A walk through the page-editing workflows in the ToolAcre PDF Toolkit, and what each one actually does to your file.
Before you start: everything runs on your device
This tool has no server component. When you choose a file, the browser reads it into memory on your own device, and a Web Worker does the editing there. No copy of the document is uploaded, because there is nowhere to upload it to.
A practical consequence is that the work is limited by your device rather than by a subscription tier. A phone with little free memory will be slower with a 40 MB scanned document than a laptop will. The upside is that a confidential contract never leaves the machine you are holding.
Merging several PDFs into one
Merging concatenates documents in the order you add them. Page content, fonts and embedded images are copied across unchanged, so text stays selectable and searchable.
Choose "Merge PDFs".
Add two or more files. The list shows each file name and size, and the order you add them is the order they will appear.
Remove a file with the ✕ button beside it if you added the wrong one.
Select "Run", then "Download".
Splitting one PDF into several files
Splitting uses page ranges. Each comma-separated part of the specification becomes its own output file, so "1-3, 4-6" produces two PDFs rather than one PDF containing six pages.
When a split produces more than one file, the results are packaged into a single ZIP so you only have to accept one download. On a phone this matters: several separate downloads in quick succession is exactly the pattern mobile browsers block.
Choose "Split by range".
Add one PDF. The page count appears above the options.
Type the ranges. "1-3, 4-" means "pages 1 to 3 in one file, page 4 to the end in another".
Select "Run", then "Download".
How page ranges are written
The range box accepts the same syntax as a print dialog. A plain number selects one page. A dash makes a span, and the span includes both ends. Leaving one side of the dash empty means "to the start" or "to the end".
If a range cannot be understood, the tool refuses it and explains why rather than quietly doing nothing. Typing "7-2" suggests "2-7"; typing a page past the end of the document reports how many pages there actually are.
"4" selects page 4 only.
"2-6" selects pages 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
"8-" selects page 8 to the last page.
"-3" selects pages 1 to 3.
"1-2, 5, 9-" combines all three forms.
Extracting versus deleting
These are two sides of the same operation, and which one to use is simply whichever list is shorter to type. "Extract pages" keeps what you name and discards the rest. "Delete pages" removes what you name and keeps the rest.
Deleting every page is refused, because a PDF with no pages is not a valid document. Leave at least one page out of the selection.
Reordering pages visually
"Reorder pages" renders each page as a thumbnail so you can work by sight rather than by page number. Move a page earlier or later with the arrow buttons, or drop it with ✕.
The controls are buttons rather than drag-and-drop on purpose. Dragging is awkward with a finger and, in most mobile browsers, native drag-and-drop does not work at all. Buttons work identically on a phone, a tablet, a trackpad and a keyboard.
For very long documents only the first thumbnails are rendered, to avoid holding hundreds of page images in memory at once. Pages past that point are still kept in the output; they are simply not previewed.
Rotating pages
Rotation is relative, not absolute. Applying a 90 degree turn to a page that is already rotated 90 degrees leaves it at 180, which is what you want when fixing a document where only some pages were scanned sideways.
Leave the pages box empty to rotate the whole document, or name specific pages to fix just those.
When you are finished
Use "Clear files and free memory" when you are done. It releases the page images, drops the file buffers and shuts down the background worker, so nothing from the document is still held by the tab. Closing or reloading the page has the same effect.
Frequently asked questions
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. There is no server to upload to. The whole toolkit is static files plus a Web Worker running on your device, and you can confirm it by opening your browser’s network panel and watching that no request is made while you work.
Does merging reduce the quality of my pages?
No. Merging, splitting, extracting, deleting, reordering and rotating all copy page content across without re-encoding it. Text stays selectable and images keep their original data.
Why can I not compress a PDF here?
Because the common browser approach is not really compression. It rasterises every page to a JPEG, which destroys selectable text, blurs line art, breaks screen-reader access, and often produces a larger file for text documents. Rather than ship that under a misleading name, the toolkit leaves it out.
What happens with a password-protected PDF?
The tool reports that the document is protected and stops. It does not remove PDF passwords or other access controls. To edit one, open it in a PDF reader with the password, save an unprotected copy, and work from that.
How large a file can I use?
Up to 50 MB per PDF and 30 MB per image. That limit exists because your device does the work: beyond it, a phone is likely to run out of memory mid-operation, which is a worse experience than being told up front.
Does the page order in the merge list matter?
Yes. Files are merged top to bottom in the order you added them. Remove and re-add a file to move it to the end of the list.
What this tool will not do
Password-protected and encrypted PDFs are reported, not opened. This tool never removes an access control.
There is no compression feature, because the usual browser technique destroys selectable text and often makes text documents larger.
There is no OCR, so text inside a scanned image stays an image and cannot be searched or selected.
PDFs above 50 MB and images above 30 MB are refused, because your device does the processing.
Text watermarks use the built-in PDF fonts, which cover Latin characters only. Non-Latin text is reported rather than silently dropped; use an image watermark instead.
Only the first 60 page thumbnails are rendered in the reorder view. Later pages are still included in the output but are not previewed.
Digital signatures are not preserved. Any edit invalidates an existing signature, as it would in any PDF editor.
Interactive form fields and annotations are carried across where the format allows, but complex forms may not survive reordering.