Gmail and Outlook limit attachments to about 20–25 MB, but many online portals are much stricter: 2 MB, 1 MB, sometimes even 500 KB per file. Here is how to get under the limit without making your document unreadable.
1. Start with the right compression level
Open Compress PDF. Try Basic first if the document was created on a computer. If it is a scan or contains photos, go straight to Medium; this alone usually brings a 10 MB scan below 2 MB.
2. Remove pages nobody asked for
Blank backs of scanned sheets, duplicated pages and cover pages add weight. Delete them with Delete pages, or keep just what is required with Extract pages.
3. Shrink photos before making the PDF
A phone photo is often 4000 pixels wide and 3–5 MB. For a document, 1600 pixels is plenty. Resize and compress the pictures with Compress image (set the maximum width to 1600 and quality to about 70%), then build the PDF with Image to PDF.
4. Scan smarter
- 200 DPI is enough for documents; 600 DPI is for photo archives.
- Use greyscale for black-and-white pages.
- Crop the edges so you don't store the table under the paper.
5. Split the document
If the form accepts several uploads, split the PDF into parts, e.g. pages 1–10 and 11–20. Name them clearly: Report_part1.pdf, Report_part2.pdf.
6. Use a sharing link for very large files
For files that must stay large (high-resolution plans, portfolios), upload them to a cloud drive and send a link instead of an attachment.