Shrink a PDF for email attachment
Most email servers cap attachments at 10-25 MB. A scanned contract or photo-heavy report often exceeds this. Compress first, attach second.
Compress PDF →Free Online PDF Tools
Many PDF tools run in your browser. OCR and some conversion features may use secure server processing when needed. No account needed.
PDF is the format people actually share documents in. It looks the same on every screen, prints to the same page boundaries everywhere, and locks the layout so paragraphs do not reflow on a phone. The trade-off is that PDFs are harder to edit than the file you started with. The tools below cover the edits, conversions, and clean-ups that come up most often once a document is already a PDF and you need to send it, sign it, shrink it, or pull data back out.
PDF tools on this domain split into two clearly-labelled modes. The browser-only ones (edit, sign, organise, page-extract, image↔PDF, watermark removal) use pdf-lib and PDF.js — the same libraries Chrome and Firefox use to render PDFs — and process your file entirely on your device, with no upload to any server. The server-processed ones (compress, OCR, organize-pdf, repair, Office-format conversions) upload over HTTPS to our Hetzner backend in Germany, process there, and delete both source and output within 1 hour. The upload area of every tool says which mode applies. No watermark is added, no account is required, and there is no daily file cap.
Focused subcategories
Dedicated hubs for the most-searched clusters in this category.
Common workflows
Real situations these tools were built for.
Combine several PDFs into one
You exported each chapter or scan separately and need a single PDF for a recipient who wants one file, not five.
Merge PDF →Sign a contract without printing
Draw, type, or upload a signature, drop it on the right page, flatten the result. The output is a clean, single-page signed PDF.
Sign PDF →Convert images into a single PDF
iPhone photos of a paper document, multiple JPG scans, or product photos you need a single deliverable for. Drop, reorder, export.
JPG to PDF →Extract a Word-editable copy
Someone sent a PDF and you need to actually edit the paragraphs in Word. The converter preserves layout, fonts, and tables where possible.
PDF to Word →Lock or unlock a PDF
Add a password before sending sensitive documents, or remove a password from a PDF you own and have permission to access.
Protect PDF →Choosing between similar tools
Tools that look alike but solve different problems.
Merge PDF vs Combine Single Page
- Use the first when
- You have several multi-page PDFs (chapters, sections, scans) and need them stacked into one continuous document.
- Use the second when
- You have one multi-page PDF and want every page laid out side-by-side on one giant single page, like a poster proof.
Compress PDF vs Compress to 100KB
- Use the first when
- The PDF is too large for a soft attachment limit and you just want it smaller without forcing a specific number.
- Use the second when
- A government portal or job board enforces a hard size cap (100 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB) and the file must come in under it exactly.
Edit PDF vs Annotate PDF
- Use the first when
- You need to change the actual text or replace an image in the document body, like a true PDF editor would.
- Use the second when
- You only need to mark up the existing document: highlight, comment, sticky-note, freehand: without changing the underlying text.
Split PDF vs Extract Pages
- Use the first when
- You want the document divided into smaller files at fixed intervals or at custom break points.
- Use the second when
- You only need pages 4-7 as a new PDF and to discard everything else, no further splitting needed.
Sign PDF vs Annotate PDF
- Use the first when
- You need a legally-signed document with a flattened signature image, ready to send back.
- Use the second when
- You only need to add a visible signature mark for an internal review, where the underlying PDF is going through more edits later.
All PDF Tools
Grouped by what each tool does.
Organize PDFs
Merge, split, rotate, reorder, and extract pages.
Merge PDF
Combine PDFs in the order you want with the easiest PDF merger available.
Split PDF
Separate one page or a whole set for easy conversion into independent PDF files.
Rotate PDF
Rotate your PDFs the way you need them. You can even rotate multiple PDFs at once.
Organize PDF
Sort pages of your PDF file as you wish. Delete PDF pages or add PDF pages.
Extract PDF Pages
Extract specific pages from your PDF to create a new document.
