High resolution jpgs

[goldberg988]

I am looking at some Andre Caplet manuscripts on BnF/Gallica. I can download jpgs using the multi scan downloader, they are about 7MB per page. I can convert to PDF using GIMP (probably not the best method) and then it's 10+MB per page. The jpgs are greyscale/monochrome and high-resolution. What is the best procedure here? Just live with huge files, since it's a manuscript? Convert to monochrome (I feel a lot of detail gets lost since they are manuscripts)? A better way to convert greyscale to PDF without losing too much detail, and reducing file size? Thanks

[coulonnus]

Please provide a specific Caplet's work and I will see what I can do.