Many email services cap attachments at 20–25 MB, and job portals, visa forms and government websites often accept only 1–5 MB. If your PDF is over the limit, here's how to get it down without making it unreadable.
Why some PDFs are so big
Text takes up very little space in a PDF. Images take up a lot. A ten-page report of plain text might be 200 KB, while the same ten pages scanned with a phone can easily reach 30 MB, because every page is a high-resolution photo. So the first question is: what's in your PDF?
- Scans and photos of documents: these shrink dramatically, often by 70–90%.
- Reports with many pictures: these usually shrink a lot as well.
- Text-only documents: these are already small and won't get much smaller.
Option 1: Compress the PDF
The Compress PDF tool redraws each page as a compressed image. Start with the “Recommended” level: it keeps documents comfortable to read on screen and in print. Use “Strong” for very tight limits. Because the pages become images, text in the compressed copy can't be selected or searched, so keep your original as well.
Option 2: Send only what's needed
A 60-page document where the recipient needs three pages is easy to fix: use Split PDF to extract just those pages. This keeps the text sharp and searchable.
Option 3: Scan smarter next time
- Scan documents at 150–200 DPI. 300 DPI or more is only needed for photos and fine print.
- Use black-and-white or grayscale for text documents instead of color.
- Phone scanner apps (including the Notes app on iPhone and Google Drive on Android) produce much smaller files than ordinary photos.
Quick reference
| Situation | Best fix |
|---|---|
| Scanned document over an upload limit | Compress PDF, “Recommended” or “Strong” |
| Long document, only a few pages needed | Split PDF |
| Photos to send as one file | Compress the images, then JPG to PDF |
| Text PDF that is still too big | Split it into parts and send them separately |