Office HP scan at 600 dpi. Colour. Both sides. The machine hummed like it was proud. The pdf landed on the shared folder at 28 mb. I attached it in Gmail. Gmail said no. 25 mb is the wall for a normal attachment. The mail bounced, or it never sent, same feeling. Sir asked why the letter did not go. I said the scan is fat. He said scan again lighter. The HP default is not lighter. Someone set 600 dpi in 2019 and nobody touched it.
I do not fight the HP every morning. I check the size first with File Size Checker. If it is over 20 mb, this site will not even take it, our browser limit is 20 mb. Gmail is 25. So a 28 mb file is too big for both. Then I put the paper on the desk, take photos with the phone, compress, make a new pdf. It is not pretty like the HP colour scan. It goes through the mail. That is the job.
Office HP scan at 600 dpi, Gmail said no
600 dpi colour for a signed letter is overkill. You do not need to see the fibre of the paper. You need the stamp and the signature readable. 200 or 300 dpi grey is enough for most office letters. Nobody in our building wants to change the HP because the same machine is used for photo copies of maps and a brochure once a year. So the default stays fat.
Gmail attachment limit is 25 mb. If you use a workspace account it is still in that neighbourhood for a simple send. People then upload to Drive and share a link. Sir in our office does not like links. He wants the pdf in the thread. Old habit. So I make a smaller pdf.
FileOnDesk is not Adobe. I say this twice because people come here hoping the browser will crush a 28 mb scan to 2 mb like Acrobat Pro on a good day. A browser tab cannot do that magic on a heavy scan. We do not run a server farm that recompresses your pdf. Files stay on your machine. That is the privacy point. It is also the limit. Do not expect Acrobat.
What works. Photo the pages. Use Compress Image on each photo. Watch the preview. Then JPG to PDF. The new file is often 1 to 4 mb for a few pages. Readable. Send. If the stamp is a pale blue, do not crush quality to 40. Stay around 70. I will write more on the slider in another piece. For a letter, 70 is a start.
Check MB before you open Gmail. Drop the scan on File Size Checker. You see KB and MB. If it is 7 mb, send it, stop overthinking. If it is 22 mb, Gmail might take it, WhatsApp might not. WhatsApp has its own mood. If it is 28, do not even try the attach. You will wait for a upload that fails.
I tried emailing the fat scan to myself hoping Gmail would compress. It did not. I tried “print to pdf” again. Still fat if the source is fat. The pictures inside are the weight. A pdf is a bag. If the bag holds huge photos, the bag is huge.
Check MB, then photo the pages
Put the letter on a table. Not on a bed, the page bends. Daylight. No flash if flash makes a white patch on the stamp. One photo per page. Hold the phone straight. I use the office window light in the afternoon. Morning is better but the queue for the HP is in the morning so I photograph in the afternoon when the machine is busy anyway.
Name the photos page1, page2 in the gallery so you do not merge upside down later. If a photo is tilted, take it again. Rotating later is possible with Rotate PDF but a straight photo is less work.
Compress each jpg. Compress Image. Quality slider. Download. Check size of the jpg with the size checker if you want to be fussy. Then drop the compressed jpgs into JPG to PDF in order. Download the pdf. Check that pdf in the size checker. If it is under 10 mb I am happy. Under 5 I am happier. Under 1 for a one page letter is common.
If the original HP pdf is under 20 mb you can still try to work with it on this site, merge, split, rotate. You cannot magically squeeze it like Adobe. I have seen people upload a 18 mb scan, wait, and get a file that is still 15. They get angry. I tell them the truth. Browser is not Acrobat. Photo workflow is the honest path.
20 mb limit. If the HP file is 28, do not drop it here. The page will refuse. Photo workflow does not need the fat file at all. Leave the fat file in the shared folder for the rare day someone wants a archive quality. Send the light one.
Colour versus grey. A red stamp on a letter looks better in colour. Colour photos are heavier. Compress more. A black signature on white paper can be a bit more compressed. Look at the preview. If the signature fades, go up on quality. If the paper grain is too clear, you can go down. Paper grain is not a requirement.
Multiple pages. Five page contract. Five photos. Five compress. One jpg to pdf. If you drop them in the wrong order, you merge a mess. I number them. I also peek at the pdf with PDF Page Count to see I got five pages, not four. Missing last page is a classic. Last page is the signature. Of course it is.
FileOnDesk is not Adobe, and that is ok
I will not sell you a fake compress. Some sites promise 90 percent smaller and they send your file to a unknown server. We do not take the file. The work happens in Chrome or whatever browser you opened. RAM on a office PC from 2016 is not endless. Heavy scan will freeze the tab. That is why 20 mb is the gate.
If you have Adobe on the office PC, use it for the HP scan. Reduce file size. That path is real. Many small offices do not have the licence. They have a browser. This site is for that room.
Gmail after you have a light pdf. Attach. Send a test to your own other mail if the letter is important. Open on the phone. Zoom the stamp. If you cannot read the stamp, do not send to the client. Make one photo again at higher quality. One fat page in a five page set can be redone. You do not redo all five if page 3 is the problem.
WhatsApp. If Gmail is not the issue but WhatsApp will not send the pdf, same fat file. Same photo path. WhatsApp compresses anyway and the other person gets a blur. A already reasonable pdf is better than 28 mb.
I keep both files. Heavy HP scan in a folder called scan-original. Light pdf in a folder called scan-send. When there is a dispute on a signature later, original is there. Day to day mail uses the light one. Sir asked once why two files. I showed him the 28 and the 3. He stopped asking.
If you must send the heavy file, Drive link or a pen drive. Do not pretend Gmail will allow 28. It will not. Check MB. Photo the pages. Compress image. Jpg to pdf. Attach. Go home.