Choose a PDF or photo
How small should the file get?
Without a target size, ReduPDF compresses in a balanced way. With a target size, it automatically compresses as much as needed to stay under it.
Limits the longest edge of the photo in pixels — independent of the target size.
Advanced settings
Only needed if you want to set a specific image quality instead of a target size.
Start shrinking
What 5 MB means in practice
Five megabytes is the most widespread limit for file uploads: many application and tender portals allow 2 to 5 MB, government portals typically 5 to 10 MB per attachment. Email attachments may usually be 10 to 25 MB — but sending inflates them by a third, and the recipient's mailbox has its own limits.
A detail that explains error messages: depending on the system, “5 MB” means 5,000,000 or 5,242,880 bytes. ReduPDF uses the larger value. When a limit is tight, enter 4.5 MB as a custom target — the margin costs nothing.
What is realistically achievable
How far a PDF shrinks depends on what it is made of. Images can be reduced a lot; text and fonts hardly at all. As rules of thumb:
| Source material | Typical size | Under 5 MB? |
|---|---|---|
| Text PDF from Word, 200 pages, no images | 1–2 MB | It already is — nothing to gain here |
| CV from Word with a camera photo | 3–5 MB | Yes, usually under 500 KB |
| Colour scan, 5 pages, 300 dpi | 5–10 MB | Yes, usually under 1.5 MB |
| Colour scan, 20 pages, 600 dpi | 60–150 MB | Yes — but for documents that long, rather split (ReduPDF accepts files up to 150 MB) |
| Phone photo of a receipt | 3–6 MB | Yes, under 500 KB |
| Brochure with 50 print-quality photos | 40–80 MB | Yes, under 5 MB the photos stay screen-quality |
ReduPDF works in two stages. First only the embedded images are re-compressed; text, fonts and vector graphics stay unchanged and the file remains searchable. If that is not enough for the target size, ReduPDF rebuilds the pages as images and goes down until the limit is met — the result tells you which stage applied. A pure text PDF, however, tends to get larger rather than smaller that way; it was small already.
When it is not enough
Split. Two files of 4 MB each are almost always better than one squeezed into illegibility. Most PDF programs can save page ranges as a separate file; failing that, “Print → Save as PDF → pages 1–10” works.
Leave out. The size often sits in pages nobody asked for: reverse sides, cover sheets, a 40-page appendix of which one page is needed.
Rescan. A scan at 300 dpi in greyscale is a tenth of a 600 dpi colour scan from the start. Which setting is enough is explained on Shrink a scanned PDF.
Ask. Many recipients accept several files or a second upload. That costs an email, but no legibility.
Frequently asked questions
Can it go under 2 MB as well?
For scans and photos almost always. Choose “under 2 MB” as the target size; ReduPDF compresses as much as needed. With very long scans the stronger stage may kick in — check legibility then, and rather split the file.
Does the quality get worse?
The images are brought to a resolution that is sufficient for screen and normal print — it only becomes visible when zooming in strongly. Text stays unchanged and sharp in the first stage. The smaller the target size, the stronger the intervention; the result shows you before and after.
What if the file still stays above 5 MB?
Then it consists almost entirely of text, fonts or vector graphics — which cannot be squeezed further — or it has a great many pages. What helps: split it, leave out unnecessary pages, or ask the recipient for a second upload.
How many pages fit into 5 MB?
Pure text: thousands. Greyscale scans at 300 dpi: ten to fifteen pages raw, around thirty to fifty after shrinking with ReduPDF. Colour scans correspondingly fewer.