Council forms, grant applications and scanned committee minutes often arrive, or need to be sent out, as a PDF that is far too large: an email bounces back, or a portal says the file must be under a certain size. A pensioners' club that does its own paperwork runs into this more than most, since old scanners and photocopiers tend to make oversized files without anyone asking them to.
Step by step: getting a PDF small enough to send
- Gather the PDF that needs to be smaller, such as a scanned form or an old set of minutes.
- Open the free PDF compressor and attach the file.
- Say how small it needs to be, such as under 2 MB for an email attachment.
- Say what is inside the file, such as typed text or scanned pages, so it is treated correctly.
- Sign up once with an email address; no bank card is needed on the free plan.
- Check the file that comes back by looking closely at one dense page before sending it on.
- Keep the original file safely, in case the full-quality version is needed again later.
How free PDF shrinkers compare
| What matters | Common free sites | Jobbit |
|---|---|---|
| How many jobs a day | Smallpdf allows two tasks a day on its free tier | No daily task limit on the free plan's credits |
| Choosing the size | iLovePDF and Adobe Acrobat offer a quality level to pick, not an exact size | You name the size you need, such as under 2 MB |
| Checking the result | Nobody checks; you open the file yourself | The file is checked before it is handed back |
What it costs and what is free
Shrinking a PDF on Jobbit sits on the free plan, which gives 100 credits a day and asks for no bank card. A club shrinking one or two files a week will use only a small part of that. Jobbit's full guide to compressing a PDF covers merging and converting the same file too.
A club example
The Pensioners' Club in Rajec once had its grant application returned by the council because the scanned committee minutes attached to it were too large for the online form. The secretary shrank the file with Jobbit under the council's five megabyte limit in a few minutes, checked the signatures were still clear, and the application went through the second time without a fuss.
