Your PDF is too large to email, what to do

Published on October 18, 2026. 3 min read

Five ways out, from the quickest to the most reliable. The right one depends on what your document holds.

1. Compress the PDF

When it works. When the document holds images, photos or scanned pages. And often on an office document that holds none at all, because part of the gain comes from the way the file is written rather than from what it shows.

When it does not. When its images are already at screen resolution and its structure is already as tight as it goes. You will gain a few percent, no more.

Three documents with nothing in common, put through the same engine at the same setting.

The size of the file predicts nothing. A 68 KB batch with no image at all gives back almost as much as a 186 MB atlas, and six times more than a 19 MB manual whose images were already the right size.

Worth knowing. Compression lowers the resolution of images. Text stays intact, photographs lose fineness. On a quote, that does not show. On a drawing or a technical photograph, it can show a lot.

2. Send a download link

When it works. Always, whatever the size.

Why it is often the best answer. The link ignores your provider's limit and your recipient's. And your message stays light, so it arrives.

What to check before picking a service. How long the file is kept, whether it is deleted automatically, and where it is stored. A work document sitting indefinitely on an unknown server is a risk few people weigh.

3. Split the document

When it works. When the document can be cut without losing its meaning, a report by chapters for instance.

When it does not. When the recipient needs the whole thing, or when splitting makes their work harder. Four attachments mean four downloads.

4. Export it again from the original software

When it works. When you still have the source file.

Why it often gives the best quality. Exporting again with screen settings beats compressing afterwards, because the software still holds the original images.

The catch. You do not always have the source file, especially when the document was sent to you.

5. Use your mail service's storage

When it works. When you and your recipient share the same environment.

The caveats. An outside recipient often hits a permissions request. And the file stays in your space with no deletion date.

How to choose in ten seconds

Your document holds photos or scanned pages and is just over the limit, compress it. It is far over, or you do not know what your recipient accepts, send a link. You have the source file and care about the result, export it again.

What we do

Levarka does the first two in a single move: compress the PDF, then share a link or send it to the recipient. When the document has nothing to give, we return the original and say so, instead of handing you a degraded version for two percent less. Everything is deleted automatically after 24 hours, and both compression and storage take place in France.