How to Make a PDF or Photo Smaller for WhatsApp, Email and Online Forms

You have finished your application, and the website says "File too large. Maximum 2 MB." Or your email refuses the attachment. Or WhatsApp takes ages to send a document on a weak connection. Big files cause these problems, and the fix is simple: make the file smaller.

Here is how to do it for PDFs and for photos, without losing the parts that matter.

Why files get so big

A phone photo can be 4 to 8 MB or more, because modern cameras take very detailed pictures. A scanned document is often a stack of those photos inside a PDF. Text on its own is tiny, so a PDF with only typed text is usually small already.

How to make a PDF smaller

1. Open the Compress PDF tool and choose your file.

2. Pick a method. "Strong" turns each page into a picture, which gives big savings on scans and photo PDFs. "Light" keeps the text and tidies the file, but usually saves only a little.

3. For Strong, choose a quality. Balanced suits most documents. Smallest gives the tiniest file. Sharper keeps fine print clearer.

4. Press "Compress PDF". You will see the old and new size side by side, then download the result.

What if my file got bigger

This can happen with a PDF that is mostly typed text. It is already small, and turning pages into pictures makes it larger. The tool tells you when this happens. Keep your original, or try the Light method.

What if it is still too big

If a 40-page scan is still over the limit, split it into two files with the Split and Organise PDF tool and send the parts separately. You can also remove pages you do not need.

How to make photos smaller

For pictures, the biggest saving comes from reducing the size, not just the quality.

1. Open the Image compressor and resizer and add your photos. You can do up to 30 at once.

2. Set the longest side. 1200 pixels is plenty for a website or a form. 800 is good for WhatsApp.

3. Keep the quality between 70 and 85. The picture still looks great and the file is far smaller.

4. Choose JPG for photos, WebP for the smallest file, or PNG if you need a see-through background. Then download.

Need to crop or change the file type

The Image converter and cropper lets you crop a picture to a square or a passport shape, rotate it, and save it as JPG, PNG or WebP.

Turning photos into one PDF

If a form wants one PDF and you have several photos of your documents, use the Image to PDF converter. Choose the Small quality when you make the PDF, and the file will be easy to send.

A note on privacy

All of these tools work inside your browser. Your files are not uploaded to a server, which matters for IDs, certificates and bank papers.

You can see every free tool on the tools page.