What does “document not legible” mean on a rejection?

A reviewer opened your file, could not read a field they needed, and stopped. It refers to the image quality of the upload, not to the document itself.

Why was my document rejected when it looks fine to me?

You are usually looking at it at a smaller size than the reviewer, who zooms in on specific fields. Shadow, glare, an angled shot or heavy compression can all leave a page that reads fine at thumbnail size and falls apart at 100%.

Can a blurry or dark scan be fixed, or do I need to redo it?

A shadow or an angle can normally be corrected, because the detail is still present in the file. Glare from flash cannot: a blown-out area holds no information, so that page has to be rephotographed without flash.

How do I check my document before submitting it?

Open it at 100% zoom and read the smallest print on the page, then check each field the form asks about. If you cannot read it at full size, the reviewer cannot either.

DOCSUPRA › “Document not legible”

Rejected for “document not legible”

What it means. A human opened your file, could not read a field they needed, and stopped. It is a statement about the image, not about your paperwork, and it costs weeks.

It is the most frustrating rejection to receive, because the document in your hand is perfectly readable. The problem is not your document — it is what survived the trip from paper to screen.

The four causes, in the order they happen

1. Shadow across the page

The most common by far. You leaned over the page and blocked the light. The text is still there, just dark, and rebuilding the tone across the page normally recovers it completely.

2. Glare over a data field

Flash or a ceiling light reflecting off the paper puts a white patch exactly where the number is. Unlike a shadow, a blown-out area holds no detail at all — it cannot be recovered and the page has to be rephotographed without flash.

3. Photographed at an angle

Shooting from the side makes the far edge of the page smaller and blurrier than the near edge. On a form with fine print, half the page ends up below readable resolution even though the photo looks fine.

4. Over-compressed

Someone squeezed the file to fit a size cap by dropping the JPEG quality. That eats fine detail first, which is precisely the punctuation and the digits. A 3 becomes an 8 and a decimal point disappears.

Before you resubmit

Open the file at 100% and read the smallest print on it. If you cannot, neither can the reviewer.
Check every field the form actually asks about — a date, a number, a signature, a seal.
Confirm the whole page is in the frame, including the edges. Cropped corners get rejected too.
Check it is still within the size cap after correcting it.

Never retype, redraw or "clean up" what a field says. Correcting the lighting on a photograph is image processing. Changing what the document states is falsification, with consequences far worse than a rejection. A tool should only ever change the file — never the content.

Make the page readable before you resubmit

Runs in your browser. Your document is never uploaded. See the finished result before you pay.

Open DOCSUPRA

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Doing this for clients, not for yourself? DOCSUPRA for teams adds the batch queue, one combined PDF per matter and a dated compliance report — still with nothing uploaded.

What it costs

See the finished file first — sharp on screen, 100% with the lens, no card and no account.

3 documents

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30-day pass

$19.99

Unlimited for 30 days. For one whole filing. Nothing renews.

Professional Team

$149 /mo

Up to 3 people. Batch queue, combined multi-page PDF, archival TIFF.

Corporate Studio

$349 /mo

10 people included, $29 per extra seat, named support, invoice billing.

Prices are in USD and exclude any tax that applies in your country; Stripe calculates it and shows it before you pay.

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