{"id":1022,"date":"2026-10-23T17:32:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T17:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jfdi-blog-compress-pdf-for-email"},"modified":"2026-10-24T13:48:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T13:48:47","slug":"compress-pdf-for-email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jfdi.pro\/blog\/compress-pdf-for-email\/","title":{"rendered":"How to compress a PDF to send by email"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To compress a PDF for email, shrink the pictures inside it: that’s where almost all the size is. Open it in the JFDI PDF toolkit<\/a>, go to the Finish<\/strong> tab, choose Balanced<\/strong> (or Smallest<\/strong> for a tight limit) under Making the file smaller<\/em>, and download. The new size is shown next to the old one. It’s free, there’s no upload, and there’s no file-size cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Compress a PDF<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

How big can an email attachment be?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Email service<\/th>Limit<\/th>Source<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Gmail (personal)<\/td>25 MB; anything bigger is sent as a Google Drive link<\/td>Google<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Outlook with an internet account such as Outlook.com<\/td>20 MB<\/td>Microsoft<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Outlook with a work (Exchange) account<\/td>10 MB by default; your IT team may have changed it<\/td>Microsoft<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Outlook’s limit covers the whole email, and the way attachments are encoded for sending can add up to a third to their size on some systems, so aim well under the limit. For a 10 MB limit, aim for 7 MB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step by step<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Open the PDF toolkit<\/a><\/strong> and drop in your PDF, or choose Compress<\/strong> on the start page.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Go to the Finish<\/strong> tab and find Making the file smaller<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Choose a setting<\/strong> (see the table below). Start with Balanced<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Download PDF.<\/strong> The message shows the new size beside the old one. If it’s still too big, try Small<\/strong> or Smallest<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    Setting<\/th>Pictures become<\/th>Good for<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
    Keep as they are<\/td>Unchanged<\/td>Text documents, or when quality matters most<\/td><\/tr>
    Balanced<\/td>Up to 2,200 pixels, good-quality JPEG<\/td>Most files: noticeably smaller, no visible loss on screen<\/td><\/tr>
    Small<\/td>Up to 1,500 pixels<\/td>Sharing and reading on screen<\/td><\/tr>
    Smallest<\/td>Up to 1,000 pixels, lower quality<\/td>Email with a strict size limit<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Pictures are only replaced when the result is actually smaller. Unused data, including pages you deleted, is always removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Why some PDFs barely shrink<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Compression works on pictures. A PDF that’s mostly text, such as a report exported from Word, is already compact: a page of text takes a few kilobytes, so there’s little to remove. If such a file is large, it’s usually because of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n