PDFProd — Complete User Guide
Every tool runs entirely in your browser. Your files are never sent anywhere. No account, no internet connection needed after the page loads.

Visual Editor

Draw, annotate, add text or images — directly on any PDF page

Getting started — annotate a contract

Basic
Scenario
Your lawyer sends you a contract. You need to highlight a clause, add a note in the margin, and circle a number you disagree with — without printing anything.
  1. Click ✏ Visual Editor in the top navigation bar. A full-screen editor will open.

  2. Click the 📂 drop zone at the top (or drag your PDF onto it). Your document pages will appear on the right panel.

  3. Click any page thumbnail on the right to jump to that page.

  4. Select the 🖍 Highlighter tool from the left toolbar. Click and drag over any text to highlight it in yellow.

  5. Select the T Text tool. Click anywhere on the page. A text box appears — type your note. Press Enter or click elsewhere to confirm.

  6. Select the ▭ Rectangle tool. Click and drag to draw a box around something.

  7. When done, click ⬇ Save PDF in the top right. Your annotated PDF downloads immediately.

Tip: Use ↩ Undo (top bar) to reverse any mistake, step by step. Up to 60 steps of history are kept.

Advanced — all tools explained

Advanced
Drawing tools
✒ Pen
Freehand drawing. Adjust size with the Size slider. Good for circling things or free annotations.
🖍 Highlighter
Semi-transparent color stroke. Ideal for marking text passages. Change color with the color picker.
🧹 Eraser
Removes drawn strokes and objects. Drag over what you want to delete.
╱ Line
Draw a straight line. Click once for start point, drag to end point, release.
▭ Rectangle
Draw an empty rectangle border. Useful for boxing sections.
▬ Filled Rect
Draw a solid filled rectangle. Use a white fill to cover / redact text.
T Text
Click anywhere to place a text box. Adjust font size with the Font Size slider. Change color with the picker.
⊹ Select
Click any object to select it. Drag to move. Drag the corner handle to resize. Right-click for Copy / Delete options.
🖼 Image
Insert any image (PNG, JPEG) onto the page. It is placed as a resizable, movable object. You can also paste an image from your clipboard (Ctrl/Cmd+V).
Page management
+ Blank Page
Adds a new empty white A4 page at the end of the document.
+ Insert PDF/Image
Drop another PDF or image to append its pages to the current document.
⊕ Apply to all
Copies everything drawn on the current page onto every other page. Useful for a logo or stamp repeated on all pages.
🗑 Clear Page
Removes all annotations from the current page, leaving the original page background intact.
Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z on Mac) also triggers Undo. Delete key removes the selected object.
↗ Open Visual Editor

Merge PDFs

Combine multiple PDFs and images into one single file

Combine several documents into one

Basic
Scenario
You have three separate PDFs — a cover letter, a CV, and a diploma scan — and you need to email them as a single file.
  1. Select ⊕ Merge from the Pages menu in the navigation bar.

  2. Drag all your files into the drop zone, or click to browse and select multiple files at once. PDFs and images (PNG, JPEG, WebP) are all supported.

  3. Each file appears as a card showing its name, number of pages, and a thumbnail of the first page.

  4. Drag the cards to change the order — the top card becomes the first pages of the merged PDF.

  5. Click ⊕ Merge & Download. The combined PDF downloads in seconds.

Tip: You can mix PDFs and images freely. Each image becomes one page in the merged document.

Split PDF

Extract specific pages or ranges as separate PDF files

Extract specific chapters

Basic
Scenario
You have a 200-page report. You only need to send pages 15 to 30 to a colleague, and pages 80 to 95 to another.
  1. Select ✂ Split from the Pages menu.

  2. Drop your PDF into the zone. A page preview grid loads and you see a "From / to" input.

  3. Enter From: 15, To: 30, then click + Add. That range is saved as a chip.

  4. Enter From: 80, To: 95, then click + Add again.

  5. Click ✂ Split & Download. You receive a ZIP file containing two PDFs, one per range.

Options
Merge all ranges
Check "Merge all ranges into one PDF" to receive a single file combining all selected ranges instead of a ZIP.
Page preview
Pages in a currently typed range are highlighted in blue so you can verify visually before splitting.

