Compress a scan for Gmail

Compress PDFRebuild each page as JPEG in this tab so scans and camera PDFs usually get smaller. Text-only files often barely shrink, and you cannot select the words afterward.
Extract PDF textDump the existing text layer from a digital PDF in this tab. If you cannot select words in Acrobat or the browser, it is probably a scan — use English OCR on a page image, not this extractor.
Images to PDFBuild one PDF from JPEG or PNG photos in this tab — receipts, homework scans, or a photo set that a form will only accept as PDF. HEIC must be converted first. Ten phone photos can easily exceed an email cap.
Merge PDFConcatenate PDFs in this tab in the order you drop them so a portal or inbox gets one file instead of twelve. Password-protected inputs may fail, and a stack of scans can still blow Gmail’s 25 MB send limit.
Organize PDF pagesFix scan order, rotate a sideways page, or drop a blank sheet, then save a new PDF in this tab. Organize is one file’s structure. Split is a new file from a range. Merge is several PDFs becoming one.
PDF page numbersPrint a footer page number — 1 or 1 of N — on each page in this tab. Organize pages first if the order is wrong; numbers that were already scanned into the paper will not move.
PDF to JPGRender PDF pages to JPEG or PNG in this tab so you can drop a page into chat, slides, or a form that rejects PDFs. This draws each page; it does not pull original embedded photos out losslessly.
Protect PDFPut an open password on a PDF in this tab before you email it. Uploading a file to a website in order to lock it is backwards. This is not DRM, not certificate encryption, and we will not remove a password you forgot.
Sign PDFStamp a typed name (or similar appearance) onto a PDF in this tab. It looks like a signature. It is not a digital certificate, not DocuSign, and not an eIDAS qualified signature.
Split PDFCut page ranges out of a PDF in this tab — for example 1-3,5 — and download a smaller file. This is extract-to-a-new-PDF, not a page organizer and not a compressor.
Watermark PDFDraw a diagonal text watermark — Draft, Confidential, sample — across every page in this tab. It is a visible stamp, not an invisible forensic mark, and it does not lock the file the way a password does.

Email and portal caps are why this hub exists. Pick shrink, merge, split, or extract by the job — ZIP will not make a scan PDF small.

Gmail’s personal-account send cap is 25 MB (Google Help). Outlook.com is in the same neighborhood; MIME encoding still inflates the file, so people aim nearer 18–20 MB for a real attachment. Portals that say “PDF only, under 5 MB” are a different ceiling. This hub is for choosing the right sibling, not for uploading a binder to a one-hour-delete brand.

Pick by the job

Too big to attach: Compress PDF redraws pages as JPEG. Scans drop weight. A Word text export often does not, and selectable text is gone afterward.
Several PDFs, one slot: Merge PDF stacks files you already have. Photos that are not PDFs yet belong on images to PDF.
Only pages 3–7: Split PDF first. Crushing a 40-page pack to hit 300 KB is the wrong order.
Copy clauses from a digital PDF: Extract PDF text. A camera scan needs OCR (English-first eng here — not an ID-card product).
Reorder, stamp, number, password, drawn signature: organize, watermark, page numbers, protect, and sign. Sign is a drawn or image stamp, not DocuSign.

Honesty that saves a retry

Typical file ceiling is about 32 MB in this tab. Encrypted or broken PDFs may fail. Compress is not Ghostscript and will not promise an exact kilobyte. If the merge is still huge, compress the scan-heavy parts or split and send two messages.

After you pick a sibling

If the merge is still huge, compress only the scan-heavy parts or split and send two messages. Photos that are not yet a PDF belong on JPG-to-PDF or the image compressor first.