Your PDF is too big to email? Here is how to make it fit

First, find out what makes it heavy

A page of typed text weighs almost nothing: a hundred pages of a contract can be smaller than one photograph. When a PDF is big, it is nearly always because of pictures. A scan is a picture of every page. A report with photographs pasted in carries every photograph at the size the camera took it.

So ask one question before you start: does anybody need to copy or search the words in this document? A contract, a CV or a report - yes. A scanned form, a signed page or a set of receipts - no, they were pictures already.

There is one other cause that is easy to miss: whole files carried inside the PDF, such as a video or a spreadsheet, which the pages do not show. Drop the PDF on Safe to send and look for attached files in the list. Leave only that one ticked, press Take out only the ticked ones, and the pages stay exactly as they were.

Step 1: tidy it up (keeps everything)

1. Open Compress PDF and drop the file on the box.
2. Leave Tidy up chosen and press Make it smaller.
3. You are told the new size before you save anything. If it is small enough, press Save the PDF and you are done.

Tidying up removes leftovers that editors leave behind - old versions of pages, fonts nothing uses any more. Every word and picture stays exactly as it was. On a file that has been edited many times it can save a third. On a clean file, or a file that is mostly photographs, it saves almost nothing, and the page tells you so honestly.

Step 2: if the words do not matter, rebuild the pages

1. In the same tool, choose Rebuild the pages as pictures.
2. Pick Small for a file that will be read on a screen, or Careful for one that will be printed.
3. Press Make it smaller. This usually saves a lot - often nine tenths of the size.
4. Open the result and read a page. If the letters look rough, go back up one level.

The cost: the words become part of a picture, so they can no longer be searched or copied. That is fine for scans and signed pages. Do not do it to a contract somebody will need to quote.

Step 3: if it still does not fit, send it in parts

1. Open Split PDF and drop the file.
2. Choose Into pieces of, and set the number of pages in each piece.
3. Press Split. The pieces arrive together in one zip file. Attach them to two or three emails, and say in the first one how many are coming.

A small extra saving for colour scans

A scan of a black and white letter often carries colour it does not need: the yellow of the paper, the blue of a pen. Grayscale PDF turns every page grey. The words stay text, so nothing is lost for a typed document, and the look of a scan is almost the same.

Why not just use any online compressor?

Because the documents people shrink for email are the private ones: payslips, bank statements, passports, medical letters. An online compressor uploads them to its own computer. The tools here run inside your browser, so the file never leaves your computer. You can check it: load the page, turn off your internet, and it still works.