Merge, split, reorder and rotate a PDF without software

Before you start: three things that spoil it

Most failures when moving PDF pages around come from three situations, and it is easier to check for them first than to fix them afterwards.

• The PDF has a password. The tools cannot open a protected file, so the protection has to be removed first. If you do not have the password, there is no legitimate way to edit it.
• The PDF is digitally signed. Merging it, removing a page or rotating one produces a new file, and the original's signature does not carry over. If the signature matters, keep the original untouched and work on a copy; to join several signed documents, first look at how to merge signed PDFs without destroying the signatures.
• It is very large. These tools handle files up to 200 MB. If you have a scan of hundreds of pages, start by reducing the size or splitting it into parts.

And a habit that saves trouble: every operation creates a new file and leaves the original as it was, so keep the original until you have checked the result.

Merging several PDFs into one

With merge PDF you add the files, put them in the order you want with the up and down buttons, and download a single one. A practical trick: if you name the files with a leading number (01-application, 02-id, 03-contract), they start out in order and you will not have to move them one by one.

What to know about the result:

• Each page keeps its own size, so if you mix A4 sheets with another format, the final document shows them as they are, without resizing.
• Bookmarks (the side index in PDF readers) and links between documents are not carried over. Text and images are.
• The output will weigh roughly the sum of the originals. If you plan to email it or upload it to a site with a size limit, you will need to compress it afterwards.
• Check the total page count: the tool shows it before you download, and it should match the sum of the files you added.

Removing pages you do not need

A blank sheet, a cover page that does not need to go out, a page scanned twice. With delete pages you see each page as a thumbnail, untick the ones to remove and download the document without them. Looking at thumbnails rather than typing numbers is what prevents the classic mistake of deleting the page next to the one you meant.

One important point on privacy: deleting a page is right when the whole page is surplus. But if what you want is to hide a detail inside a page (an ID number, an IBAN, an address), covering or cropping it is not enough: the text can still be in the file. For that, redact the data so it cannot be recovered.

Keeping only a few pages

It is the same job in reverse: instead of marking what to remove, you mark what you need. With extract pages you pick, say, the last sheet of a contract or two chapters of a long report, and download a new PDF with only those pages, in the same order they had in the original. If you are keeping fewer pages than you would remove, this is more direct than deleting.

Changing the page order

It happens when a scanner swallows sheets out of sequence or a document was assembled from loose parts. In reorder pages you move each thumbnail into place with the buttons underneath and download the same document in a new order. For very long documents it is often quicker to split them, order the parts separately and merge them again.

Rotating a page that came out sideways

A scanned batch in which one sheet went in crooked, or a whole document that ended up upside down. With rotate PDF you turn each page independently in 90-degree steps and download the corrected document. Rotating does not recompress or alter the content: it is stored as the page's orientation, which is how any PDF reader does it.

A clarification: rotating is for pages that are sideways or upside down (90, 180 or 270 degrees). If a scan is only slightly tilted, by a few degrees, what you need is to straighten the scanned document.

Splitting a PDF into several files

Useful for separating chapters, sending a document to different recipients or cutting up a file that is too heavy. In split PDF you tick “start new file here” on the pages where each part begins and download them all together in a ZIP. If you want one file per page, tick every page except the first.

The order of work that causes the fewest mistakes

When you have to do several things at once, this order avoids repeating steps:

1. Rotate the sideways pages first, so you can see properly what you do next.
2. Delete the surplus pages.
3. Reorder what is left.
4. Merge the cleaned-up, ordered documents, or split them if the destination calls for it.
5. Compress last, and only if the size demands it, so you do not compress the same content twice.

All six tools run in your browser: the document is processed on your own computer and is not uploaded to any server, which matters when the PDF is a payslip, a contract or a form with personal data.