When you're asked for 5 MB
- Invoicing and procurement platforms that accept complete case files.
- Standard emails, whose usual limit is around 25 MB in total, shared among the attachments.
- Uploads of technical documentation or scanned drawings, where detail matters.
What quality to expect at 5 MB
At this size the adjustment is usually gentle: the tool starts at the highest resolution on its scale and only goes down as far as needed. For documents of twenty or more scanned pages, it's the most sensible target if you want to keep the detail.
If your file is already under 5 MB, we give it back untouched: there's no point recompressing something that already fits. And if the target turns out to be impossible, you get the lightest version we could achieve, with a clear notice of the final size.
Common questions about this size
Is 5 MB enough if the document will be printed?
For printing on A4 or Letter paper and reading at a normal distance, yes. The resulting resolution of a short document stays high. Where you'll notice the difference is when zooming into a specific area on screen or printing in large format: there it's best not to go below 5 MB, or to simply keep the original.
My limit is 25 MB in total: why 5 MB?
Because email limits apply to the whole message once encoded, and that encoding adds about a third to the size. Keeping each attachment at 5 MB lets you send three or four documents without getting close to the cap and without the email bouncing, which is the most common problem when attaching large files.