Your grandson is helping you send a scanned form to the doctor's surgery, but the email keeps bouncing back with a message saying the file is too big. He has seen this before with his own paperwork, and he knows there is a free way to shrink it in a couple of minutes without losing any of the writing.
What is a PDF, in plain words?
A PDF is a document file that looks exactly the same wherever it is opened, on a computer, a tablet or a phone, which is why forms, letters and scanned pages are almost always sent this way. The trouble starts when a form is scanned at a very high quality: the file can end up ten or twenty times bigger than it needs to be, especially if it was scanned in colour. That is too large for many email accounts and most online forms, which is why it bounces back.
Which free tool is easiest?
| What you need | What Jobbit does |
|---|---|
| A form under a size an email or website will accept | Attach the file, say what size you need |
| Writing that stays sharp and readable | Checks a page of the result before sending it back |
| A scanned page, not a typed document | Tells you it is treating it as a scan, which shrinks differently |
| No account or software to install | Just a free sign-up with an email address |
How to do it together in one afternoon
Open Jobbit's PDF tool together and attach the file that would not send. Choose how small it needs to be, such as under 2 MB, and say briefly what is on the page, for example a scanned letter or a form with a signature. Sign up once with an email address, no bank card required, and within a minute or two the smaller file appears in a chat, along with the size before and after. Zoom in on the page together to check the writing is still clear before you send it on.
What it costs (nothing) and what to watch out for
Shrinking a PDF is free, using only a small part of the free plan's daily credits. The one thing worth knowing is that a PDF made mostly of scanned pages shrinks a great deal, while a plain typed letter barely changes size, because there is little to squeeze out of it. If the result still looks too small to read, ask for it to be split into two files instead. The fuller guide, including what to do with bank statements, is here: how to compress a PDF for free. This tool is part of Jobbit, a British service free to try.
