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Merge PDF

Combine several PDFs into one. Free, no sign-up.

or drop them here

Merge PDF runs inside your browser — your file never reaches our servers.

How to merge PDF

Merging joins your PDFs end to end into a single document. Pages are copied across intact — same text, same images, same resolution.

  1. Select your PDFs. Click the button or drag files onto the page. They stay on your computer.
  2. Put them in order. Use the arrows to move any file up or down. The first file becomes page 1.
  3. Merge and download. One combined PDF, built in your browser in a second or two.

What lives above the page, and why it does not come across

Everything a PDF holds sits in one of two places: on a page, or in the document catalogue above the pages. Merging copies pages. A copied page brings its content stream, its fonts, its images and its annotations with it. Nothing in the catalogue is copied, because the merged file is a new document with a catalogue of its own — so the outline, the title and author fields, and the form definition all start empty.

Three things worth checking, then. A filled form field usually still shows the text that was typed into it, because the field’s rendered appearance is copied along with the page, but it is no longer part of a form your reader can fill in or read values out of. The merged file has no bookmark panel, whatever the sources had. And a link that jumped to another page inside its own document now points at a copy of that page which never made it into the new page tree, so the jump lands nowhere. Links to web addresses are unaffected.

When merging is the wrong move

Merge works on whole files and shows you filenames, not pages. If the new material belongs in the middle of an existing document rather than on the end, Insert pages is the better tool: it builds the result on top of the first document instead of starting a new one, so that document’s outline, form fields and metadata are still there afterwards.

It also takes PDFs and nothing else — JPG to PDF and Word to PDF both produce files that feed straight in. Expect the result to weigh about the sum of its parts: a logo or an embedded font that appears in all ten source files is embedded ten times over, because identical resources in two different documents are not recognised as the same object, and nothing here strips the duplicates afterwards. Compress PDF will still bring the size down, but by downsampling images rather than by de-duplicating them.

Questions

Does merging reduce quality?

No. Pages are copied across unchanged, so text stays sharp and selectable and images keep their original resolution. If you want a smaller file afterwards, run Compress PDF separately — that is a deliberate trade, not something we do behind your back.

Can I merge a password-protected PDF?

Not directly. Remove the password with Unlock PDF first (you will need the password), then merge the unlocked copy.

Do bookmarks and links survive?

Bookmarks do not: the merged file is a new document, and its outline starts empty whatever the sources had. Links to web addresses work as before. A link that jumped to another page inside its own document does not — merging copies pages into a new page tree, and the destination it points at is no longer part of it, so the jump lands nowhere. Page content itself is copied intact.

Can I merge PDFs that are different page sizes?

Yes. Every page keeps its own dimensions, so an A4 document merged with a Letter one gives you a single file containing both sizes. It opens fine everywhere; it is printing that notices, because most printers will scale or shift the odd-sized pages to fit the tray.

Can I merge a Word document or a photo into my PDF?

Not directly — this tool only accepts PDFs. Run the document through Word to PDF, or photos through JPG to PDF, and merge the converted results. Both of those conversions also run in your browser, so nothing is uploaded at either stage.

How many PDFs can I merge at once?

There is no limit on the count. The ceiling is the combined size of everything you have added, measured against the memory limit this page shows for your device — add a file that pushes the total over and it tells you before you run anything. Two files is the minimum: the button stays off, and counts down for you, until there is a second one. The result downloads as merged.pdf.

Are my files uploaded to a server?

No. Every tool on this site runs inside your browser, using the same engine as the Folia desktop app. Your file is read from your disk into your browser’s memory, processed there, and handed back as a download. It never crosses the internet, so there is nothing for us to store, leak or hand over.

Is there a file size limit?

We impose none. The only ceiling is your own device’s memory, which differs from one computer to another — so we read what your browser reports about this machine and show the resulting limit on the page. Light tools like merge and rotate handle far more than heavy ones like OCR, which must render every page. For anything larger, Folia for Desktop has no limit at all.

Is it really free? Do I need an account?

Yes, and no. Every tool is free and unlimited, with no watermark and no sign-up. Ads pay for the site, and your own computer does the work, which costs us nothing. Signing in with a paid Folia plan simply removes the ads.

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