About PDUtilities

PDUtilities is an independent collection of free tools for the small file and text jobs that come up every day: shrinking a PDF so a portal will accept it, combining the front and back of an ID card, resizing a photo to an exact size for a form, cleaning up copied text, or typing Nepali in Unicode. There are currently 80 tools across 7 categories, plus 31 in-depth guides.

Why it exists

Most of the documents people need to convert or compress are personal: passports, citizenship cards, bank statements, certificates, payslips. Yet most online converters work by uploading those files to a remote server, often with sign-up walls, watermarks or daily limits. PDUtilities was built on a different principle: wherever it is technically possible, the work should happen on your own device, and the tool should simply do the job without getting in the way.

How the tools work

Every tool on the site runs inside your web browser. When you add a file, it is read into your browser's memory and processed there with well-established open-source technology: Mozilla's PDF.js for rendering PDF pages, pdf-lib for building and editing PDF documents, the browser's built-in Canvas API for images, and an MP3 encoder compiled to run in the page for audio. The result is created on your device and downloaded from there. Your files are not uploaded to or stored on our servers, and once the page has loaded most tools keep working even if you go offline.

You can see this for yourself: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab and use a tool. No request carries your file.

How our guides are written

Each tool page includes an explanation of what the tool does, when to use it, its limitations and practical tips, and the guides go deeper into common tasks. We write this material ourselves and check it against how each tool actually behaves, so the instructions match what you see on screen. Worked examples, such as loan repayments, conversion factors and page-range syntax, are calculated and verified rather than estimated. When a tool changes, its page is updated, and the date of the last update is recorded.

Calculators for loans, interest and BMI give general estimates for information only. They are not financial or medical advice.

Advertising

PDUtilities is free to use and is supported by advertising. Ads never gate a tool, and advertising does not influence which tools we build or what our guides recommend. See our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy for how advertising cookies are used.

Found a problem?

If a tool gives a wrong result, a guide contains a mistake, or there is a tool you wish existed, please get in touch. Corrections are fixed as quickly as possible, and many of the current tools started as suggestions.