Portable Document Format (PDF) is a widely used format for finalized electronic documents, interactive forms and documents that are going to be commercially printed. The format can be viewed using any basic PDF reader. PDF content cannot be changed easily, but tools exist to provide assistance, The popular PDF creation software Adobe Acrobat not only can create individual PDF documents but also can merge multiple PDFs into one single document.
Adobe Acrobat 9
Step 1
Step 2
Click the 'File' menu. Select 'Combine,' then 'Merge Files into a Single PDF.'
Step 3
See also: How to append to an existing PDF and How to prepend to an existing PDF using the Win2PDF Desktop App. You can use the printing capability with a PDF Reader application to merge or combine two or more PDF files.
Click the 'Add Files' menu. Select 'Add Files' to merge individual files or 'Add Folder' to merge all the files in a single folder.
Step 4
Browse your computer's files and select the folder or files you want to add. Press 'Control' to select multiple files at once. Click 'Add Files.' The files you select will be added to the list of files.
Step 5
Rearrange the sequence of the files by clicking and dragging a file to a new position in the order. Choose the file size you prefer at the bottom of the window. Click 'Combine Files.' Wait while Acrobat converts the files into one single PDF.
Adobe Acrobat 8
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Click 'Add Files' to merge individual files. Browse your files and press 'Ctrl' while selecting multiple files. Click 'Add Files.' To merge a folder, click 'Add Folders,' select the folder you want to add, then click 'OK.' The files will be listed in the 'Combine Files' window.
Step 4
Rearrange the order of the PDFs by selecting and dragging a file to a new position. Select the file size and conversion setting you prefer. Click 'Next.'
Select 'Merge files into a single PDF.' Click 'Create.' Wait while Acrobat completes the merging process. Click 'Save.' Enter a filename for the new merged PDF and select a destination folder for it. Click 'Save.'
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Is there a painless way to combine/merge PDF files in Windows? I understand that pdftk will do it on Linux.
Franck Dernoncourtclosed as off-topic by slhckJul 7 '13 at 11:18
- This question does not appear to be about computer software or computer hardware within the scope defined in the help center.
9 Answers
There are quite a few free options, as well as some good commercial ones:
Web-based (Free)
- MergePDF. Merge up to 10 files. Max limit of 5MB/file.
- PDF Hammer. Web-based PDF editor that supports merging of multiple files
- Booklet Creater. Merges files to create a booklet. Rearranges pages to that you can print and fold to create a simple booklet.
- BCL Premium PDF Merge Merge 2 PDF documents. Max 10MB/file. Limit of 20 merges/day
Desktop tools (free)
- PDF Sam. Also known as 'PDF Split & Merge'. FOSS tool for splitting and merging PDFs. Windows & Mac. Console and GUI interfaces. On Windows, the installer by default installs Ad-Aware Security Toolbar, sets Lavasoft SecureSearch as homepage, new tabs, and default search provider.
Swift PDF. Combines multiple images (JPG, GIF, etc.) into a single PDF.
Editor's note, 5/1/2017: Swift PDF was last updated in 2006 and was compatible with Windows 95. The original link is dead and the product appears to no longer be supported. However, it is still downloadable at https://swift-pdf.en.softonic.com/
pdftk. FOSS power tool. Command line only. Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD. Windows GUI versions exist, including a portable version and the official free version.
There are also a lot of commercial tools.
fixer1234pdftk.exe is available for Windows as well. See here: http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/#packages and here: http://www.pdfhacks.com/pdftk/pdftk-1.41.exe.zip
Here is an example commandline for pdftk.exe. It merges all PDF files in the current directory into a combined one:
Another one:
Ghostscript can also combine multiple input PDFs (and PostScript files) into one output PDF:
Update suggested by @sunk818
There is a GUI for pdftk named PDFTK Builder. This essentially builds a command line based on your option choices for you and executes:
My own update
Since I originally posted this answer, pdftk has undergone further developments.
- The application's name changed to PDFtk Server (the command line tool is still called
pdftk). - There is now version 2.02 available.
- The developers now offer their own GUI for Windows, called PDFtk Pro.
You can use PDFill PDF Tools to perform lots of manipulations on your PDFs for free.
Use the 'Merge PDF Files' button (button #1) in the screenshot below.
GaffTry PDFsam, which comes for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
The basic version is free, I'm pretty sure that the basic version will meet your needs. You will need to have Java installed on your computer to run this program.
slhckI found the best for me: PDF Split and Merge
PDF Split and Merge tool is implemented using the PdfSharp library and is either GUI or command driven.It is useful for automated document creation.It allows bookmarks from the input pdfs to be imported and flexibly embedded in the destination document.
It just merges or splits PDF files, nothing else.
slhckHow To Highlight On Pdf Reader
PDF Creator will do the trick -- you can print multiple documents to a single PDF. Relatively painless :)
Also this program named pdfbinder proved to be useful. It has a simple commandline interface for input and uses the same engine as the PDF Split and Merge already mentioned.
This little app I found with a Google search let me merge image files into a single PDF, which it didn't look like some of these options would. It's very limited, but it did the trick for me just now.
I know that you can do this with Adobe Acrobat. I assume that you don't want to pay for this if it's the only use you have. You highlight your PDF files, right-click and select Combine files in Acrobat...:
Ghostscript, available on Linux and Windows, should be able to concatenate them, but it uses complicated command-line functions. You can use CutePDF, which has a free version, but I believe the Professional (paid) version is the only one that will concatenate.
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