Optimize
Compress a PDF on a Mac
What Preview's Reduce File Size filter does, and when it makes the file bigger.
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Guides & how-tos
Everything you can do
with a PDF.
Clear, no-nonsense guides. Every technique works right in your browser, with nothing uploaded.
Organize
Combine PDFs on a Mac
Preview merges by dragging thumbnails, and saves over your original doing it.
Edit
Edit a PDF on a Chromebook
The Gallery app is a real editor. Here is exactly where it stops.
Organize
Merge PDFs on an iPhone
iOS annotates and rotates but will not merge. The routes that work.
Edit
A PDF editor for Android
Three different jobs get called editing. Only one is built in.
Organize
Merge PDF files free online
Combine several PDFs into one clean document. Drag to reorder, done in seconds.
Organize
Split a PDF into pages
Break a document into single pages or pull out just the range you need.
Organize
Extract pages from a PDF
Keep only the pages that matter and export them as a new file.
Organize
Rotate PDF pages
Fix sideways or upside-down scans one page or the whole file at a time.
Organize
Add page numbers to a PDF
Stamp clean, consistent page numbers anywhere on the page.
Optimize
Compress a PDF online free
Shrink big files for email and upload while keeping pages crisp.
Optimize
Remove metadata from a PDF
Strip author, software and hidden metadata before you share.
Optimize
Fix a corrupted PDF
Recover and rebuild files that won't open the normal way.
Optimize
Batch-process PDFs
Apply the same operation to a whole folder of documents at once.
Convert
Convert images to a PDF
Turn JPGs and PNGs into a single tidy PDF, in order.
Convert
Convert a PDF to images
Export every page as a high-quality PNG or JPG.
Convert
Convert Word to PDF
Get a faithful PDF from a .doc or .docx without losing formatting.
Convert
Convert a Google Doc to PDF
Export a Google Doc to a clean, shareable PDF.
Convert
Convert HTML to PDF
Save a web page or HTML file as a pixel-faithful PDF.
Convert
Print to PDF
Use the print dialog to create a PDF from almost anything.
Convert
Open a TIFF file
What opens a .tif on each platform, and how to spot the pages nobody shows you.
Convert
Open a .pages file on Windows
Apple's format holds a finished PDF. Three ways to reach it without a Mac.
Convert
Open an EPUB file
Windows has had no EPUB reader since 2019. What still opens one, and why books have no pages.
Convert
Open an XPS file
Microsoft removed its own viewer in 2018 and left the printer that makes the files.
Text & OCR
OCR a PDF online free
What recognition actually does, and the four things that decide accuracy.
Text & OCR
Extract text from a scanned PDF
Pull editable text out of image-only scans.
Edit
Make a PDF editable
Turn a static PDF into something you can actually change.
Edit
Fill out a PDF form without Adobe
Complete and sign forms right in your browser.
Edit
Add watermarks to a PDF
Place text or image watermarks across every page.
Edit
Compare two PDF files
Spot exactly what changed between two versions.
Edit
Free online PDF editor
What a browser editor can genuinely change, and what fights the format.
Edit
Can't highlight text in a PDF
Four causes look identical on screen. Thirty seconds tells you which one is yours.
Create
Create a PDF from scratch
Build a brand-new PDF page by page.
Security
How to password-protect a PDF
Add strong AES-256 encryption to keep a document private.
Security
How to unlock a PDF you own, with or without the password
Clear the password on a document you own and have the password for.
Security
Redact sensitive information
Permanently remove confidential text before sharing.
Security
PDF security guide to passwords, encryption and redaction
How PDF passwords, permissions and encryption actually work, and where they fall short.
Optimize
Reduce a PDF's size for email
Get big attachments under email limits without visible quality loss.
Convert
Convert images to a PDF on your phone
Turn phone photos into a single PDF right from your mobile browser.
Edit
Best free PDF tools in 2026
The questions worth asking before you upload a document to anything.
Organize
Delete pages from a PDF
Drop the pages you don't need without disturbing the rest of the file.
Organize
Remove blank pages from a PDF
Clear out the empty sheets a scanner leaves behind on every batch job.
Organize
Combine scanned documents into one PDF
Turn a folder of scanner output into a single ordered, searchable file.
Email
Why Gmail rejects your PDF
Gmail advertises 25MB. The real ceiling sits closer to 18MB. Here is the math.
Email
PDF too large for Outlook
Outlook quotes 20MB or 33MB. Exchange quietly enforces something stricter.
Email
Email attachment limits, provider by provider
The working ceilings for Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo and corporate mail.
Email
Save an email as a PDF
Printing keeps the body and drops the attachments. Here is how to keep both.
Security
Forgot your PDF password? What can and cannot be recovered
What is genuinely recoverable, what is not, and where to spend your time.
Security
When a PDF asks for a password
Two very different prompts look identical. Telling them apart decides your next move.
Print
PDF not printing correctly
Scaling, orientation, blank sheets, cropped edges. Five checks, five fixes.
Print
Print a PDF double-sided
Long-edge or short-edge binding, plus the odd and even trick when duplex is missing.
Fix
PDF won't open
Four causes cover nearly every case. Diagnose yours in about a minute.
Fix
PDF won't upload to a portal
Size, page count, encryption, structure, MIME type, dimensions. Each has a definite fix.
Fix
PDF shows blank in browser but opens in a desktop reader
It opens fine in Acrobat but renders empty in Chrome. The built-in viewer gave up.
Fix
PDF preview not working
The preview pane is a separate program from your reader, which is why one breaks alone.
Fix
PDF thumbnails not showing
Three switches in three dialogs decide whether a folder shows first pages or red icons.
Fix
PDF opens in the browser instead of Adobe
Two separate settings govern this, and people usually change the wrong one first.
Fix
PDF blurry after compression and how to avoid it next time
What compression actually throws away, and how to shrink a file without wrecking the text.
Fix
iPhone photos will not open on Windows
HEIC needs two codecs on Windows and one of them is paid. Three ways round it.
Fix
PDF fonts look different elsewhere
Perfect on your machine, Times New Roman on theirs. The fonts were never embedded.
Fix
PDF hyperlinks don't work and how to make them clickable
Blue underlined text is not a link. Real links are annotations, and yours are missing.
Fix
PDF comments missing when the recipient opens the file
You marked the file up. They see a clean page. Here is where the markup went.
Fix
PDF signature not showing for the recipient, and the fix
The signature sits in the file, on a layer the recipient's reader never draws.
Fix
PDF form fields won't save
Typed values vanish the moment the file is reopened. Here is how to make them stick.
Fix
PDF has mixed page sizes and how to make them one size
Normalize a merged file so every page prints and displays at the same size.
Fix
PDF pages upside down or sideways and a fix that sticks
Rotate scans so they open the right way up in every reader, not just in yours.
Fix
Merged PDF in the wrong order
Nearly always filename sorting. Here is how to force the order you actually meant.
Fix
Scanned PDF is not searchable
A scan is a stack of pictures. OCR is what turns those pixels into real text.
Fix
PDF text not selectable
If the cursor grabs a whole page instead of a word, there is no text layer. Add one.
Fix
PDF text copies out jumbled, why it happens and the fix
Scrambled letters on paste come from the font's encoding map. Here is what works instead.