Guides

Practical help with PDFs, written to be useful.

• How to make a PDF smaller than 1 MB

  Upload limits on forms and email are often 1-2 MB. What makes PDFs big, and the order to try things in.

• How to check whether an online PDF tool uploads your file

  A two-minute test with your browser's developer tools shows whether a tool sends your document to a server.

• Remove hidden information from a PDF before you share it

  Author names, edit history, comments and form data can travel with a PDF. Here's what to check and how to strip it.

• Scan double-sided documents with a single-sided scanner

  Scan all the fronts, then all the backs, and combine them into one correctly ordered PDF.