Only embedded images are resampled and re-encoded, and only when the result is at least 8% smaller; text is never rasterized, so a searchable file stays searchable. Compression holds the whole document in memory, which is tighter on a phone: a guard at intake tells you what the device can hold, heavy jobs run in the background and can be cancelled without counting against the day, and very large scans are quicker on a laptop. Nothing is uploaded. Installed from Chrome’s menu, Bindery works offline and sits in the share sheet for the next oversized attachment.
How it works
- Share the PDF into Bindery from any app, or pick it from Files
- Read the three computed sizes on the cards
- Save the level that fits and attach it from Downloads
Questions people ask
Which level gets an attachment under Gmail’s limit?
Compare the numbers on the cards with 25 MB — or with 10 MB, which is safe for almost every recipient’s server. Balanced usually gets image-heavy files there while looking the same on screen; Email & web is the fallback when the number has to be small.
Can the phone handle a large scan?
Often, but the limit is the phone’s free memory rather than Bindery. The intake guard says before the job starts whether this device can hold the file; if it cannot, split the document first or compress it on a computer, where the same tool runs with more room.
Is anything sent to Bindery when I share a file into the app?
No. Sharing into an installed web app hands the file to the browser on your phone; the compressor runs there, and there is no upload endpoint for documents. You can put the phone in airplane mode after Bindery has loaded and the job still completes.