How to compress files for email
If you need to send large email attachments then read on for tips on how to compress your files for email, or if that doesn’t work, how to send using different methods. You’ll need to make sure the total size of the attachments is small enough to fit under the majority of email size limits. Under 10 MB should be fine for most people these days, although there are industries where the limitations are tighter.
How to compress the files will depend largely on the type of file you have.
Zip Compression
It’s possible that simply zipping your file(s) will work, which can be done quickly, easily and for free on Windows or Mac. Zip is a general purpose compression algorithm that tends to be best on text/data heavy files. It will change the file extension to .zip and if you have multiple files then it will collect them all together into a single file.
Windows
Simply right-click on the file(s) to compress and choose Send to, and Compressed (zipped) folder.
Mac
Control-click or tap the file using two fingers, then choose Compress from the shortcut menu.
File Compressors
If the zip compression option above doesn’t reduce the size enough, you can use a File Compressor app like NXPowerLite that specialises in documents and images, or for videos we’d recommend using Handbrake. These tools work on fewer file formats, but they are able to get a significantly greater size reduction on the types they do support.
If you happen to use Outlook then we’d also recommend taking a look here to see how NXPowerlite will automatically compress and email large files in Outlook.
What if your files are still too large to email
If, despite compressing the files, they are still too large to email, then you can try to manually reduce the file size, or alternatively, find another way to send the large file(s).
Manually editing files can give you options to reduce file size that the software tools cannot always achieve, for example, you can choose to simply remove some large content from a file if you don’t need it. We have some guides to help you manually reduce file size for email:
Alternative ways to send the file include file transfer services, or file storage systems that will allow you to email a secure link to your file instead of attaching the file directly to your email.
File transfer services
Send up to 2GB for free with WeTransfer, or for super-secure file sharing you can send up to 10GB with Wormhole.
File storage services
Here’s how to send a link to a file using Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive if you are using one of these file services.
We hope this post has helped you to quickly compress and email your files and get on with your day.