Topic
Prepare a PDF for an Online Submission
By Happy Turtle Tech · Published · Updated
Portals that take a PDF are fussy: one file, a size limit, pages the right way up, sometimes numbered, sometimes signed. Doing the steps in the wrong order means doing some of them twice, for example numbering the pages and then finding you need to add one. This page gives the order that avoids that.
Every tool linked here runs in your browser, so a passport scan or a signed form is never uploaded to be tidied up.
1. Get everything into PDF
Image to PDF puts photos and scans into one PDF, in the order you choose and at the page size you choose. A phone photo is turned upright using the orientation the camera recorded, and the location and camera details inside the photo are removed on the way in.
If you have a choice of format, the guides explain how PNG and JPEG differ for a document, and how to tell a scan from a PDF that has real text in it, which changes what you can do next. Extract Text reads only a text layer that is already there, so it returns nothing from a scan, and the guide on copying text out explains why what it does return can come out jumbled.
2. Put every page the right way up and in order
Rotate fixes sideways and upside-down pages. Organize lets you reorder, delete and duplicate pages, and suggests blank pages to remove. For a stack scanned in two passes, fronts and then backs, it has an interleave option that rebuilds the reading order without scanning again.
3. Join the documents, or cut them apart
Merge combines several PDFs into one, in the order shown on screen, and keeps their bookmarks. If the portal wants separate files instead, Split cuts one PDF by page ranges, every N pages, at bookmarks, or by file size.
4. Match the page size
If a form says A4 and your pages are Letter, or a scan came out at an odd size, Resize scales every page to a standard paper size, matched to each page's own orientation so nothing is squeezed sideways. Do this before numbering, so the numbers land in the right place on the final page.
5. Number the pages and add bookmarks
Page Numbers lets you pick the position, the format and the page ranges to number, so a cover sheet can be left out and need not count as page 1. Bookmarks adds a clickable outline to a long document, and you can paste in a table of contents to build it.
Do both after merging and reordering: bookmarks follow their pages through those tools, but a number is drawn onto the page and will not move with it.
6. Fill in the form and sign
Fill Form types into a PDF's fields and can flatten the answers into the page afterwards. If the document is a flat scan with no fields, Create Form adds text boxes, check boxes and radio buttons on top of it.
Sign adds a drawn or typed signature as a visible mark on the page. It is a picture of a signature, not a digital certificate, so check that the recipient accepts one before you rely on it. The tool never stores your signature.
7. Get it under the size limit
Run Compress last among the changes, once the pages are final. Try Lossless first: it never changes an image. If the file is still over the limit, Balanced and Smallest recompress its JPEG images, which loses some quality, and the tool says so.
8. Check it before you upload
Open the final file and page through it once. Then run the checklist, because a submission goes to someone you may not know and a file can carry properties, comments or hidden content you did not put there on purpose.
Keep the original photos and scans until the submission is accepted, and name the final file the way the portal asks.