7.9 Documents

The size of documents to be downloaded is not visible in the size of the page itself but should be factored in. And it should always be displayed next to the download link/button.

Optimizing and compressing documents

Opt for a lower resolution and avoid offering "high-quality" documents to download, whether it is a PDF, a podcast, an image, etc. Most tools include different options to adjust quality and optimization. For instance, in PowerPoint and in Keynote, there are options to compress and reduce the size of images and of the file as a whole.

You can also easily compress documents using complementary tools, such as ilovepdf for PDFs.

Choosing the best-suited format

Documents like PDFs are not always the best format depending on the purpose, as Praticable explains (see link below in the section 'For further information'):

• Not responsive which can make them uncomfortable to read on mobile
• Not very accessible
• Not indexed
• Difficult to update
• etc.

Providing a summary

When a document is on the longer side of things, and to avoid it being unnecessarily downloaded, providing a summary or description directly on the page can be productive.

Offering two versions of the document is another possibility, a short one that summarizes the information, and a longer one with all the details, without forgetting to indicate the size of both of them.

Displaying the size and format of documents

Downloads

Before a user downloads any file, they should see its size and format.

If the document is generated on the spot and its size is not constant, providing an approximation of the size is ideal (the average of previous exports for instance).

In addition, if the computing power required to export is significant, or the resulting file very heavy, it is essential to point out to the user beforehand that using this function will have a high environmental impact.

Uploads

Allowing users to send files with sizes disproportionate for their use (for instance a 1 MB profile picture) generates an easily avoidable environmental impact, and also affects users and services having to load said file.

Before any user upload (whether it is a picture, or a resume, contract or form in PDF):

• clearly display the highest authorized size and accepted formats. e.g. if webp images cannot be handled, inform users that their upload must be jpeg or png files
• make it impossible to submit a form if the files do not fit the size and format requirements