How to send large files

by | Mar 14, 2023 | Formatting - Interior Design | 0 comments

Email transfer

As Book Designers how to send large files is one of the most frequent questions we receive.  Many times our clients need to send us large files that, because of their size, cannot be sent through normal email.

So let’s go over some of the most popular ways that you can do this and let us know which one works best for you. 

You’ve been working on your manuscript for hours; you’ve integrated the photos into the Word document so the designer knows where they should be placed. You need to send this file to your designer and your e-mail program tells you that it is too big. What do I do now? 

Don’t fret, there are multiple options available for you to send it as-is with no problem. When you are working with photographs or graphic image files, they usually end up being rather big. G-mail limits attached files to 25 MB in size, and Hotmail allows only 10 MB with their free tier programs. You can always upgrade but then you will have to pay. Even if you try to send them through regular e-mail you just might cause a bottleneck where all your files will be undeliverable due to 5mb limitations with some email programs. The bad part about this is most of the time you will never be notified that your email failed due to size.

Once your designer starts putting together your book, they will have to use the hi-resolution versions of the images so the book will print properly. This makes the files even more humongous. Many people get discouraged by this and tend to resort to using Pen Drives to transport their files. There are several very easy ways to deal with this situation and many of them are entirely free.

The one I use the most is WeTransfer.com you might ask why? First, the design is very clean, the instructions are simple. You have to sign up but the service is free and you can send up to 2 GB, also you can send several files at the same time. WeTransfer will send you an e-mail to confirm it has sent the files and another one when the recipient has downloaded the material. They send out a link for the recipient to access and download the material you are sending, and this link is active for several days. If the file has not been downloaded WeTransfer will notify you by e-mail. Isn’t that cool?

There are many other systems you could use, I just got hooked up with WeTransfer for its accountability and ease of use.

If you use G-Mail and try to send an attached file larger than the 25 Mb that is allowed, they will transfer your files to your Google Drive that will hold up to 15 GB. and give you a link that you can send to your intended target… too many steps for me.

 You also have Dropbox but personally, I don’t like having my files online all the time. I use my cloud storage for extra backups of my files like the third version of the documents. Call me paranoid, I’ve had my fair share of issues. Don’t get me wrong, Dropbox is a great system with 2 GB of free storage but both you and your client must have it installed on your computers for it to work. With Dropbox, I can send you an address that only we have permission to go online into the Dropbox folder and download whatever you need.

There are a whole bunch of other providers that will transfer your big files like DropSend and MyAirBridge you can try them out and let me know how they work for you. You might even get me to be unfaithful to WeTransfer.

 

By Marina Rivón of Maremar Book Design & More
© Maremar Book Design & More,  All rights reserved.

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