Best free PDF tools for students: merge, split, sign

Sooner or later every student meets the portal that only takes one PDF: three photos of a worksheet, a scanned permission slip, a project with ten pages in the wrong order. There are plenty of free PDF sites, and most have a catch. We read each one's own pricing or home page this week and wrote down what you actually get for free. One of them is ours (Versed Tools), and we say where it doesn't fit.

What matters for a student

• Does the free part cover what you need? Merging, splitting and turning photos into a PDF are the jobs that come up most.
• Do you need an account? At 11pm before a deadline, a sign-up screen is the last thing you want.
• Where does your file go? School forms carry names, addresses and sometimes medical details. Some tools work inside your browser; others process the file on their own servers. If it matters to you, check before you upload.

The tools, compared

iLovePDF

A big set of PDF tools in a web browser. Its pricing page says the free web version lets you merge up to 25 files, and puts most conversions and OCR at 15 MB per file. Premium is US$4 a month billed yearly (US$48 a year) or US$7 month to month, and adds the desktop and mobile apps. The page did not say whether the free version needs an account. Best for: quick merges and splits, with the cheapest paid plan if you ever need one.

Sejda

An online PDF editor and a desktop app. Its pricing page says no sign-up is required for the free version, which has page and hourly limits (the page did not give the numbers). A Week Pass is $5 for seven days, and the annual plan for desktop and web is $63 a year. Sejda says its desktop app processes files on your own computer. Best for: editing or signing a scanned page, or using the desktop app when you'd rather not upload.

PDF24 Tools

PDF24 says you can use all its tools free of charge and without restrictions, and the site is supported by ads. It also offers PDF24 Creator, a free desktop app for Windows. Best for: students on Windows who want one free toolbox with no paid tier to dodge.

Adobe Acrobat online

Adobe, which created the PDF, offers about 40 online tools, including merge, split, and fill and sign, under "try for free". The page we read did not state the free limits. Best for: filling and signing forms when the school or the form itself asks for Acrobat.

Versed Tools PDF toolkit (ours)

The PDF toolkit merges PDFs, splits by page range or into single pages, lets you drag pages into order and rotate or delete them, turns JPG and PNG photos into one PDF, and lets you highlight, write on a page, and fill and sign a form. The file is opened by the page itself and never uploaded, there is no account, and there is no page limit beyond your device's memory. Where it doesn't fit: "make smaller" works by turning each page into a picture, so the text in a shrunk file can no longer be selected (the tool says so when it does it), and it can't convert Word files or read scanned text the way OCR tools do. Best for: homework photos into one PDF, and private forms you would rather keep on your own device.

We also looked at Smallpdf, but its pricing page would not load for us this week, so we left it out rather than guess at its limits.

The quick version

• No account, file stays on your device: Versed PDF toolkit; Sejda's desktop app.
• No sign-up for the free online version: Sejda (with page and hourly limits).
• Free with no stated limits, ad-supported: PDF24 Tools.
• Cheapest paid plan: iLovePDF Premium, US$4 a month billed yearly.

Three photos into one PDF, step by step

1. Take the photos in good light, straight above the page. Flat beats fancy.
2. Open the PDF toolkit and add the photos in the order you want them.
3. Choose a page size (A4 or Letter) and press "Make one PDF".
4. Save it, then open it once before you upload, to check every page is there and the right way up.

Writing a report with sources? Our guide to free citation generators covers the bibliography, and the citation maker is free too.