We make Ncored, a desktop PDF editor built for heavy construction drawings on Windows and Apple Silicon Mac. That is the hard problem we care about: opening a 50-200 MB+ AutoCAD, Revit, and ArchiCAD export and marking it up without the lag. But a lot of PDF work is smaller than that. You just need to merge two files, drop the size of one before emailing it, or sign a single page and move on.
So we built a set of free PDF tools that run entirely in your browser. You can find them all on the PDF tools page. There is no signup, no email to enter, and no watermark on the result.
Everything stays on your device
The thing that makes these different from most free online PDF tools: your file is never uploaded. Many free converters and compressors send your document to their servers to do the work. For a quick personal PDF that may be fine. For a confidential drawing, a client document, or anything under an NDA, it is not. Our tools do the work locally in your browser, so the file never leaves your computer. We do not see it, store it, or send it anywhere.
The tools
Each one does a single job and gets out of your way. The common ones:
- Organise pages: merge PDF files into one, split a PDF into separate files, reorder and delete pages, rotate a PDF, crop a PDF, and extract pages.
- Shrink and repair: compress a PDF to get it under an email limit, or repair a PDF that will not open cleanly.
- Edit and mark up: write on a PDF, sign a PDF, add page numbers, add a watermark, fill out a form, flatten your markups, and redact a PDF by burning black boxes into the page so the covered content is actually removed.
- Convert: turn images into a PDF, a Word file into a PDF, or a PDF into JPG images and a PDF into Word.
Best for quick, everyday fixes
These tools are at their best on everyday PDFs and simpler drawings or documents, the kind of small, fast correction you do not want to open a heavy program for. Merge a few sheets, sign a letter, compress a scan, number a short set, rotate a page that came in sideways.
They run in a browser tab, which has its limits. A giant 50-200 MB+ project set with tens of thousands of vector objects per page is more than a tab can comfortably hold, and a few of the tools will tell you so and point you to the desktop app instead. That is the line: quick fixes in the browser, heavy drawings on the desktop.
When you outgrow the browser
If your day is large construction drawings, opening and marking up heavy AutoCAD, Revit, and ArchiCAD exports all day, that is exactly what the Ncored desktop app is built for. It opens fast and stays smooth on scroll, zoom, pinch and pan where general PDF tools stall, on Windows and Apple Silicon Mac. There is a 14-day free trial at ncored.com.
Either way, the free tools are there whenever you need a quick one. No upload, no signup, nothing to install.
Individual experiences may vary depending on your file and hardware. Product names mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners.