How to combine PDF files into one document

A cover letter, a project brief and a price sheet can travel as one PDF. The important part is choosing the order before you create the document. CapriVideo’s Merge PDF tool opens their pages in a visual workspace so you can arrange them before saving a new copy. Processing happens on your device, without uploading the documents. You can use it without an account.

Combine two or more PDFs

1. Open Merge PDF and choose at least two PDF files. You can also drop them into the file area.
2. Check the page thumbnails. Select a page and move it earlier or later to put your document in reading order. Delete an unwanted page, or use Undo to restore it.
3. Select Export PDF and wait for the result preview.
4. Check the page count and browse the preview, then select Download PDF. Open the downloaded document before sending it.

Suppose your cover letter has one page, your brief has four and your price sheet has two. With the cover first, the combined document should contain seven pages: cover, brief, prices. Check the joins between those sections; a missing last page is easy to overlook when you only inspect the beginning.

The thumbnails let you work with individual pages before exporting. You can also add a note or a signature in the same workspace. Organize PDF opens the same page controls for an existing document; our guide to removing and reordering pages walks through them.

Prepare files that the tool can accept

The current limits are 20 files, 25 MiB of combined input and 200 source pages in total. The downloadable result must also stay below 50 MiB. Files are checked during processing, so being able to select one does not guarantee that it can be merged.

Use ordinary, flat PDFs. Encrypted documents, interactive forms, digital signatures, annotations, bookmarks, layers, accessibility tags and attachments are unsupported. A PDF that looks simple can still contain one of these features. Keep the original and use an editor that supports the feature when it needs to survive the merge. Avoid converting away accessibility or signature information just to pass this tool’s checks.

If a file is rejected, first open it in a PDF reader and check that it is a valid PDF. Changing a filename to end in .pdf does not convert the underlying document. For a report you created yourself, a fresh export from its source application can help with a damaged export, but check which document features that export retains.

Combine PDFs on a Mac with Preview

You can also use Preview on a Mac. Open copies of both documents, show their thumbnail sidebars and drag the pages you need from one sidebar into the other. Apple notes that Preview saves changes automatically, so duplicate originals first if you want to retain them. See Apple’s instructions for combining PDFs.

Check the final document

Merging is not a compression step. Do not expect the result to meet an email attachment limit simply because it is now one file. Check its actual size and the recipient’s limit.

Look at page orientation, small text and section boundaries in the downloaded copy. If you add page numbers, do that after arranging the final order. Existing printed page numbers remain on the pages. Automatic numbering appears at the bottom right, so check that this area is free. Keep your original files until the recipient confirms that the combined document contains everything they need.