Page Numbers
Add page numbers into your PDFs with ease. Choose your positions, dimensions, typography.
Remove Pages
Delete specific pages from your PDF document.
Remove Blank Pages
Automatically detect and delete blank pages from your PDF. Adjustable sensitivity for accurate detection.
PDFs to ZIP
Package multiple PDF files into a single ZIP archive for easy download and sharing.
Posterize PDF
Split a large PDF page into multiple smaller pages for poster-size printing.
Combine to Single Page
Combine multiple PDF pages into a single tall continuous page.
Optimize PDFs
Compress PDF sizes and flatten documents for sharing.
Convert PDFs
PDF ↔ Word, Excel, JPG, HTML, PDF/A and more.
PDF to Word
Easily convert your PDF files into easy to edit DOC and DOCX documents.
PDF to Excel
Pull data straight from PDFs and convert them into XLS spreadsheets.
Word to PDF
Make DOC and DOCX files easy to read by converting them to PDF.
PowerPoint to PDF
Make PPT and PPTX slideshows easy to view by converting them to PDF.
Excel to PDF
Make XLS and XLSX spreadsheets easy to read by converting them to PDF.
PDF to JPG
Convert each PDF page into a JPG or extract all images contained in a PDF.
PDF to PNG
Convert PDF pages to lossless PNG images with optional transparent background.
JPG to PDF
Convert JPG images to PDF. Adjust orientation and margins.
Image to PDF
Convert images (PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF) into a single PDF document.
PNG to PDF
Convert PNG images to PDF. Combine multiple PNG files into one PDF document.
Convert to PDF
Convert any file to PDF. Images, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations.
HTML to PDF
Convert HTML code or files to PDF. Paste your HTML/CSS code or upload an HTML file.
Text to PDF
Convert plain text files or typed text into a beautifully formatted PDF document.
Markdown to PDF
Convert Markdown text to a beautifully formatted PDF document.
PDF to Markdown
Convert PDF content to Markdown format for easy editing and sharing.
Edit PDFs
Add text, images, annotations, signatures, and watermarks.
Edit PDF
Edit existing text directly in your PDF. Click any text to modify it in place, then export.
Sign PDF
Add high-quality signatures to PDFs. Draw, type, or upload signature images with 300 DPI output.
Annotate PDF
Professional PDF annotation tool with comments, replies, stamps, signatures, arrows, and comprehensive annotation features.
Fill PDF
Fill out PDF form fields online. Enter text, check boxes, and select options in any fillable PDF.
Create Fillable PDF
Turn any PDF into a fillable form. Drag and drop text fields and checkboxes onto your document, then download a ready-to-fill PDF.
Watermark PDF
Stamp an image or text over your PDFs in seconds. Choose the typography and transparency.
Crop PDF
Crop PDF pages by setting custom margins. Remove headers, footers, or whitespace. Browser-based, free.
Add Header & Footer
Add custom text to the top and bottom of every page. Supports page numbers and dynamic text.
Invert PDF Colors
Create a dark mode version of your PDF by inverting all colors. Great for night reading.
Redact PDF
Permanently black out and redact sensitive content from your PDF documents.
PDF Security
Password-protect or unlock existing PDF files.
PDF Utilities
Page count, metadata, repair and more specialist tools.
Compare PDFs
Compare two PDF documents side by side. Spot differences between versions instantly.
OCR PDF
Run OCR to make scanned PDFs text-searchable. Extract text from images in your PDF.
AI PDF Summarizer
Summarize any PDF in seconds with AI. Choose brief, detailed, bullet-point, or executive format. Your PDF never leaves your device.
Chat with PDF
Ask questions about any PDF document. AI reads your file locally and answers instantly. Works with contracts, reports, and research papers.
How your files are processed
PDF tools here split between browser-only (edit, sign, annotate, page extract, image↔PDF, watermark removal — using pdf-lib / PDF.js, file never uploaded) and server-processed (compress, organize-pdf, OCR, repair, Office-format conversions — uploaded over HTTPS to our Hetzner backend in Germany, processed with qpdf / Tesseract / LibreOffice, deleted within 1 hour). The badge above each tool's upload area shows which mode applies.
