Recto
Notes
Occasional writing about PDFs and the things people need them to do.
17 August 2026 · 6 min read
Why your PDF is 30 MB, and what to actually do about it
Email bounced your attachment back. Here is what is making a PDF enormous, why most advice about it is wrong, and how to get under a size limit without wrecking the document.
17 August 2026 · 4 min read
Putting an ID card on one page, at the size it really is
Copying both sides of an ID onto a single sheet is a small errand that most tools do badly. Why the physical dimensions matter, and how to get a printout that measures correctly.
17 August 2026 · 5 min read
What compression actually does to the text in your PDF
Some PDF compressors quietly turn your searchable document into a stack of pictures. Here is how to tell whether it happened, and what a careful tool does instead.
17 August 2026 · 4 min read
Turning photos into a PDF without sending them anywhere
Combining images into a single document is a two-minute job that usually involves uploading your photos to a stranger. It does not have to.