Why is this PDF like this?

Short, useful guides to the PDF problems everyone runs into.

• How to compress a PDF (and actually make it smaller)

  What makes a PDF heavy, how to pick the right compression level and what to try when the file refuses to shrink.

  Tool: Compress PDF

• PDF compression explained: lossless vs lossy

  What actually happens when a PDF is compressed, and why the results vary so much between files.

  Tool: Compress PDF

• How to merge PDF files into one

  Combine PDFs in the right order, then fix the usual problems: wrong page order, locked files and huge results.

  Tool: Merge PDF

• How to split a PDF and extract pages

  Extract a range, pull out scattered pages, or break a PDF into single pages.

  Tool: Split PDF

• How to convert JPG photos to a PDF

  Turn a pile of phone photos into one PDF someone will actually accept.

  Tool: JPG to PDF