Estimate PDF size from page count and content before creation
PDF file size varies dramatically based on content type, quality settings, compression, and scanner DPI. Our calculator provides accurate estimates to help you plan storage requirements, ensure email compatibility, optimize document workflow, and make informed decisions about quality settings before creating your PDFs.
The type of content in your PDF has the most significant impact on file size. Understanding these differences helps you estimate accurately and choose appropriate quality settings:
| Content Type | Low Quality | Medium Quality | High Quality | Example Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text Only | 25-40 KB/page | 50-75 KB/page | 100-150 KB/page | Novels, contracts, manuscripts, plain text documents |
| Mixed Content | 100-150 KB/page | 200-250 KB/page | 400-500 KB/page | Business reports, presentations, brochures with charts |
| Image-Heavy | 250-400 KB/page | 500-800 KB/page | 1-2 MB/page | Photo albums, product catalogs, marketing materials |
| Scanned (150 DPI) | 100-200 KB/page | 200-400 KB/page | 300-500 KB/page | Scanned text documents, receipts, forms |
| Scanned (300 DPI) | 400-600 KB/page | 800 KB-1.5 MB/page | 1.5-2.5 MB/page | High-quality scans, archival documents |
| Scanned (600 DPI) | 1.5-2.5 MB/page | 3-4 MB/page | 5-8 MB/page | Professional archival, detailed images |
Text-Only Documents: Extremely compact because text compresses very efficiently in PDF format. A 200-page novel creates only a 6-20MB PDF depending on font embedding and formatting. Page count matters less than you might expect—500 pages of plain text might only produce a 25MB PDF at medium quality.
Mixed Content Documents: Most common business documents fall into this category. A typical 50-page report with moderate use of charts, diagrams, and photos produces an 8-15MB PDF at standard quality. The exact size depends on image quantity, resolution, and compression settings.
Image-Heavy Files: Photo albums, product catalogs, and marketing materials range from 500KB-2MB per page. A 50-page high-resolution product catalog can easily reach 50-100MB. Consider using lower quality settings for web distribution or implementing progressive compression.
Scanned Documents: File size depends entirely on scanner DPI settings. Many scanners default to 300-600 DPI, creating unnecessarily large files. For most text documents, 150 DPI provides perfectly readable results at 1/4 the file size of 300 DPI scans.
Understanding DPI (Dots Per Inch) settings is crucial for scanned documents:
| DPI Setting | File Size/Page | Quality | Best Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| 150 DPI | 200-400 KB | Good for text | Text documents, receipts, forms, general scanning |
| 200 DPI | 350-600 KB | Good for text + images | Documents with embedded photos or graphics |
| 300 DPI | 800 KB-1.5 MB | High quality | Professional documents, archival, printing |
| 600 DPI | 3-5 MB | Very high quality | Professional archival, detailed image preservation |
Low Quality (Web): Applies aggressive compression to images while keeping text sharp. Reduces file size by approximately 50% compared to medium quality. Image quality is noticeably reduced when zoomed, but acceptable for quick drafts, internal reviews, and temporary files. Not recommended for client-facing documents or archival purposes.
Medium Quality (Standard): The ideal balance for most business documents, presentations, and email attachments. Provides good visual quality while maintaining reasonable file sizes. Image compression is moderate—sufficient for screen viewing but may show slight artifacts when printed. This setting is recommended for 90% of use cases including reports, presentations, and general distribution.
High Quality (Print): Minimal compression maintains maximum visual fidelity for professional printing, client presentations, and archival documents. Files are 2-3x larger than medium quality but preserve fine details, subtle color gradations, and crisp text rendering. Essential for documents that will be professionally printed or require long-term archival at highest quality.
Understanding email platform limits prevents delivery failures and helps you choose appropriate quality settings:
| Email Provider | Attachment Limit | Recommended Max | Alternative for Large Files |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gmail | 25 MB | 10-15 MB | Google Drive (auto-uploads files >25MB) |
| Outlook | 20 MB | 10 MB | OneDrive sharing link |
| Yahoo Mail | 25 MB | 10-15 MB | Cloud storage link |
| ProtonMail | 25 MB | 10-15 MB | ProtonDrive sharing |
| Apple Mail | 20 MB | 10 MB | iCloud Mail Drop (5 GB limit) |
While technical limits allow 20-25MB attachments, keeping files under 10MB ensures faster sending, faster receiving, better deliverability, and compatibility with recipients who may have stricter incoming mail limits. Many corporate email servers impose lower limits (5-10MB) for security reasons.
Example 1 - Business Report:
Example 2 - Product Catalog:
Example 3 - Scanned Contracts:
Example 4 - Text Novel:
Use the calculator to plan storage requirements for document archival, backup systems, or content management:
Monthly Document Production Planning: If your organization creates 100 mixed-content reports monthly averaging 30 pages each at medium quality (6MB per report), you need 600MB monthly storage, or 7.2GB annually. Add 30% buffer for growth = 10GB annual storage requirement.
