Help with PDF tools

No. The file you add is opened, changed and saved by code running in this browser tab, and is never sent to a server. Your browser does make other requests: for this site's own files, OCR language data, Google Fonts typefaces, and any web address you ask a tool to fetch. A typeface request can list the characters you typed in the Editor, never the document.

Because nothing is stored on a server, there is no link to send you. The result waits in your browser's memory until you click Download, which saves it to your device. Close the tab first and it is gone.

Recent files, saved signatures and images, the Editor's recovery copy and each tool's last-used options, all on this device. "Continue with" also leaves a short-lived hand-off record, deleted when the next tool reads it. On a shared computer, use a private window or clear this site's data before you leave.

No limit is built in. The real limit is the memory your browser gives the tab: the whole file is read into memory, and most tools keep more than one copy while they work.

Yes, except in the Editor, Fill & Sign and OCR, which take one file at a time. More than one result arrives as a ZIP ("Download ZIP"). Merge, Organize and JPG to PDF with "Merge into one document" ticked make a single PDF instead.

Split, Extract Pages, PDF to JPG and Watermark have a "Result file names" section on the options sheet. Build a pattern from tokens such as [BASENAME], [FILENUMBER] and [TIMESTAMP], plus [CURRENTPAGE] in the first three and [TEXT] in Watermark, with a live example. Other tools name the result after the input.

Yes, in the Editor. Click a line of text and retype it. A PDF stores text as separate placed lines, so a longer replacement does not reflow the page, and a font that is not embedded is swapped for the closest match.

A scan is a picture of a page, so there are no characters to click. The Editor says "This page is an image. Use OCR to make its text editable." Run the file through OCR with "PDF (searchable)" ticked, then open the result in the Editor.

Open Fill & Sign, choose Sign, then New Signature. Type your name in one of twelve handwriting styles, draw it, add an image of your signature, or photograph it with your camera. Drag it into place, then click Apply changes and download.

This tool places an image of your signature on the page. It adds no certificate or cryptographic digital signature, and the signature dialog says it does not guarantee the signature is legally binding. Whether an image is enough depends on your country and document.

In Fill & Sign, choose Forms, then click a field: text boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons and dropdowns can be filled. On a flat page with printed lines and no real fields, choose Text and click where each answer goes. Use Flatten afterwards to fix the answers in place.

It rebuilds text, headings, tables, bold and italic runs and links, so the result is editable, but it is a reconstruction, not a copy. Images are not carried over, and multi-column pages are read line by line, so expect to tidy the .docx. "Keep layout" stays closest to the pages.

Only PDF to Word can read a scan: when the first pages have no selectable text, it offers "Run OCR first". PDF to Text stops with a message, and PDF to Excel and PDF to PowerPoint read only the text layer, so run OCR first.

Accuracy depends on scan resolution, contrast and how straight the page is, and no OCR is perfect, so read the result. The Language menu offers about 80 languages, from Afrikaans to Yiddish. Each language's data downloads the first time you use it, a few megabytes, then your browser reuses it.

The site probably does not allow your browser to fetch it from another site, a rule called CORS. Save the page as an .html file with Ctrl or Cmd+S, then add it on the "Convert HTML files" tab. Pages behind a login cannot be fetched either.

Yes in most tools. A PDF that needs a password shows "This file needs a password" on its file chip, and the tool button unlocks once you type it and see "Password OK". The Editor and Fill & Sign do not accept password-protected files yet, so remove the password first with Unlock.

The file has an owner password: it opens freely but restricts printing, copying or editing. Unlock removes those restrictions without asking for a password. Most tools that rewrite the PDF, such as Merge and Split, stop on these files, so run Unlock first and use its result.

Protect defaults to "Strong (AES 256 bits)", with two Medium options, AES 128 and RC4 128. You can set a Password to open the file, an Admin password for permissions, or both. Permission boxes are advisory, since many readers ignore them, and nothing here can recover a forgotten password.

While a document is open in the Editor or Fill & Sign, Local saving keeps a copy in this browser two seconds after you stop making changes. Reopen either page to "Recover session" or "Discard". Only documents under 5 MB are kept, one at a time, and Apply changes clears the copy unless you tick "Keep a recovery copy after download".

In this browser's storage on this device, saved automatically when you add them in the Editor or Fill & Sign. Manage them on Saved assets: rename, delete, or export the library as a ZIP. It has a 200 MB soft cap, and the page warns you as it nears it.

A list, kept only in this browser, of the last 50 files you added to any tool. A local file under 5 MB keeps a copy, so "Open in" reopens it in the tool you used; larger files keep only their details.

Current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge. The site is built for ES2022 and needs Web Workers, IndexedDB and WebAssembly, so old browsers are not supported. Some features depend on the browser: TIFF images, the Share button and the signature camera.

Yes. The pages adapt to narrow screens, the Editor's toolbar collapses into a Tools menu, and touch works for placing, dragging and drawing. Zoom uses buttons, from 50% to 300%, with no pinch gesture. Phones have less memory, so big files fail more often.

No. There is no offline mode or installable app. The page loads over the network each visit, though your browser may cache it, and OCR downloads language data the first time you use a language.

Memory is the usual cause. Close other tabs and try again, or split the PDF into parts, run the tool on each, and merge the results if you need one file.

Use the form at the foot of this page. It opens your mail app with the message written out. Say which tool you used, what you expected and what happened, and roughly how large the file was. Do not attach a document you would not email.