PDF tools for students
Compress PDFs to fit assignment-submission limits, extract chapters from textbooks, merge thesis chapters, OCR scanned papers. Free.
Student life is PDF life: textbook chapters, lecture slides, research papers, lab reports, draft theses, peer feedback, citation libraries. Most universities' submission systems were built years ago and have tight file size limits, so getting work in on time often comes down to cleanly compressing the PDF without breaking the formatting your professor expects.
PDFOnly handles the common student workflows free: compress assignments to fit Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle upload caps; extract relevant chapters from a textbook into a smaller study packet; merge thesis chapters into a final manuscript before defense; OCR scanned readings so you can search and quote them for citations; convert PDFs to Word for editable papers. Free for the basics — your laptop and budget can stay focused on what actually matters.
Frequently asked questions
What's the file size limit on common LMS systems?
Canvas defaults to 500 MB but is often configured down to 50 MB by individual professors. Blackboard usually caps at 250 MB. Moodle defaults to 50 MB but varies. Some classes restrict to 10 MB. Compress to under 10 MB to clear nearly every system.
Can I OCR scanned papers from older sources?
Yes — our OCR PDF tool handles 100+ languages and works on scans at 300 DPI or higher. Older library scans at 150-200 DPI work but with lower accuracy. For research citations, OCR makes the source quotable instead of having to retype passages.
Are my drafts safe?
Files are encrypted in transit, processed in isolated workers, and auto-deleted within an hour. Your draft thesis isn't used to train AI models or analyzed for marketing.