How to merge multiple PDF files
Do you want to merge the content of multiple PDF files but have no intention of purchasing expensive commercial software to do so? I have great news for you: you don’t have to. Indeed, by purchasing those advanced suites for creating or editing PDF documents you would risk complicating your life unnecessarily with so many features you don’t need.
If you want advice, much better to rely on small free applications or – why not? – to practical Web services that allow you to merge multiple PDF files in an incredibly simple way without wasting time. All you have to do is choose the files to join, drag them into the software window you decide to choose (or into the browser window, if you decide to use an online service) and press a button.
Do not you believe it? Too good to be true, you say? Then don’t think twice, take five minutes of free time and find out how to unify your PDF documents thanks to these very practical free solutions I’m about to tell you about. You will be amazed by their extreme ease of use, but probably even more so by the quality of the files you will get!
iLovePDF (Online)
If you don’t want to waste time downloading or installing programs on your PC, you can contact iLovePDF. It is an online service that allows you to edit, convert and create PDF documents directly from your browser. It is completely free, requires no registration and allows you to merge PDFs with a maximum total weight of 200MB.
To find out how it works, linked to its home page, drag all the documents you want to unify into the browser window and arrange them in the order you prefer by moving their thumbnails with the mouse. When the operation is completed, presses the Merge PDF button and wait for the “unified” PDF to be first generated and then automatically downloaded to your PC.
Note: to protect user privacy, all documents uploaded to iLovePDF servers are automatically deleted within a few hours.
PDF Merge Tool (Windows)
If you don’t have a fast enough connection to use online services, or in any case you prefer to merge multiple PDF files by relying on more “traditional” solutions, try PDF Merge Tool. It is a small free and open-source application for Windows systems that does only one task and does it perfectly: it unifies PDFs.
To download PDF Merge Tool on your PC, connect to the SourceForge page that hosts the program and click on the Download button located at the top right. Once the download is complete, then open the zip package that contains the software and extract the contents to a folder of your choice (no tedious installation process is required).
At this point, start the PDF Merge Tool.exe executable, drag all the PDFs to be merged into the window that opens and use the Move up and Move down buttons to arrange them in the order you prefer. So press the Merge button, choose the folder in which to save the final PDF and that’s it.
If the application doesn’t work, try downloading and installing Microsoft’s .Net Framework 2.0 . It is a free component without which the program cannot run properly.
Preview (Mac)
Do you use a Mac? Then I have great news for you: you can merge your PDFs using Preview, the application for viewing photos and PDF documents included by default in OS X.
To be precise, what you have to do is open the first PDF you want to insert into your “unified” document. Then you have to select the thumbnails item from the Preview View menu to activate the display of the thumbnails and you have to drag all the other documents to be added to the first PDF into the bar that appears on the side.
When the operation is completed, arrange the thumbnails of the various PDFs in the order you prefer (ie in the order you want to be respected in the final document) and select the Print item from the Preview File menu. In the window that opens, then set the Save as PDF item in the PDF drop-down menu located at the bottom left and choose the folder in which to export your “unified” PDF.
If the work to be done with Preview seems a little too complex, fear not. At the cost of a couple of coffees (€ 1.99) you can buy PDF Toolkit + from the Mac App Store, a small all-rounder application for editing PDFs that allows you to do everything even more quickly and immediately. Just select the Concatenate tab of the program, drag the PDFs to be merged into the box located on the left and press the Concatenate button.