Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about PDFino. Can't find your answer? Contact us.
General
What is PDFino?+
PDFino is a free, browser-based PDF editor that lets you edit, merge, split, compress, convert, sign, and protect PDF files directly in your web browser. No software installation is needed.
Is PDFino really 100% free?+
Yes. Every single tool on PDFino is completely free to use with no hidden costs, no premium tiers, and no feature locks. We sustain the service through non-intrusive advertisements.
Do I need to create an account?+
No. You can use all PDF tools without signing up. An optional account lets you save preferences and access recent files across sessions, but it is never required.
Which browsers does PDFino support?+
PDFino works on all modern browsers including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Brave — on both desktop and mobile devices.
Privacy & Security
Are my files uploaded to your servers?+
No — never. All PDF processing happens 100% locally inside your browser using WebAssembly technology. Your files never leave your device's RAM. We physically cannot see, read, or store your documents.
Is it safe to edit confidential documents?+
Absolutely. Since no data is transmitted to any server, there is zero risk of data breaches or unauthorized access. PDFino is architecturally designed for zero-trust privacy.
Does PDFino use cookies or trackers?+
We use minimal cookies only for basic functionality like remembering your theme preference. We do not use third-party tracking cookies that harvest your browsing history.
Tools & Features
What can I do with the PDF Editor?+
You can add text, images, shapes, signatures, highlights, stamps, and annotations to any PDF. The editor also supports undo/redo, multi-page navigation, and element rotation.
How does PDF compression work locally?+
For light compression, we use lossless PDF repacking (removing unused objects). For aggressive compression, pages are rasterized as optimized JPEG images. Both methods run entirely in your browser.
Can I convert PDFs to Word documents?+
Yes. Our PDF to Word converter extracts text and preserves paragraph structure and headings. It works best with text-based PDFs. For scanned documents, try our OCR tool first.
Does the OCR tool work offline?+
The OCR engine (Tesseract.js) runs in your browser, so once loaded it processes locally. However, it needs an initial download of the language data file from a CDN.
Is there a file size limit?+
There are no arbitrary file size limits imposed by us. The practical limit depends on your device's available RAM since all processing happens locally. Most modern devices can handle files up to 100MB+ easily.
Technical
How is this different from iLovePDF or Smallpdf?+
Most competitors upload your files to their cloud servers for processing. PDFino never uploads your files. Everything runs locally in your browser, making it the most private option available.
What technology powers PDFino?+
PDFino uses pdf-lib for PDF manipulation, PDF.js for rendering, Tesseract.js for OCR, and WebAssembly for performance-critical operations — all running in your browser.
Can I install PDFino as a desktop app?+
Yes! PDFino is a Progressive Web App (PWA). Visit the website in Chrome or Edge and click 'Install' from your browser's address bar to use it like a native app.