Prepare a PDF for email
Email providers reject attachments above roughly 25 MB, and many corporate gateways stop at 10 MB. This workflow takes a pile of scans and produces one attachment that clears the limit and still opens cleanly on the other side.
The problem
You have several documents, some of them phone scans, and the recipient wants one PDF attached to an email. Sending them separately gets messy, and the combined scan is far too large to attach.
Step by step
- 1
Merge the documents into one file
Add every PDF, drag the cards into the order the recipient should read them, then merge. Page order follows the card order, not the order you picked the files in.
Open Merge PDF - 2
Compress the merged PDF
Run the merged file through compression on the Medium preset first. If it still exceeds the limit, go back to the original and use Low rather than compressing the output twice.
Open Compress PDF - 3
Strip the metadata if the file is going outside your organisation
Scanner and office software write author names, device details and edit history into the document properties. Clear them before sending an external copy.
Open PDF Metadata Cleaner - 4
Open the result before you attach it
Check page order, orientation and readability at 100 percent zoom. If a page has become blurry, redo the compression one preset higher.
Worked example
Three scans of 6 MB, 8 MB and 11 MB merge into a 25 MB PDF. Compressing that merged file on the Medium preset typically returns a 2 to 4 MB attachment that is still readable on screen, comfortably under a 10 MB gateway limit.
Limitations to know
- Compression rasterizes pages, so the text in the final PDF is no longer selectable or searchable. Keep the original if the recipient needs to copy from it.
- Fillable form fields stop being interactive after compression. Fill the form first, then compress.
- A password-protected PDF must be unlocked before it can be merged.
Frequently asked questions
What size should a PDF be for email?
Aim for under 10 MB. Most consumer providers allow around 25 MB, but corporate mail gateways frequently reject anything above 10 MB.
Should I zip the PDF instead of compressing it?
Zipping a PDF saves very little, because the PDF is already compressed internally, and many gateways block zip attachments. Compressing the PDF itself is more effective.
Can I do all of this on a phone?
Yes, the tools run in a mobile browser. Very large merges are more comfortable on a laptop because the work is limited by device memory.