About Merge PDF
Merging is the simplest thing you can do to a PDF and the one people most often get slightly wrong. You have a contract in one file, its schedules in three others, and a cover letter that somebody scanned sideways. You need them as one document, in a particular order, and you need to be sure that nothing went missing at a seam.
This tool takes two or more PDFs and joins them into one, in the order they are listed. Everything happens inside your browser: the files are read from your computer, joined there, and handed back to you as a download. Nothing is sent to a server, which matters when the files are the kind you would not email to a stranger.
How to merge PDFs
- Choose your files, or drop them onto the page. You can pick several at once, and you can drag more in later to add to the list.
- Look at the order. The files are joined top to bottom, exactly as listed. Use the up arrow on a row to move it earlier in the list, or remove one you added by mistake. You need at least two files before the button works.
- Press the merge button. A few seconds later you get a single PDF and a preview of it.
- Check the seams in the preview. Every page is captioned with the file it came from, for example "p4 · schedule-b.pdf", so a file in the wrong place shows up at once instead of after you have sent it.
- Save the result. If the order was wrong, change it and merge again; nothing has been committed until you save.
When you would use it
- Assembling an application, a loan pack or a tenancy file from pieces that were produced by different people in different programs.
- Putting a cover page or a signed page in front of a document that was exported before it was signed.
- Combining a month of scanned receipts into one file for an expenses claim.
- Joining exhibits to a statement so the whole bundle can be numbered afterwards with Bates numbering or page numbers.
- Building one reading document from chapters that were exported separately.
What it will not do
- It joins whole files. To take only some pages from each, trim them first with Split PDF, then merge the pieces.
- It does not put one document inside another at a chosen point. For that, use Insert pages, which lets you say before which page the second file goes.
- A file that is protected with a password has to be opened first. Take the password off with Unlock PDF and merge the result.
- The work is done in your browser’s memory. A very large bundle on an old phone may be slow or fail; a desktop browser copes with far more.
- Merging does not shrink anything. The result is about as large as the sum of its parts, so run it through Compress PDF if it needs to fit in an email.
How it compares
Most operating systems can merge PDFs in a built-in viewer, and word processors can export one file from several documents. Those are fine for two files you made yourself. They tend to be awkward when the pieces come from different sources, when you want to see where the seams fall, or when you are on a machine you cannot install anything on.
Many online mergers upload your files to a server. That is how they work, and it is why some of them ask you to create an account or leave a watermark on the result. This one does neither: there is no account, no watermark and no upload, because the joining is a job a browser can do on its own.
Tips
- Rename your files so they sort the way you want them, then select them all at once. The list starts in the order your computer gave them.
- If you plan to number the bundle, merge first and number afterwards. Numbering each file separately gives you a restart at every seam.