Remove Pages

Delete unwanted pages and save the rest

Delete blank or unwanted pages

Basic
Scenario
Your scanned PDF has a blank page inserted after every real page — 20 pages total but only 10 matter. You want to remove the 10 blank pages.
  1. Select ✕ Remove Pages from the Pages menu.

  2. Drop your PDF. All pages are shown as thumbnails, all green (kept) by default.

  3. Click a thumbnail to toggle it — it turns red (excluded). Click again to restore it to green.

  4. Use ✕ Exclude All then click only the pages you want to keep, or use ⇄ Invert to flip your selection.

  5. When happy with the selection, click Save & Download. Only the green pages are included.

Tip: The counter at the top shows how many pages are kept vs excluded in real time.

Reorder Pages

Drag page thumbnails to rearrange, and optionally rotate pages

Fix page order after scanning

Basic
Scenario
You scanned a document and pages came out in the wrong order. Page 3 should be first, and some pages are sideways.
  1. Select ⇄ Reorder from the Pages menu.

  2. Drop your PDF. All pages are displayed as a grid of thumbnails.

  3. Drag thumbnails to their correct position. On mobile, press and hold briefly before dragging.

  4. To rotate a page, click its thumbnail. A large view opens with a Rotate button. Each click rotates 90° clockwise. You can also rotate all pages at once.

  5. Click ↕ Reverse All to flip the entire page order in one click.

  6. Click ⬇ Save Reordered PDF to download.

Group Pages

Place multiple pages onto one sheet (N-up layout)

Print 4 pages on one sheet

Basic
Scenario
You have a 40-page presentation and want to print a compact handout version with 4 slides per page to save paper.
  1. Select ▦ Group Pages from the Pages menu.

  2. Drop your PDF.

  3. Choose 4 as Pages per Sheet (or 2, 6, 9 depending on your need).

  4. Optionally add a Border (in points) to draw a thin line around each mini-page, and Padding to add space between them.

  5. Click ▦ Create & Download.

Crop PDF

Cut away margins or unwanted areas from each page

Remove oversized white margins

Basic
Scenario
You received a PDF where every page has huge white margins. You want to crop them out so the content fills the page.
  1. Select ⬚ Crop from the Pages menu.

  2. Drop your PDF. On desktop, the first page opens immediately in the crop editor. On mobile, tap a thumbnail first.

  3. Click and drag on the page to draw your crop rectangle. A blue selection box appears.

  4. Click ⬚ Apply to this page to crop just that page, or Apply to all pages to use the same crop area on every page.

  5. Click ⬇ Download. The cropped PDF is saved.

Tip: Click ↺ Reset on any page to undo the crop for that page only.

Sign PDF

Add your handwritten or typed signature to any page

Sign a contract

Basic
Scenario
You receive a contract by email as a PDF. You need to sign it and send it back without printing.
  1. Select ✍ Sign from the Edit menu.

  2. In Step 1 — Create your signature: draw your signature with your mouse (or finger on mobile) on the black canvas. If you prefer, switch to Aa Text mode and type your name.

  3. In Step 2 — drop your PDF into the second drop zone.

  4. Page thumbnails appear. Click a thumbnail — a large view of that page opens.

  5. Click anywhere on the page to place your signature there. A small preview is shown. You can place it multiple times on different pages.

  6. Click ✍ Download Signed PDF.

Advanced options
Image signature
Switch to 🖼 Image mode to upload a PNG of your existing signature (transparent background recommended). You can also paste it from clipboard.
Signature size
Under Advanced options, adjust Sig Width (pt) to make the signature larger or smaller on the PDF page.
Opacity
Reduce opacity for a more subtle, ink-like look.
Name & Date
Type your name and date in the text fields — they are placed alongside the drawn signature on each placement.
📄

Header & Footer

Add page numbers, document title, date on every page

Add page numbers to a document

Basic
Scenario
You are submitting a 30-page legal brief. Court rules require page numbers at the bottom center of each page, and your firm's name at the top left.
  1. Select 📄 Header/Footer from the Edit menu.

