Merging keeps your PDFs exactly as they are
A plain merge copies each PDF page unchanged: text stays sharp and selectable, links keep working, and nothing is re-compressed. Images you add become new pages (A4 by default), so a photo of a receipt and a typed form can sit in the same file. Merging alone never makes a file smaller, though: the result is roughly the sum of its parts.
When the merged file is over the limit
If you set a limit and the merged PDF is bigger, PixKB tells you by how much and asks before changing anything. Choosing Shrink to fit checks each page's weight. Light pages, which are usually typed text, are kept exactly as they are. Heavy pages, usually scans and phone photos, are rebuilt as compressed images, at the sharpest setting that brings the whole file under your limit. That's the honest trade-off: pages rebuilt as images look the same, but their text can no longer be selected or searched.
Our test: a 3-page typed application form (6 KB), page 2 of a 2-page scanned PDF (6.0 MB in total), one phone photo of a document (2.4 MB) and one iPhone HEIC photo (5.9 MB), merged into one 6-page PDF.
| Limit | Result | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| None | 4.27 MB | All pages kept as they were (1.6 s) |
| 1 MB | 956 KB | 3 form pages untouched and still selectable; 3 heavy pages rebuilt at 2136 px |
| 300 KB | 275 KB | Form pages untouched; heavy pages rebuilt at 1175 px |
Shrinking took about 10 seconds on a laptop. Expect longer on a phone with many pages.
Picking pages from a PDF
Each PDF with more than one page gets a Pages box. Leave it empty to keep everything, or type the pages you need: 2, 1-3, or 1-3, 5. That's the quickest way to drop an instructions page or a blank back side before uploading. The page counter at the top updates as you type, and a wrong number is highlighted before you merge.
How we count KB
Portals disagree about whether 1 KB is 1,000 or 1,024 bytes. PixKB uses the stricter 1,000-byte definition when it checks your limit, so a file it says is under 300 KB passes either way.
Password-protected PDFs
A PDF that needs a password to open can't be merged here. Open it with its password in your PDF reader, save or print an unprotected copy, then add that. PixKB never tries to bypass protection.
Frequently asked questions
How do I merge a PDF and a JPG into one PDF?
Add both (and any other files), arrange them top to bottom, and press Merge into one PDF. Each image becomes its own page; PDF pages are copied unchanged.
Can I merge PDFs and keep the file under 1 MB or 200 KB?
Yes. Set the limit before merging. If the merged file is bigger, choose Shrink to fit: heavy scanned pages are compressed until the file fits, and light text pages are left untouched.
Will my text still be selectable?
Yes for a normal merge. If you shrink to fit, text stays selectable on pages that were kept, while pages rebuilt as images (scans and photos) lose selectable text.
Can I merge only some pages of a PDF?
Yes. Type the pages to keep in that file's Pages box, for example 1-3, 5. Leave it empty to keep all pages.
Are my files uploaded?
No. Merging happens in your browser and the result is saved directly to your device. You can check with your browser's network tab or in airplane mode.