See our Privacy Policy for full details.
Tips for best results
- To get a PDF under an email or upload limit, use Compress PDF first; if it is still too big, the file is likely image-heavy (scanned): re-export the source at a lower quality.
- When merging, drag pages into the order you want before exporting: the output preserves that order, bookmarks, and form fields.
- For signing, use Sign PDF instead of printing and rescanning; it keeps the text selectable and the file small.
- Converting to Word works best on text-based PDFs; scanned/image PDFs need OCR first to become editable text.
- Splitting by page range is faster than deleting pages one-by-one when you only need a section of a long report.
Frequently asked questions
About this whole category. For tool-specific questions, see each tool page.
Are these tools really free? Where is the catch?
Every tool listed here is free, with no signup, no watermark, no daily cap, and no upgrade path. The business model is a small set of unobtrusive ads on a handful of pages plus optional donations. There is no premium tier, no trial that expires, and no metered usage.
Do you upload my PDF to a server?
Depends on the tool — and every tool page tells you. Browser-only tools (edit, sign, annotate, page-extract, image↔PDF, watermark removal) never upload your file: pdf-lib / PDF.js read and rewrite the bytes entirely on your device. Server-processed tools (compress, organize-pdf, OCR, repair, PDF/A conversion, Word/Excel/PowerPoint↔PDF) upload over HTTPS to our Hetzner backend in Germany (GDPR jurisdiction), process the file with qpdf / PyMuPDF / Tesseract / LibreOffice (per tool), return the result, and delete the source within 1 hour. The badge above the upload area on each tool page says which mode applies — green "Files never uploaded" means browser, amber "Deleted in 1h" means server.
Will the output have a watermark or branding?
No. Edited PDFs download without any watermark, footer, or branding added by us. The output is bit-identical to what you would get from a clean re-export, just with whatever edit you asked for applied. This is the main differentiator versus Smallpdf, iLovePDF, and similar tools that add subtle branding on the free tier.
What is the largest PDF I can work with?
There is no hard cap. The constraint is your device memory, since the file is loaded into the browser. A modern laptop comfortably handles 200-500 MB PDFs. Phones handle 50-100 MB. For very large PDFs (1 GB+, typical for high-res scans), use a desktop browser rather than a mobile device.
Do these tools work on iPhone and iPad?
Yes. Every tool is built on standard web APIs that Safari supports. iOS users can drop files from Files.app, the camera roll, or iCloud Drive directly into the upload area. The output downloads to the device. The same applies to Android, where the tools work in Chrome, Firefox, and Samsung Internet.
Can I use these tools offline?
The first visit needs an internet connection to load the page and its JavaScript. After that, most tools will continue working if your connection drops mid-session, because all the processing is local. There is no service-worker offline mode yet, so a hard refresh requires the internet to load the page again.
How do you handle confidentiality for legal or financial PDFs?
It depends on the tool. The browser-only tools (sign PDF, redact, crop, page extraction, image↔PDF, watermark removal) read your file into the browser tab, modify it locally, and offer it for download — the file never travels over the network. Tools that need server-side libraries (compress, OCR, Word↔PDF, Excel↔PDF, page numbers, PDF watermark) upload over HTTPS to a private server, process, and delete the file automatically. We never log the contents and never share files. For maximally-sensitive documents (legal/financial), prefer the in-browser tools, which are marked with a lock badge on the upload area.
Why use browser-based pdf tools?
100% Private
Depends on the specific tool — browser-only tools never upload; server-processed tools upload over HTTPS, process, and delete within 1 hour. The badge above each tool's upload area says which mode applies. Browser-only tools are the safer default for highly sensitive documents.
Instant Results
No queues, no waiting. Most tools produce results in under a second on any modern device.
Always Free
No subscriptions, no watermarks, no file-count limits. Every tool is free, forever.