Scanning Project Estimation: Planning to scan 5,000 historical documents averaging 20 pages each at 150 DPI? Each document = 4-8MB, total project = 20-40GB. At 300 DPI, this doubles to 40-80GB. Choose appropriate DPI based on preservation requirements vs. storage costs.
Batch Document Creation: Creating 500 product data sheets (10 pages mixed content each) at medium quality = 1MB per sheet = 500MB total. High quality would require 1.5GB. Low quality reduces to 250MB but may impact visual presentation.
Before PDF Creation:
After PDF Creation:
Scanner Optimization:
Over-Scanning: Using 600 DPI when 150 DPI would suffice creates files 16x larger (600² vs 150² pixels). A 50-page document unnecessarily becomes 250MB instead of 15MB.
High-Quality for Web Use: Using high-quality settings for documents that will only be viewed on screens wastes storage and bandwidth. Web viewing requires much less quality than print.
Not Compressing After Creation: Many PDF creation tools don't apply optimal compression. Running PDFs through compression tools after creation can reduce size by 40-70% with minimal quality loss.
Embedding Full Fonts: Embedding complete font files instead of font subsetting can add 500KB-2MB per font. Subsetting (including only used characters) reduces this to 50-100KB.
Mobile Users: If recipients primarily use mobile devices, keep PDFs under 5MB for reasonable download times on cellular connections. Consider using low-quality settings or providing both high-quality (for desktop) and mobile-optimized versions.
International Distribution: Recipients in areas with slower internet connections benefit from smaller file sizes. A 2MB PDF downloads in 15 seconds on slow connections; a 20MB PDF takes 2.5 minutes.
Cloud Storage: While cloud storage is abundant, syncing large PDF libraries (thousands of files) benefits from file size optimization. A 10,000-document library at 5MB average = 50GB vs. 2MB average = 20GB (60% storage savings).
Text-only PDFs average 50KB per page at standard quality. Mixed content (text+images) runs 200KB per page. Image-heavy PDFs range from 500KB-1MB per page. Scanned documents at 300 DPI create 800KB-1.5MB per page. A 50-page mixed document typically creates a 10MB PDF at medium quality, while a 100-page text-only document produces only 5MB.
Content type has the biggest impact on file size. Images, especially high-resolution photos and scanned documents, create the largest files. A single high-resolution photo can be 2-5MB, while an entire page of text is only 50KB. Scanner DPI settings dramatically affect size: 150 DPI creates 200KB pages, while 600 DPI produces 3-5MB pages. Quality settings also matter, with high quality creating files 2-3x larger than low quality.
Use lower quality settings for web-only documents, compress images before embedding (optimize to 150-200 DPI for screen viewing), convert color images to grayscale when color isn't needed (60% size reduction), reduce DPI for scanned documents (150 DPI is sufficient for most text), remove embedded fonts if universal fonts will work, and use PDF compression tools after creation for 40-70% additional reduction.
Most email providers limit attachments to 20-25MB. Gmail allows 25MB, Outlook limits to 20MB, Yahoo permits 25MB, and ProtonMail accepts 25MB. However, for reliable delivery across all platforms and to avoid slow sending/receiving, keep PDFs under 10MB. Files larger than 25MB should use cloud sharing services like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or WeTransfer instead of email attachments.
Scanners typically default to high DPI settings (300-600) which create very large image files. A single letter-sized page scanned at 600 DPI produces a 33-megapixel image consuming 8-12MB. Each page becomes a full-resolution photo. Reduce scanner DPI to 150 for text documents (perfectly readable), 200-300 for documents with images, and use PDF compression after scanning to reduce file size by 50-80% while maintaining readability.
Multiply your average document size by the number of documents to estimate storage needs. For example, if you create 100 reports monthly averaging 5MB each, you need 500MB monthly storage (6GB annually). Build in 20-30% buffer for growth. For mixed document types, calculate each category separately: text documents at 50KB/page, mixed content at 200KB/page, and scans at 1MB/page, then sum the totals.
Text-Only documents contain primarily text with minimal graphics, creating compact files (30-100KB per page). Mixed Content includes text with embedded charts, photos, or diagrams, averaging 150-300KB per page - typical for business reports and presentations. Image-Heavy documents are dominated by photos or graphics, ranging from 500KB-2MB per page - common in catalogs and portfolios. Scanned Documents are entirely image-based with size determined by DPI: 150 DPI creates 200-400KB pages, 300 DPI produces 800KB-1.5MB pages.
Yes! Calculate one representative document, then multiply by your batch quantity. For example, if one 20-page mixed-content report at medium quality = 4MB, then 50 similar reports = 200MB total. For batches with varying content, calculate each type separately: 30 text documents (20 pages each) = 30MB, 20 mixed documents (30 pages each) = 120MB, giving a combined total of 150MB for planning storage and transfer requirements.