Scanning paperwork with your phone — quality settings that matter
Your phone is already a better scanner than the one in your printer. The settings just need a tiny adjustment.
4 minJun 8, 2026
Read it The Evixpdf Blog
Practical PDF guides for the moments you're stuck
Short, opinionated essays from people who fix PDFs every day. Pick the operation you're working on, or search for the headache you came here with.
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Images & scans
Turning a folder of images into a print-ready PDF
A folder of photos into a portfolio PDF should keep every image crisp at letter size. Three settings keep it that way.
June 10, 2026· 4 min read
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Images & scans
#images#print#portfolio
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AI summary of a 100-page contract — what to trust and what to verify
An AI summary of a contract tells you where to look — not what it means. Use it as a map, not as legal advice.
5 minJun 6, 2026
Read it Chat with PDF: a faster way to read a 60-page research paper
You don't need to read every word of a research paper to use it. Chat with PDF lets you ask the questions you actually care about — as long as you check the answers.
5 minJun 4, 2026
Read it Adding page numbers to a PDF that doesn't have any
Merged a PDF and the page numbers don't restart at 1, or the source had none at all. Adding them after the fact takes ten seconds — but two presets look good and the rest look amateur.
3 minJun 2, 2026
Read it Adding a watermark that does the job without screaming "DRAFT"
The default watermark setting is huge red text diagonally across the page. There's a more professional version of this that still does what you need.
3 minMay 31, 2026
Read it Redacting a PDF (not the black-rectangle-on-top trick)
Lawyers, FOIA respondents, and recruiters have all leaked sensitive data by drawing a black box on top of text in a PDF. The text was still there underneath. Real redaction destroys it.
4 minMay 29, 2026
Read it Edit a PDF when you don't have the source document any more
The PDF was generated five years ago, the Word file is gone, and you need to change one phone number. Here's what's possible and where to stop.
5 minMay 27, 2026
Read it Pulling a table out of a PDF (without retyping every cell)
You need the data in a 40-row table from a PDF. Retyping is 30 minutes and three errors you won't notice until later. Converting and cleaning up is 5 minutes.
4 minMay 25, 2026
Read it PDF → Word that you can actually edit (not a one-text-box mess)
Some PDFs convert to Word cleanly. Others give you one giant text box and nine pages of mystery whitespace. The PDF itself decides which one you'll get.
5 minMay 23, 2026
Read it Excel → PDF that fits on one page (instead of seventeen)
By default, Excel doesn't know your sheet ends at column M. It exports columns A through Z spilling across pages. Two settings fix this.
4 minMay 21, 2026
Read it Word → PDF without your headers, fonts, or page breaks shifting
You send a Word file as PDF and the recipient sees three orphan headers, a missing footer, and a font that's not yours. Most of this is preventable in the export step.
5 minMay 18, 2026
Read it Removing a PDF password when you do know the password
Every time you open the file you have to retype the password. The reader app forgets it after each session. After the 50th time, you take ten seconds and remove it.
3 minMay 16, 2026
Read it "Password protect" and "watermark" solve different problems
People reach for password-protect when they want a watermark and watermark when they want encryption. Five minutes of reading saves a leak.
4 minMay 14, 2026
Read it Extract just one page from a PDF (without printing the rest)
Someone sends a 60-page agreement and the only page that matters is page 12. Don't print-to-PDF — that re-renders everything and loses the signature.
3 minMay 8, 2026
Read it Signing PDFs with your own DSC (Digital Signature Certificate)
A self-signed PDF is fine for back-office sign-offs. For tax filings, court submissions, and regulated industries you need a DSC from a trusted CA. Here's the workflow.
6 minMay 7, 2026
Read it Splitting a 400-page report into chapters without rebuilding the bookmarks
Annual reports, study handbooks, technical manuals — sometimes a stakeholder only needs chapter 7. Splitting the right way preserves the bookmarks and metadata they care about.
5 minMay 6, 2026
Read it Typing your name on a PDF isn't a signature — and that matters
Most "sign PDF" tools just paste your name on top of the page. That's fine for a parking permit and a disaster for a lease. Here's the difference, and what each is actually good for.
7 minMay 4, 2026
Read it Building a one-PDF job application without breaking the cover letter
Job postings ask for one PDF. Most candidates send four files attached to an email. The ones who send one polished file get noticed for the right reason.
4 minMay 2, 2026
Read it The right way to merge twelve months of bank statements
Tax season, audit prep, or a mortgage application — sooner or later you need a single PDF of a year of statements. There's a right order and a wrong order, and the wrong order is what most people pick.
4 minApr 30, 2026
Read it OCR a year of receipts so tax time stops being a folder of mystery JPEGs
Twelve months of receipts in your phone's Photos app means you can't find anything. Twelve months in an OCR'd PDF means a search bar does the work for you.
5 minApr 26, 2026
Read it You scanned a document and now you can't search it. Here's the fix.
You scanned a stack of receipts. The PDF opens fine. Ctrl-F returns nothing. The scanner saved a photograph, not text — and that's an easy fix once you know what to ask for.
6 minApr 22, 2026
Read it Compress a PDF without making it look terrible
Every "compress" tool offers a slider and zero explanation of what it's doing to your file. Here's the short version of what to leave alone and what to drop.
4 minApr 15, 2026
Read it My PDF is too big to email — what actually works
The advice you usually get for shrinking a PDF is either useless ("compress it") or destroys the document. Here's a practical breakdown of what to do depending on what's actually inside your file.
5 minApr 12, 2026
Read it Reading a guide is faster when you can try the tool
Every operation in these guides has a one-click tool. No signup for the first 5 jobs.