PDF guides

How to get pdf jobs done in the browser — and what each choice costs you. Each guide links to the tool that does it.

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How to rotate PDF pages

Fixing sideways scans permanently, why your reader's rotate button is not the same thing, and why it costs nothing.

1 min read
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How to extract pages from a PDF

Pulling out the pages you need, why it is often better than compressing, and the privacy point people miss.

1 min read
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How to split a PDF

Breaking one document into several, when splitting is the right answer rather than extracting, and what each part keeps.

1 min read
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How to merge PDF files

Combining documents into one, why the order matters more than people expect, and what survives the merge.

1 min read
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PDF vs JPG: which should you send?

They solve different problems. When a document should stay a document, when an image is the better answer, and how to convert either way.

2 min read
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How to prepare a PDF for email

The real attachment limits, and the order of operations that gets a document under them without destroying what makes it useful.

1 min read
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How images affect PDF file size

Why one photo can outweigh a hundred pages of text, what happens when you paste an image into a document, and how to keep a PDF small at source.

2 min read
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How to reduce PDF file size

Work out what is making the file big first, then pick the method that costs you least — which is often not the compressor.

2 min read
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Why scanned PDFs are so large

A scan is a stack of photographs, not a document. What scanner settings actually control the size, and what you can do after the fact.

2 min read
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How PDF compression works

Why a PDF is large in the first place, the two very different ways of shrinking one, and the trade Dexta's compressor makes that you need to know about.

3 min read