How to prepare a PDF for email
The real attachment limits, and the order of operations that gets a document under them without destroying what makes it useful.
In short
Aim for 20MB against a 25MB limit. Remove pages first — it is lossless. Send only the relevant pages where you can. Compress last, and only if the document is scans rather than text.
Most mail providers cap attachments at around 25MB, and corporate servers are often stricter at 10MB. Attachments are also re-encoded for transport, which inflates them by roughly a third — so a 24MB file can arrive as 32MB and bounce.
In order
- 01
Remove pages nobody needs
Blank backs, cover sheets, appendices. Lossless and often enough on its own. Use Delete Pages.
- 02
Consider sending only what is relevant
Three pages of a hundred-page document is a smaller, faster and more private attachment. Extract Pages keeps the original untouched.
- 03
Split, if the whole thing must go
Split PDF produces several files that each fit under the limit.
- 04
Compress only if it is scans
Compression rasterises the pages. On a scan that costs nothing; on a text document it costs you the searchable text.
When to send a link instead
If the document genuinely needs all its pages and all its text, and it is still too big after removing what it does not need, an attachment is the wrong delivery mechanism. Compressing it into range would leave the recipient with a document they cannot search or copy from.
Mistakes worth avoiding
- Sending at exactly the limit and assuming it will arrive.
- Compressing a contract to fit, and handing the recipient a picture of a contract.
- Attaching a hundred-page manual when the question was about page 42.
Tools used in this guide
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