  2. Drop your PDF. A grid of text fields appears: 3 positions for the header (left, center, right) and 3 for the footer.

  3. In Header Left, type your firm's name. Leave the others blank.

  4. In Footer Center, type {page} / {total}. PDFProd will automatically replace {page} with the current page number and {total} with the total page count.

  5. Click 📄 Apply & Download.

Advanced options
Font Size
Adjust the text size in points. Default is 10pt — suitable for most documents.
Color
Pick any color for the header/footer text.
Margin
Distance from the page edge in points. Increase to avoid text being cut off by printers.
Start numbering at
If page 1 of your file is actually page 14 of a larger document, set this to 14 so numbering is correct.
Skip first N pages
Skips numbering on the first N pages. Use this to leave a cover page unnumbered.
💧

Watermark

Stamp text onto every page — DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, etc.

Mark a document as CONFIDENTIAL

Basic
Scenario
You need to share a sensitive report with a partner but want every page clearly marked "CONFIDENTIAL" so it cannot be mistaken for a public document.
  1. Select 💧 Watermark from the Edit menu.

  2. Drop your PDF.

  3. Type CONFIDENTIAL in the Watermark Text field.

  4. Choose your preferred position: Center for a large diagonal stamp, or Tiled to repeat it across the whole page.

  5. Click 💧 Apply Watermark & Download.

Advanced options
Font Size
Larger values produce a bigger stamp. 60pt is a good default for most pages.
Rotation °
Angle of the text. -45° gives the classic diagonal stamp look. Use 0° for a flat horizontal mark.
Opacity
Lower values make the watermark more transparent so the page content remains easy to read. 30–40% is typical.
Color
Red is common for CONFIDENTIAL/DRAFT; grey is more discreet.
Position
Top Left, Top Right, Center, or Tiled (repeats across entire page).
📷

Scan — Images to PDF

Convert photos from your phone into a proper PDF document

Turn phone photos into a PDF

Basic
Scenario
You photographed 5 pages of a paper document with your phone. You need to send it as a single PDF to your accountant.
  1. Select 📷 Scan from the Edit menu.

  2. Drop your photos, or tap to open your camera roll and select multiple images at once.

  3. Each image appears as a card. Drag the cards to reorder them into the correct page sequence.

  4. Click the icon on any image card to open the crop & contrast editor for that photo.

  5. Choose the Page Size (A4 is standard) and a margin if desired.

  6. Click 🖼 Convert & Download.

Advanced options
Contrast slider
In the crop editor, increase contrast to make text sharper and background whiter — very useful for photos taken in poor lighting.
Crop tool
Draw a rectangle to keep only the document area and cut out the table, hands, or background around it.
Fit to image
Page size option "Fit to image" creates a page exactly the size of your photo — useful for photos that are not A4 proportions.
🔒

Encrypt / Decrypt

Password-protect any file with AES-256 encryption

Protect a sensitive file before emailing it

Basic
Scenario
You need to email a medical report to your doctor. The file contains highly personal information and you want to make sure only your doctor can open it.
  1. Select 🔒 Encrypt File from the Security menu. Make sure Encrypt mode is selected.

  2. Drop your file. Any format works — PDF, Word, Excel, images, anything.

  3. Type a strong password. The strength meter shows how secure it is. Aim for "Strong" or "Very strong".

  4. Click 🔒 Encrypt & Download. You get a file ending in .encrypted. Send that file by email.

  5. Tell your doctor the password separately — by phone, for example. Never send password and encrypted file in the same email.

⚠ The password is never stored anywhere. If you lose it, the file cannot be recovered. Write it down somewhere safe.

Decrypt a file you received

Basic
  1. Select 🔒 Encrypt File from the Security menu, then click the Decrypt tab.

