Which PDF tool do I need?
Updated 25 September 2026
Most PDF tasks come down to a handful of operations. Picking the right one first avoids quality loss and extra steps.
Start from what you want to end up with
| You want… | Use | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| One file from several PDFs or scans | Merge PDF | Lossless |
| Only some pages, or several smaller files | Split PDF | Lossless |
| Pages in a different order, rotated or removed | Reorder PDF | Lossless |
| A smaller file for email or an upload form | Compress PDF | Depends on level |
| Pages as pictures for slides or chat | PDF to JPG | Rendered at a resolution you choose |
| A PDF from photos or scans | JPG to PDF | JPEGs embedded unchanged |
| A password on a file, or off it | Protect / Unlock | Lossless |
Order of operations
When you need several steps, do the lossless ones first and compression last: unlock → merge → reorder or split → compress → protect. Compressing early and then merging can mean re-processing images twice; protecting early means every later tool has to ask for the password.
Lossless vs. re-rendered
Merging, splitting, reordering and rotating copy page content as it is — text stays selectable, vector drawings stay sharp, and file size barely changes. Converting a PDF to images, or using the "Pages as images" compression level, renders pages to pixels: text is no longer searchable and small print can blur. Use those only when the destination needs images or you have no other way to reach a size limit.
Scans are different
A scanned document is already a stack of images, so most of its size is photo data. Compression helps a lot (often 60–90%), while lossless optimisation helps little. For documents created on a computer — reports, invoices, slides — the reverse is usually true.