Getting Started 3 min read Updated 24 April 2026

What types of documents can you embed?

Emberhop is optimized for PDF files. This article explains what file types work, what the size and page limits are, and what to do if your document does not process correctly.

What types of documents can you embed with Emberhop?

Emberhop is built specifically around PDF files. When you upload a PDF, Emberhop converts it into an interactive web viewer that loads fast and works across all modern browsers and devices. At this time, PDF is the only supported upload format.

This focus on PDF is intentional. PDFs have consistent rendering across platforms, they are the standard for professional documents, and the format works well with Emberhop's page-by-page viewer and lead gate features.

What works and what does not

Here is a quick breakdown of what Emberhop supports for uploaded documents:

  • Standard PDFs are fully supported, including multi-page documents with text, images, and vector graphics.
  • Multi-page PDFs work with no page limit. Whether your document is 2 pages or 200 pages, the viewer handles it.
  • PDFs with embedded fonts render correctly as long as the fonts are embedded in the file. Documents that reference system fonts may not display exactly as designed.
  • PDFs up to 50 MB are accepted. Files larger than 50 MB should be compressed before uploading.
  • Password-protected PDFs cannot be processed. You need to remove the password protection before uploading.
  • Word documents, PowerPoint files, and other formats are not currently supported. Convert them to PDF before uploading.
Good to know

Most PDF creation tools have a "Save as PDF" or "Export to PDF" option that produces a well-formed file. If you are converting from another format, using the native export from your original application (Word's Save as PDF, for example) produces better results than printing to PDF.

File size and quality

Large PDFs can take longer to process and may load more slowly for visitors on slower internet connections. If your PDF is over 10 MB, it is worth checking whether you can reduce the file size without losing visual quality.

A few ways to reduce PDF size:

  • Use a PDF compression tool like Smallpdf, iLovePDF, or Adobe Acrobat's built-in compressor.
  • Reduce image resolution inside the document if the images are much higher resolution than they need to be for screen viewing.
  • Remove any embedded objects or attachments that are not part of the main document content.

Compressing a document from 30 MB down to 8 MB makes a real difference to how quickly visitors see the first page of your embed.

What happens during processing

When you upload a PDF, Emberhop runs it through a processing pipeline that converts each page into a web-optimized format. This step usually takes between 15 seconds and two minutes. The dashboard shows a progress bar so you can see when it is done.

Once processing is complete, the document is ready to embed. You do not need to re-process it after that unless you replace the file with a new version.

Password-protected PDFs

If your PDF has a password, Emberhop cannot process it. The processing pipeline does not have access to your document's password. You will need to open the PDF in a PDF editor and remove the password protection before uploading.

In Adobe Acrobat, you can remove a password under File, Properties, Security. In most PDF tools there is a similar security or permissions panel where you can clear the password and save the document without protection.

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