Merge PDF files
Join several PDFs into one, in the order you choose. Pages, and the text in them, are carried across as they are.
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Converted in your browser. A copy of the file you select is also uploaded and stored, so it can be investigated if a problem or a report of misuse ever requires that — see our privacy page for how long it is kept.
What merging preserves
The pages come across as pages, not as pictures of pages. Text stays selectable and searchable, links keep working, and the resolution is whatever the original had. This matters because the other common way to combine PDFs — printing each one to an image and reassembling — quietly destroys all of that and produces a file nobody can search.
Order and size
Drag the files into the order you want before merging; the result follows it exactly. The merged file is roughly the sum of its parts, since nothing is re-compressed. A handful of text documents will be small. A stack of scanned pages will not.
Where the merge happens, and where your files go
The merge itself runs inside your browser, using a PDF library loaded into the page — that is genuinely local, and it is why there is no queue and no file-size limit beyond your own device's memory. Separately, a copy of each file you add is uploaded and stored, the same way any file sent to Scriptorium is, so it can be investigated if a problem or a report of misuse ever requires that. See our privacy page for how long it is kept, and use a different tool if that trade does not work for something as sensitive as a patient record.
Files it cannot open
Password-protected PDFs. Encryption is doing its job: the contents cannot be read without the password, so remove the protection in whatever created the file and then merge. Corrupted files will also fail, and the page will say which one rather than producing a broken result.
Questions
Are my PDFs uploaded to a server?
The merge itself happens inside your browser — that part is genuinely local, and it is why the result appears instantly with no queue. A copy of each file you add is also uploaded and stored, the same as any file sent to Scriptorium, so we can investigate a problem or a report of misuse if one ever comes up. See our privacy page for how long it is kept.
Is there a limit on how many files?
No fixed limit. The practical ceiling is your device's memory, since every file has to be held at once to combine them. Very large scanned documents are the ones that will struggle.
Will it work on a password-protected PDF?
No. An encrypted PDF cannot be read without its password, so remove the protection in whatever created the file first.
Turn what is said into text
Scriptorium's main job is transcription: bring a video or an audio file and get back text you can read, correct, search and export.