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Free PDF Tools
Posted September 13, 2023
by Curt Price
We all use PDF's at work and at home. But besides opening a pdf in Reader or Acrobat to read a pdf, or to save/print a word doc as a PDF, most people aren't Acrobat acrobats and aren't sure how to do other things.
To make things somewhat easier in terms of working with a pdf file, the website https://www.pdftool.org has a number of free tools that will allow you to do some very useful things. Such as Encrypting PDF's to protect secure documents, Decrypting PDF's, optimzing (for faster load times & smaller file size), merging multiple PDF's into one file, rotating a PDF, split up a multi-page PDF, and maybe the most useful feature... signing a PDF.
This site is reportedly safe to use as well, as you don't actually upload your PDF to their servers. The PDF gets modified right in your browser. They never actually have access to your PDF as it stays on your device. The proof behind that is you can bring up the website in your browser, then disable your internet connection disconnecting you from the world, and you can still use the tools offered on the site.
How does it work? They explain:
"We use a technology called WebAssembly, which allows us to execute more complex logic, that is needed for the PDF modifications, inside of your browser. This way we are able to offer you functionality that runs directly on your device with reasonable performance and keeps your data to yourself."
So give it a try and maybe become a Flying Wallenda.
