How to merge, split and reorder PDFs without uploading them

Drop the files on STAPLE. It draws a thumbnail of every page, lets you drag them into the order you want, turn any of them, drop the ones you do not need, stamp a page number on each, and writes one PDF, in the tab, with nothing uploaded. To take a file apart, add one file and take out or reorder its pages, or write each page as its own file. Photos and screenshots dropped in become pages. For one file that needs a page turned or removed and a signature on it, PDF does that too.

Why the merge sites want the file

The sites at the top of a search for "merge PDF" do the work on their computers, so the first step is always the upload, and the file sits there afterwards for as long as their terms say. For a recipe that does not matter. For the two halves of a contract, a scan of a passport with a scan of a bill, or a medical report and its cover letter, it is the whole question, and the answer on those sites is in the small print about retention.

The job does not need a server. Copying a page from one PDF into another is bookkeeping: the page's content stream and its resources are moved across, the page tree is rewritten, and the file is saved. A browser tab can do all of it with the file in memory.

Merging

Add the files in any order. Every page appears as a thumbnail, and the order of the thumbnails is the order of the output: drag them, or use the arrows. A page from the third file can go between two pages of the first. Turn any page a quarter turn if a scan came in sideways; the turn is written into the page, so every reader shows it upright. Save, and the result is one file.

The pages are copied as they are. Text stays text, links inside a page keep working, and the file is about the size of its parts added together. Merging does not make anything smaller; that is a different job, and no honest merge tool claims otherwise.

Splitting and pulling pages out

Add one file, remove the pages you do not want, and save: that is the extract. To split a long file into parts, save once for each part with the other pages removed, or write every page as its own PDF and combine what you need. In PDF, Export writes the current page as a PDF of its own.

Numbering

A bundle for a meeting or a court wants a number on every page. STAPLE stamps one in the corner you choose, at the size you choose, starting from any number, and the numbers count the pages of the output in the order shown, drawn upright whichever way a page is turned. For a bundle with Bates numbers and an exhibit index, EXHIBIT and BUNDLE are built for that.

What happens to the metadata

The output is a new file. It carries none of the source files' title, author, creation date, or the name of the program that made them. If that history matters, keep the originals. If it is exactly what you wanted gone, this is a side effect you can rely on, and SCRUB does the same to a single file without merging anything.

A locked PDF

A PDF with a password, even an empty one that no viewer ever asked you for, cannot be read by a strict reader, so it cannot be merged. Open it in any viewer, save an unlocked copy, and add that. The same is true on the merge sites; they just say it less clearly.

What this does not do

• Make the file smaller. A merged file is the size of its parts. Making a PDF smaller means re-encoding the pictures inside it.
• Edit the words on a page. Pages are copied, not rewritten. Write over a page with PDF, or go back to the document the PDF was made from.
• Read a scan. A scanned page is a picture. OPTIC gets the words out of it.

How to check the claim

Open the page, switch the network off, and merge two files. It works. Then open the browser's network tab and do it again with the network on: nothing goes out. Either test takes a minute and settles the question for good.