 dpi is for photographs, not certificates.
2. 2Use a PDF optimiser that recompresses images inside the file, then open the result and read the smallest print on the page.
3. 3Split the requirement if the portal allows two uploads, rather than compressing further.
4. 4Only as a last resort, drop to around 200 dpi — and re-read the stamps afterwards.

⚠️ Never test compression by looking at the whole page zoomed out. Open the file at 100 per cent and read the smallest line on it, usually a serial number or an office stamp. That is what the case handler needs.

Phone versus scanner

A flatbed scanner at a copy shop produces a better result than any phone, costs very little, and does the whole set in one sitting. Use one where you can.

If you must use a phone:

• Use a scanner application with edge detection and shadow removal, not the plain camera
• Photograph in indirect daylight, never under a single ceiling light, which throws a shadow band
• Put the document on a plain dark surface so the edges are detected
• Hold the phone parallel to the page, not at an angle — keystoning makes text at the top of the page unreadable
• Check the result at full zoom before moving to the next page

Never photograph a document displayed on a screen, and never scan a photocopy of a photocopy. Each generation loses the seal.

File names

Portals and the humans behind them both handle these badly:

• Spaces, which become escaped characters in some systems
• Non-Latin characters, which some upload handlers reject outright
• Very long names, which get truncated
• Names like scan1.pdf, which tell the reader nothing

Use a plain pattern: surname, document type, and a version if needed, joined by hyphens or underscores, all in Latin characters. Something like rahman-hsc-certificate.pdf. Consistency across the set is worth more than any particular scheme.

Things that break an upload

• A password-protected PDF. The handler cannot open it and will not email you for the password.
• A PDF containing only a photograph of a screen.
• A scanned document rotated ninety degrees. Rotate and re-save before uploading; do not rely on the viewer.
• A file uploaded to the wrong application in a portal that holds several — a routine mistake in multi-application systems like DreamApply.
• An editable document where a scan was asked for. A typed reproduction of a certificate is not a scan of one.

Signatures and photographs

A scanned signature for a form goes on plain white paper, black or blue ink, cropped tightly, uploaded as an image with a clean white background.

A passport-style photograph is a separate specification entirely — dimensions, background colour, head size and recency are set by the destination country, and a photo that fails is a common rejection. That is covered in photograph specifications for European student visas.

Keep two folders

Originals — everything at 300 dpi colour, full size, never touched again. This is your archive, and you will use it for years: second applications, credit transfer, professional registration.

Uploads — the compressed copies actually submitted, named per portal.

Back both up somewhere that is not your laptop. Losing the scanned set after documents have been couriered abroad is a genuinely bad day, and originals do not always come back — see couriering documents from Dhaka to Europe.

What to do next

1. 1Do the whole set in one sitting at a copy shop with a flatbed scanner.
2. 2Check each file at 100 per cent zoom before you leave.
3. 3Name and sort them against your document checklist.
4. 4Upload one test document early in a portal to learn its limit before the deadline week.