How to Send Scanned Documents via Email

Modern office scanners produce high-resolution files to satisfy legal, compliance, or archival requirements. A 50-page contract scanned at 300 DPI in color runs 80–200MB as a TIFF or an unoptimized PDF. A set of architectural drawings at 600 DPI is heavier still. Gmail's 25MB limit and Outlook's 20MB ceiling mean that a single multi-page scan is often too large to email, even as a compressed PDF.

SendSplit accepts your scanned file, splits it into numbered ZIP parts, and delivers each as a standard email attachment — up to 200MB, no account needed by the recipient. They download all parts, extract once, and open the original scan at full resolution — every page, every signature, every stamp intact.

Why scanned documents exceed email limits

Scan quality settings determine file size more than document length:

  • Color vs. grayscale vs. black-and-white: a 10-page color scan at 300 DPI is roughly 30–60MB as an uncompressed TIFF; the same scan in black-and-white can be under 5MB — legal and archival work often demands color
  • DPI requirements: courts and notaries often require 300–600 DPI; OCR-quality scans need at least 300 DPI; anything below 200 DPI may fail document authentication checks
  • TIFF format for archiving: TIFF is the standard for lossless archival scanning; a 20-page TIFF at 300 DPI in color is typically 80–200MB
  • Multi-page PDF size: PDF compression helps, but a scanned PDF — as opposed to a native digital PDF — contains rasterized page images rather than selectable text, making compression less effective
  • Large format documents: engineering drawings, blueprints, or A1/A0 posters scanned at full size can be 50MB+ per page

How to send scanned documents via email using SendSplit

  1. Go to sendsplit.com/upload-to-send and upload your scanned PDF or TIFF (up to 200MB)
  2. Choose a part size: 10MB for government, legal, or corporate recipients with strict IT filtering; 20–25MB for professional or personal inboxes
  3. Enter the recipient's email address and click Send

On the recipient's side:

  1. Receives a series of emails, each with a numbered ZIP part (e.g., Contract_Signed.zip.001)
  2. Downloads all parts into the same folder
  3. Opens the first part (.001) with 7-Zip, WinRAR, macOS Archive Utility, or Windows Explorer — all parts reassemble and the original scan is extracted
  4. Opens the PDF or TIFF in their viewer — all pages at full resolution, with no quality loss

Reducing scan file size before sending

If your scanned file is close to the 200MB limit, these adjustments can help:

  • Use PDF rather than TIFF for delivery: PDF compression (especially JBIG2 for B&W text) typically reduces scan size by 50–80%; use TIFF only if the recipient requires an archival-grade original
  • Reduce color depth for black-and-white content: if the document has no color content that matters (typed contracts, printed forms), scan as grayscale or black-and-white at 300 DPI to cut size by 60–80%
  • Apply OCR before sending: OCR-processed PDFs include a text layer that allows PDF engines to compress the page image more aggressively; Adobe Acrobat's "Optimize Scanned PDF" can cut file size by 50%
  • Split by section if appropriate: for very long documents, split into logical sections (Chapters 1–5, Appendices) and send each separately through SendSplit

Sending scanned documents to legal, government, and compliance recipients

  • Courts and government agencies often have strict email quotas (as low as 5–10MB per message); use 5MB parts when submitting via email to these recipients
  • Enable password protection in SendSplit for documents containing personal data, signatures, or financial information — encrypted ZIPs bypass gateway content scanning and satisfy basic data-in-transit requirements
  • Retain the original high-resolution scan locally and send a compressed version for review; only send the archival TIFF if the recipient explicitly requires it
  • Confirm file format requirements before sending — some legal systems accept only PDF/A (archival PDF) for official submissions

Tips for emailing scanned documents

  • Name the file descriptively — Agreement_Smith_Signed_2025-05.pdf is unambiguous; Scan001.pdf creates confusion in a busy inbox
  • State the part count in your message — "I'm sending this contract as a 3-part attachment; download all 3 parts before extracting" prevents the recipient from trying to open an incomplete file
  • Confirm receipt — ask the recipient to confirm they've received all parts and can open the document, especially for time-sensitive legal filings
  • Send a password separately — if you enabled password protection, send the password in a separate channel (SMS or phone) rather than in the same email thread

Stop resampling scanned contracts and drawings to meet the attachment limit. Use SendSplit to send high-resolution scans as real email attachments — TIFF, PDF, multi-page, full fidelity — up to 200MB. Free signup only.