Use a PDF tool

Find the tool you need

1. Open Tools from the top of any screen. Tools are grouped by what they do.
2. Type in Find a tool to find a tool by its name or by what it does, in your language.

Give it your files

• Drop files on the page, select Choose files, or paste them. The page shows how many files and how large a file your plan allows for that tool, before anything is uploaded.
• Each tool says whether it runs in your browser, so the file never leaves your device, or on our servers. The phone apps and the API always run tools on our servers.
• Before a tool on our servers reads a PDF, any script in it, and any action that would open a program or a web address, is removed, so the file you get back never carries them. The pages, links to web pages and bookmarks stay.
• Every file that reaches our servers is checked for viruses, and for being the kind of file it claims to be, before any tool opens it. An infected file is deleted and the run is refused. If the check cannot run, the run stops and nothing is counted: try again in a few minutes.

Keep the result

• Download the result, or select Save to the library to keep it. A result you do not save is deleted 2 hours after it is made, and the page shows the exact time. The files you gave the tool are deleted when it finishes.
• Each output file counts as one task toward your account's limit. A run that fails counts nothing.
• A file you upload but never run a tool on is deleted an hour after it arrives. Documents you save to your library are kept until you delete them.

Edit or annotate a document

• Edit PDF and Annotate PDF open the document on your device. Select text to change its words, nudge or delete what is on the page, or add text; in annotation, drag to draw a highlight, box or line, or click to place a comment.
• Select Finish and save when you are done. Saving the edited document counts one task, however many changes you made.

Redact a document

• Redact PDF opens the document on your device. Drag across each part to remove, on any page; the areas are listed and you can remove one before you finish.
• When you select Redact and save, the words, the covered parts of images, and any link, comment or form field in each area are taken out of the file itself, then the area is painted black. Copying, searching or opening the result in another program cannot bring them back.

Passwords, Bates numbers and archives

• Protect PDF encrypts the file with AES-256 so it opens only with the password you choose, and can stop printing, copying or changes. Type the password twice; we do not keep it, so a forgotten password cannot be recovered. Unlock PDF removes a password when you give the one that opens the file, or its permissions password.
• Bates numbering stamps every page with the next number, carrying on across all the files of one run in the order you gave them, with the text before and after the number and the zero padding you set. A run whose last number would not fit the digits is refused before anything is stamped.
• PDF to PDF/A makes an archival copy to the PDF/A-2b standard: fonts embedded, colours in sRGB, nothing that points outside the file. The copy is checked for the PDF/A declaration and colour profile before it is handed to you.

Fill forms, compare and sign

• Fill PDF form lists every field of the form by its label, with the answer it already has. Read-only fields are shown and cannot change. Select Make the answers part of the page to turn the answers into page content that no reader can change; leave it off to keep a form that can be filled again.
• Compare PDF reads the words of two PDFs page by page and shows the pages that changed, with removed words struck through and added words underlined. Download the comparison as a report. Pictures and layout are not compared, and scanned pages need OCR PDF first.
• Sign PDF puts your signature on the document: draw it, type your name, or give a picture of it, then click each place on any page where it goes, or select Place on this page. A drawn signature stays sharp at any size. This is a signature mark, not a certificate signature.

Convert, recognise text and use AI

• Word, Excel and PowerPoint convert to PDF and back on our servers. PDF to Word and PDF to PowerPoint keep the words editable, and PDF to Excel puts each column of a table in its own cell. Pictures become PDF pages in your browser, and PDF pages become pictures there too.
• HTML to PDF takes an HTML file or the address of a public web page. Its pictures and styles are not fetched, and addresses that are not public, such as a private network, are refused.
• OCR PDF makes a scanned PDF searchable: choose up to three of the languages it is written in, and the words are laid invisibly over each page so you can find, select and copy them. Pages that already have text are left as they were.
• Summarise PDF and Translate PDF use AI credits: one for each page, shown before you start, against the credits your account has left this month. A translation keeps the layout, with each block of text replaced where it stood. A run that fails gives its credits back.

Print labels with ZPL

• ZPL to PDF draws every label in a ZPL file, in your browser, one label to a page, at the size the ZPL gives or the label size you choose when it gives none. One file counts as one task however many labels it holds.
• PDF to ZPL turns each page into a label for a thermal printer, at the label size and print density you choose, as a ZPL file to send to the printer.