PDF too large to email? What you can do

The message bounces, or the attach button refuses the file. Most mail services stop at 20 to 25 MB per message, and a scanned document reaches that quickly. Here is why, and what to do.

Updated

Why a PDF gets large

Text is tiny: a hundred pages of typed text can be well under one megabyte. Pictures are what make a PDF heavy. A scan or a phone photo is a picture of a whole page, often 1 to 5 MB each, so twenty scanned pages can pass a mail limit on their own.

Email also adds overhead. An attachment grows by about a third when it is encoded for sending, so a 19 MB file may be refused by a service with a 25 MB limit.

Send only the pages that are needed

Often the recipient needs three pages of sixty: the signed page, the summary, one invoice. Extract pages saves just those as a new PDF. Type the page numbers, check the preview, download. The pages are copied exactly, so nothing loses quality.

Split the file into parts

When everything has to go, send it in several messages. Split PDF cuts a file every few pages, or at the page ranges you type, and each part is a complete PDF. Name the parts in the message (“part 1 of 3”) so the recipient knows what to expect.

Make the file itself smaller

Compressing re-saves the pictures in a PDF at a lower resolution or quality. For scans this can cut the size several times over with little visible change. Compression is not available on this site: it is in the PDF Case app for iPhone and iPad, where it also runs on the device.

Converting to grayscale here does not reduce the size: it changes how pages look, not how much data they hold.

Or send a link instead

If the recipient accepts it, put the file in cloud storage you already use and send a link. Remember that this is an upload: for a confidential document, add a password to the PDF first and send the password by another route.

Tools for this

Files are processed on this device and never uploaded.

Questions

What is the maximum attachment size for email?
It depends on the service; 20 to 25 MB per message is common, and some company mail servers allow less. The recipient’s limit counts too.
Does splitting a PDF reduce quality?
No. The pages are copied as they are; only the number of pages per file changes.
Can I compress a PDF on this site?
No. Compress PDF is in the PDF Case app for iPhone and iPad. Here you can extract pages or split the file.

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