Guide
How to make a PDF small enough to email
Drop the PDF on Anyfile’s Compress PDF page and a smaller copy downloads straight away, with the text left exactly as it was and only the pictures squeezed. Gmail stops at 25 MB and Outlook at about 20 MB, and a scanned or photo-heavy PDF often shrinks enough to fit.
Step by step
Open the compressor
Go to Compress PDF in any current browser, on a computer or a phone.
Drop the PDF
Drag it onto the drop card, or click Choose files. Make it smaller starts as soon as it lands.
Check the new size
When the card says Done, the smaller PDF is in your downloads, with the same name. If it couldn’t get any smaller, you’re told and the original is kept as it was.
Go smaller still, if you need to
Drop the PDF on the PDF page and choose Edit file. Open the arrow next to Download, set Size to Smallest (lighter pictures), and press Download. The message afterwards says how much smaller it got.
Still too big? Send it in parts
Split it with Split a PDF, or in the editor choose Several PDFs, in a ZIP and Every 5 pages, then attach the parts to two emails.
What changes: the default, Smaller (sharp pictures), keeps pictures at most 2,200 pixels across as JPEG at 80% quality, which still looks crisp on screen and on paper. Smallest goes to 1,400 pixels at 60%: fine for reading on screen, a little soft when printed. Text, fonts, links, bookmarks and form fields aren’t touched, and each picture is only replaced when the new one is smaller.
Leave some room under the limit. Attachments are encoded as text when they’re sent, which adds about a third to their size, so a 22 MB PDF can still bounce off a 25 MB limit.
Nothing is uploaded: your browser reads the file and makes the new one on your device. See how it works, and how to check.
Other ways to do it
On a Mac. Open the PDF in Preview, choose File › Export, set Quartz Filter to Reduce File Size and save. The file gets very small, but pictures often turn blurry and scanned text can become hard to read.
From the app that made it. If you created the PDF yourself, export it again with a smaller setting. Word’s Save as PDF, for example, offers Minimum size (publishing online).
Send a link. Gmail and Outlook offer to share a large file through Google Drive or OneDrive instead. That works for any size, but the file is uploaded to the cloud and the recipient needs the link to stay valid.
When Anyfile is quicker
For a scan, a contract with photos or a brochure that’s a few megabytes over the limit, Anyfile is quickest: one drop, the text stays sharp, and nothing is uploaded. A PDF that’s mostly text is already small, so compressing barely helps; splitting or a link is the better answer there.
Questions
How much smaller will my PDF get?
Scans and photo-heavy PDFs shrink a lot, often to a fraction of their size. PDFs that are mostly text barely change, because text is already compressed.
Will the text still be sharp?
Yes. Only pictures are re-compressed; text, fonts and links stay exactly as they were.
Can I compress a password-protected PDF?
Yes, in the PDF editor. It asks for the password, which stays on your device, and keeps the protection when you save unless you choose Remove it (unlock).
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. It’s compressed by your browser, on your device; nothing is sent to a server.