  2. Drop the .encrypted file.

  3. Enter the password that was used to encrypt it.

  4. Click 🔓 Decrypt & Download. The original file is restored.

🏷

Strip Metadata

Remove hidden information embedded in a PDF (author name, creation software, dates…)

Remove your name from a PDF before publishing

Basic
Scenario
You wrote a report in Word and exported it as PDF. The file automatically contains your name, company, and the exact date/time it was created. You want none of that visible.
  1. Select 🏷 Metadata from the Security menu.

  2. Drop your PDF. A table shows every metadata field with its current value and what it will be replaced with (anonymized placeholders like "aaaa").

  3. Review the fields — Author, Creator, Producer, Title, etc.

  4. Click 🏷 Strip & Download. The cleaned PDF is saved with all fields removed or replaced.

Did you know? Every PDF created by Word, LibreOffice, or Acrobat embeds your software version, username, and creation timestamps. This is invisible in normal viewing but readable by anyone who checks the file properties.
🔍

Anonymize PDF

Find and replace sensitive words throughout the entire document

Redact names before sharing a document

Basic
Scenario
You have a patient report that appears 30 times throughout the document. You need to replace the patient's name with "PATIENT" before sharing with a research team.
  1. Select 🔍 Anonymize from the Security menu.

  2. Drop your PDF. Page thumbnails load.

  3. In the Keywords section, type the name to find (e.g. "John Smith") in the first field, and the replacement text (e.g. "PATIENT") in the second field.

  4. Click + Add Keyword to add more pairs — email addresses, ID numbers, addresses, etc.

  5. Click 🔍 Anonymize & Download. Pages where replacements were made are highlighted in the preview.

⚠ This tool works on the text layer of a PDF. Scanned PDFs (images) need OCR first to have a text layer that can be searched.

Compress PDF

Reduce file size for easy sharing by email or upload

Make a PDF small enough to email

Basic
Scenario
Your scanned invoice is 18 MB. Your client's email server rejects attachments over 10 MB. You need to shrink it.
  1. Select ◉ Compress from the Process menu.

  2. Drop your PDF. The original file size is shown.

  3. Choose a compression level:

Light
Removes metadata and cleans internal structure only. File quality is 100% unchanged. Typical saving: 5–15%. Use this if the document has no images.
Aggressive
Re-encodes all images as JPEG at lower quality, strips fonts and annotations. Typical saving: 50–80%. Text remains selectable. Use for scanned documents.
  1. For Aggressive mode, adjust the Image JPEG Quality slider. 25–35% gives the best size reduction while remaining readable. Below 20% may look blurry.

  2. Click ◉ Compress & Download. The new size and reduction % are shown.

🔤

OCR — Text Recognition

Make scanned PDFs searchable and copy-pasteable

Make a scanned document searchable

Basic
Scenario
You have a PDF that is just a photo of a document — you cannot click on any text, cannot search for words inside it, and cannot copy anything. You want to fix that.
  1. Select 🔤 OCR from the Process menu.

  2. Drop your PDF or image. The page count and file size are shown.

  3. Select the Language of the text in the document. Matching the language improves accuracy significantly.

  4. Optionally enter a Page Range (e.g. "1" to "5") if you only need to process certain pages — useful for very large documents.

  5. Click 🔤 Run OCR & Download. A progress bar shows each page being processed. On slow computers this takes a few seconds per page.

  6. The downloaded PDF looks identical but now has an invisible text layer — you can search, select, and copy text.

How it works: OCR processes one page at a time and releases memory after each page. This means even a 200-page document can be processed safely on any computer without running out of memory. You can click Stop at any time to get a partial result.
Advanced options
Language
Choose from English, French, Spanish, German, and more. Using the correct language improves word accuracy. For multilingual documents, use "English" as a default.
Page Range
Enter a start and end page to process only part of the document. Leave blank to process all pages.
Stop button
Pressing ⏹ Stop mid-process stops the OCR and gives you whatever pages have been processed so far.