PDF questions, answered directly
Most PDF help online answers a slightly different question than the one being asked. You want to know whether your contract is uploaded anywhere, and you get a feature tour. You want to know why a file is still large after being compressed, and you get a definition of compression. This page is the opposite: short, specific answers to the questions people actually arrive with, written so that each one stands on its own and can be quoted without any of the surrounding text.
The answers describe what this site's tools do and, just as importantly, what they do not do. A browser can merge, split, rotate, resize, number, watermark, sign and compress a PDF, and it can read a PDF's metadata, page count and embedded images. A browser cannot, on its own, unlock an encrypted file, recognise text in a scan, or rewrite sentences that are already laid out on a page. Four honest limits are listed below, because an answer that quietly overpromises is worse than no answer at all.
What PDF Forge cannot do
- No optical character recognition — a scanned document stays a set of images.
- No password cracking or removal of encryption — the password has to be supplied.
- No true redaction — the editor adds content on top of a page; it does not delete what is underneath.
- No rewriting of text already in the document — new text is placed as an overlay.
Privacy and how the tools work
Does PDF Forge upload my document to a server?
No. Every tool here runs inside your browser: your file is read from your device, processed in memory by PDF libraries loaded with the page, and written straight back to your device. Nothing is uploaded, stored or logged, so the only copy of your document is the one on your own machine. The single request a tool makes to a network is the one that starts a payment, and that carries a document reference, never the document.
Do I need an account to use the tools?
No. There is no signup, no email address and no login on any tool. A paid unlock is remembered in your browser and tied to the exact file you paid for, which is why it does not follow you to another device.
What are the file limits?
Free operations are free up to 10 pages and 15 MB. Larger documents move to a one-time payment of $1 to $3, and documents of up to 800 pages are supported. If a file is bigger than the browser can hold in memory, the tool says so before it starts rather than failing halfway through.
Is there a subscription?
No. PDF Forge has no subscription, membership or recurring charge of any kind. You pay once for one operation on one document, or once for the $5 all-tools pass, which unlocks every tool for that same document.
Doing the work
How do I merge PDFs without losing quality?
Merging is lossless. Each file's pages are copied into the new document exactly as they are, so text stays sharp, images keep their original resolution and nothing is re-compressed. The order you set is the order they appear in, and there is no cap on the number of files beyond what your browser can hold.
Merge PDFWhy is my PDF still large after compressing it?
Because compression here works by re-rendering each page as a compressed image. That is very effective on scans and photo-heavy documents and nearly useless on a text-heavy file that was already small — text and vector artwork are already compact, so there is little left to give up. There is also no exact target-size mode: the tool estimates the result before you pay and reports the real size afterwards.
Compress PDFCan I edit text that is already inside a PDF?
No — and that is a limit of the format rather than of this site. A PDF stores positioned characters, not paragraphs, so rewriting existing sentences means reconstructing the page. The editor here adds new text on top of a page, which is the right approach for filling in a form, annotating a proof or dropping in a note.
PDF EditorCan I turn a scanned PDF into searchable text?
Not with PDF Forge. Making a scan searchable requires optical character recognition, and this app does not include it, so text extraction on a scanned file comes back empty. A scanned PDF is a stack of page images, which is also why searching inside it and selecting its text both fail.
PDF to TextHow do I remove my name from a PDF before sending it?
Run Clean PDF Metadata. One pass empties the title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer fields that the file carries about itself, and nothing on the page changes. It does not remove anything you can see — a visible signature or letterhead stays exactly where it is.
Clean PDF MetadataCan PDF Forge remove a password from a PDF?
No. The tools here do not crack, bypass or strip encryption. A document that asks for a password must be unlocked with that password first; until then it cannot be merged, split, compressed or resized.
What is the difference between filling a form and flattening it?
Filling types your answers into the form's fields, which stay editable and can be corrected later. Flattening turns those fields into permanent page content, so the answers are still visible but can no longer be changed — normally the last step before a completed form is sent on.
Flatten PDFHow do I fix a scan that appears sideways or upside down?
Rotate it. Page rotation is stored as an instruction to turn the page when it is displayed, so changing it is lossless: the content is untouched and only the orientation changes. You can rotate the whole document or just the pages that came out wrong.
Rotate PDFPaying for a document
What exactly do I get for a payment?
One operation on one document. The unlock is remembered in this browser against that exact file — matched by its name, size and last-modified time — so re-uploading the same file later does not ask you to pay again. The $5 all-tools pass covers every tool for that same document. Neither is a subscription, and neither transfers to a different file.
How is the price decided?
By the operation and the page count, computed on the server before the payment page opens, so the browser never sends a price that could be altered. Page-tiered operations cost $1 for up to 25 pages, $1.50 up to 50, $2 up to 100, $2.50 up to 200 and $3 up to 500; fixed-price tools such as signing, watermarking or filling a form start at $1. The exact figure is always shown before you pay.
Do you keep my card details?
No. Payment is handled entirely by Stripe on Stripe's own checkout page, and this site never sees or stores a card number. What returns to the app afterwards is only the reference that unlocks your document.
What if a payment goes through but the tool still asks me to pay?
That usually means the browser blocked or lost the return from Stripe, so the unlock was never recorded. Reloading the tool page normally restores it; if it does not, get in touch through the contact page with the payment reference and we will sort it out.
Last reviewed: October 2026
Keep reading
The glossary explains the vocabulary behind these answers, and the guides walk through each task step by step.