One of the most important things you may need to do in the office is to merge several PDF sheets into one document . In fact, it may happen that you have scanned several sheets in PDF format or downloaded several different forms or documents, to be assembled as soon as possible in a single PDF file containing all the pages.
Another very common need is to divide PDFs too large into smaller documents, so that you can send them via email without problems related to the size of the attachments.
In this regard, we can use different programs to join and divide PDFs, including some open source or simply free programs that allow not only to merge two or more pages into a single PDF but which can also perform the reverse operation, that is, to cut or split or separate the pages of a PDF into multiple files.
In this guide we will show you both the programs that can be used on Window and on Mac and the sites that allow you to unify and divide files online on any operating system and without installing anything.
READ ALSO: How to create PDF files online for free
Programs to join PDFs on Windows
In this part of the guide we will show you the best programs that we can use on a Windows PC to merge PDFs.
1) PDFSam
The best open source and free program to merge PDF is definitely PDFSam which in its basic version has everything you need to manage PDFs.
PDFSam is divided into several modules that we can take advantage of on the PC:
- Merge PDF unifies pages in one file, in whole or in parts, with separate intervals.
- Mix PDF offers a way to unify two PDF files by taking pages alternately from the beginning or backwards.
This solution is for reconstructing documents that had been separated into two files.
- Splitting a PDF allows you to generate other documents starting from a page or cutting some pages.
- Extracting pages from a PDF is a separate dedicated module, which offers the possibility of extracting single pages or ranges of pages to create a new PDF file containing only the chosen pages.
- Rotate PDF, or only some pages of a document, to arrange them in case after unifying them, some pages had a different orientation.
2) PDFTk
As an alternative to PDFSam you can use the PDFTk program which in its free version easily allows you to merge two or more PDF files into one.
Using it is really simple: just insert the documents to be merged with the Add PDF button, then click on the Create PDF button to unify all the files and generate only one.
The free version does not allow you to do much else, since the other modules are only accessible in the paid version.
3) PDF Fill
On a Windows PC you can use a single free program to merge PDFs and get other advanced features with this type of documents: PDF Fill .
We had already talked about this application in the past, explaining how simple it was to extract and reorder pages from a PDF thanks to the various functions of PDF Fill.
The installation of PDF Fill includes two components, .Net Framework 4.5 and GhostScript, which are essential for it to work (make sure to install them when asked by the installer).
To merge two or more PDF files with PDF Fill you must use the Merge PDF Files function, then choosing the files to be merged and ordering them as you prefer; you can use the mouse drag or the Add button to add the files
To split a PDF file with PDF Fill, just use the Split or reorder pages button .
From the following screen, the pages (with numbers) to be extracted or those to be deleted must be chosen.
If you use the Split option, you must then tick the option to create a PDF with the remaining pages, in order to divide the chosen ones in one file and the others in another file.
Other useful programs can be found in the guide below.
READ ALSO: Merge PDF by unifying pages into one file: best free program
How to merge PDFs on Mac
Anyone with a Mac or MacBook can easily merge or split a PDF file with the program included in the system called Preview .
To merge various PDF files together, simply open the first document, click on the thumbnails item under the View menu, and then drag the other files with the mouse to the left sidebar.
Now we order the various pages and, from the File menu at the top, click on Export as PDF to generate the new document which includes all the pages and documents previously inserted.
To divide a PDF always with Preview we will have to open the PDF document to be processed, press the Print button at the top (we can also use the keyboard shortcut CMD + P) and write the page numbers to be kept in the new file in the preview window of press, in the From and To fields
At the end, instead of printing the document on paper, just press the Save PDF button to generate a new document with the selected pages.
Having therefore a large document to be divided, you can repeat this procedure saving several files, each perhaps with 10 pages.
Sites to join PDFs online (free)
If you do not want or cannot use new programs on your computer (because for example we use a corporate PC with blocks), we can use websites specialized in merging or managing PDFs, compatible with any browser on a PC or Mac.
1) SmallPDF
The best site for merging PDFs (but also doing other things with documents) is SmallPDF, already mentioned in the article on how to compress PDF to reduce file size.
The page to reach for merging PDFs is the one available here -> Merge PDF with SmallPDF .
Simply load the files to unify by clicking on Choose file or dragging the selection of files into the window, then proceed by ordering all the documents with the online editor.
The merger requires you to upload multiple files to the site, then order them and download the new PDF document.
Once creation is complete, simply click Download to download the new merged PDF.
The tool to split PDF instead allows you to select the pages to keep in the new file; we can access the dedicated page here -> Split PDF with SmallPDF .
If you receive a too large PDF document, it can be useful to divide it for two purposes: to extract only the part you want to keep by deleting the rest or to make sure that such a large file can be sent normally by email, divided into two or multiple parts.
Using this web page we can then load the single PDF file, choose which pages to extract and finally save the extracted pages in a new PDF by pressing the Download button.
Obviously we can repeat the operation for each section of pages that we want to extract, so as to have multiple PDFs from the same starting document.
2) iLovePDF
Another very useful site that we can use to merge PDFs is iLovePDF, accessible for free from here -> iLovePDF .
Once the page is open, simply click on the Select PDF File button, indicate the files to be merged and, in the management software that will appear, merge all the desired pages in the order in which we want them to appear in the final document.
At the end we confirm and download the new merged PDF file by pressing the Download button.
If we want to split a PDF file, just use the section of the site reserved for this functionality, accessible from here -> Split PDF iLovePDF .
Using it is very simple: we load the document to be divided, select the section of pages from which to obtain the new document then confirm on Download .
We will thus obtain a PDF or various PDFs with the proceeds from the indicated pages.
READ ALSO: How to edit PDF files, extract text and convert them into documents
