Everything a PDF needs.
Free PDF tools
Free PDF tools that run entirely in your browser: merge, split, compress, crop, organize, watermark, number and read PDFs, and convert between PDF and images. The document is never uploaded, and no account is needed.
Merge, split, compress, crop, reorder, rotate, watermark, number and read PDFs — and move between PDFs and images in both directions. Every one of them runs in this tab, so the document never leaves your machine.
19 tools
Change the document
Pages are copied, not re-rendered. Text stays selectable and images keep the bytes they arrived with.
Make it smaller
Compressing keeps text selectable by default, because only the images inside are recompressed. Its Rasterize pages mode redraws every page as an image instead, which suits a scanned document.
Between images and PDF
PDF to images turns each page into pixels, so the result has a resolution rather than being resolution-free.
Add to the page
Drawn on top with an embedded standard font, so nothing underneath is touched.
Between PDF and Office documents
Text and structure are carried across; page layout is not. A converted document reads correctly and will not look like a photograph of the original.
Passwords
Real AES encryption, done in this tab. Unlock removes a password you already know — it is not a way past one you do not.
Scans and damaged files
The two jobs where a PDF is not yet usable: one recognizes the words in a scan, the other rebuilds a file a reader refuses to open.
Read what is inside
Nothing is changed. A PDF carries more than it shows — an author name, a producer string, sometimes a local file path.
Worth knowing about PDFs
- Copying pages and rasterizing pages are not the same thing
- Most of these tools copy page objects from one document into another, which changes nothing inside them: text stays selectable, fonts stay embedded and images keep their exact bytes. PDF to image rasterizes, turning pages into pixels, because that is its job. Compress PDF re-encodes only the images inside a document, unless you choose its Rasterize pages mode, which rebuilds every page as an image to make a scan smaller. If a tool has no quality setting, that is why — there is nothing being re-encoded.
- Cropping a PDF usually hides rather than removes
- A PDF page carries a MediaBox, which is the sheet, and a CropBox, which is the part a reader displays. Cropping sets the CropBox, so the page appears trimmed while the content outside it is still in the file and can be recovered. That is fine for layout and wrong for secrecy — to take something out of a document for good, redact the image or export the pages and rebuild.
- A PDF remembers who made it
- Most PDFs carry an author name, the software that produced them, and creation and modification dates. Files exported from desktop software sometimes carry the full local path of the original, including a username. None of it is visible when you read the document, which is why it survives being shared.
- A scanned PDF has no text in it
- A page produced by a scanner or a phone camera is a photograph wrapped in a PDF. There is no text layer to search, select or extract, however clearly the words read on screen. Recovering text from one needs optical character recognition, which File4Edit does not do — PDF to text tells you when it finds nothing rather than handing back an empty file.
- Nothing here is uploaded, including the PDF
- PDFs are opened with pdf.js and written with pdf-lib, both of which run as JavaScript inside this tab. There is no server that receives the document, no account, and no limit on file size beyond what your own machine will hold. You can check by opening the network panel while you work, or by using a tool once, then disconnecting from the internet and carrying on.
How to use Free PDF tools
- Pick the operation Choose the tool that matches what the document needs — the page groups them by whether they change the pages, convert them, draw on them, or only read them.
- Open your PDF Drop the file onto the tool. It is read from disk into the tab and opened with pdf.js; no copy is sent anywhere.
- Make the change Every tool previews the result on a rendered page before it writes anything, so what you see is what the file will contain.
- Save it The new document is written with pdf-lib in the tab and handed to you as a download. Several outputs arrive as one zip.
Free PDF tools: common questions
Can I edit a PDF without uploading it?
Yes. File4Edit opens PDFs with pdf.js and writes them with pdf-lib, both running as JavaScript inside your browser tab, so the document is never transmitted. You can confirm it by opening the network panel while you work, or by using a tool once, then disconnecting from the internet and continuing.
Does editing a PDF here reduce its quality?
Not for most operations. Cropping, reordering, rotating, merging, splitting, watermarking and numbering copy or draw on page objects, so text stays selectable and images keep their original encoding. Compress PDF re-encodes only the images inside, unless you choose Rasterize pages, which rebuilds each page as an image to make a scan smaller. PDF to image turns pages into pixels, because that is its job.
Does cropping a PDF delete the content outside the crop?
No. Cropping sets the page CropBox, which is the region a reader displays, while the MediaBox and the content outside it remain in the file and can be recovered. That is correct for layout and wrong for secrecy: to remove something permanently, export the pages as images and redact them.
Can File4Edit read the text in a scanned PDF?
Not with this tool, but yes with another. A scanned page is a picture with no text layer, so PDF to text says the page holds none rather than handing back an empty file. PDF OCR recognizes the words in the picture instead and writes them back into the document, after downloading a recognition engine the first time you open it.
Is there a file size limit?
Only your own device. There is no service tier and no upload, so the limit is how much memory the browser will give the tab. Very large documents are slower to preview but are written the same way.