I need to merge about a dozen scanned pages into one PDF before a client deadline tomorrow, and I can’t decide between Smallpdf and ilovepdf. Which one handles merging better in 2026?
Honestly, for scanned pages I’d skip the upload sites and just use what’s already on your machine. On a Mac, Preview merges by dragging pages together in seconds. On Windows, select all the scans, right click and print to PDF. Faster with big files, and client stuff stays off random servers.
When I had to combine a dozen scanned registration forms in a rush, I just used PDFcap. You upload your pages on pdfcap.com, drag them into the right order, and click merge. It is completely free and worked smoothly on my slow work computer without any fuss.
I avoid those online sites because they heavily compress files and ruin the colour quality. I learned this the hard way when my baked goods price lists printed out terribly. Just paste your scanned images into a blank Word document in the right order and save as a PDF. Make sure you resize the pictures first so they actually fit the page correctly.