PDF tools that run in your browser — nothing to install

Picking the right PDF tool, and the order that saves you from redoing work

Most PDF jobs start with a goal: the file is too big to email, one page has to go, or an ID number must not be visible. Tools that look alike treat text and quality very differently, and the wrong pick can leave you with a file nobody can search, or one bigger than before. Here is which tool fits which goal, and in what order to use them.

A closer look

The tools fall into four groups. Merge, Split, Delete Pages and Rotate copy pages exactly as they are or only change a rotation setting, so text stays selectable and searchable and quality is untouched. Page Numbers, Watermark and Sign add something on top: numbers go in as real text, watermarks and signatures as images. Redact re-renders every page that has a box on it at 300 dpi, and Compress PDF in Convert to images mode turns every page into a JPEG, so those pages can no longer be searched or selected. Compress in its default Keep text mode only recompresses images and fonts and leaves the text alone. PDF to Word and Scanned PDF OCR do not edit the file at all; they pull the words out, without tables, images or page layout.

Everything runs inside your browser, so the PDF is never uploaded, which is what you want for contracts and copies of IDs that should not sit on someone else’s server even briefly. The “0 B uploaded” line measures what the page has actually sent, and you can check it yourself under Network in your browser’s developer tools. Compress PDF in Keep text mode (about 15 MB), OCR, and Password Protect and Unlock fetch an engine the first time you use them; that is the tool coming to you, not your file leaving, and it needs an internet connection at that moment. Most editing tools also refuse a PDF with a password or a print or edit restriction, and a PDF with a certificate-based digital signature may show that signature as invalid once any tool saves a new copy.

How to use it

• If the PDF has a password or blocks printing or editing, start by making an unlocked copy with Unlock PDF.
• Settle the page count and order with Merge PDF, Delete PDF Pages, Split PDF and Rotate PDF. Numbering only makes sense after that.
• If numbers must disappear, run Redact personal data, then add Add Page Numbers, Add Watermark and Sign a PDF. Page numbers cannot be removed and stack if applied twice, so add them once, to the final version.
• Use Compress PDF to meet the size limit, check the result in the Document leak checker, then lock it with Password Protect PDF. The other tools cannot open a locked file, so the password always comes last.

When it helps

Common snags

Tip None of these tools change your original; each one downloads a new file. Keep the original untouched and feed each step’s output into the next, so a mistake only means redoing that one step.