How to Combine PDF Files Without Adobe Acrobat, Including Free Ways

Having trouble dealing with multiple PDF files in your report? Combining them into one file will increase your efficiency, save you a lot of time and space. Email delivery failed due to too many or too large files? Then it’s time to merge multiple PDF files into one and reduce the file size. It makes sense to combine PDF files in large projects because a single file is easy to read, make notes, edit, even print. 

If you are not a subscriber to Adobe Acrobat, that’s okay, this article provides you with better PDF mergers other than Acrobat.

 Cisdem PDFMaster

The Top PDF File Combiner You Deserve to Use

• Combine scanned PDFs or native PDFs into a single file
• Merge the pages you specified in PDF
• Combine different file formats into PDF also works
• No limitations in file size and number
• Create, convert, edit, annotate, extract, split, compress PDF
• Full featured and lightweight PDF solution
• Free trial available for Mac and Windows users

Free Download macOS 10.13 or later Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7

Ultimate Tool to Combine Multiple PDFs into One

When it comes to the top PDF file combiner in the PDF market, then you certainly can’t miss PDFMaster, a one-stop PDF solution produced by Cisdem company.

As a top-notch, multi-platform and all-in-one software, Cisdem PDFMaster provides 50+ tools for Mac and Windows users to merge PDF files, recognize text, convert PDF to popular formats, edit PDF, split PDF, encrypt PDF and decrypt PDF with a few clicks.

It doesn’t set any restrictions on file size and number of documents, which means users can upload as many files as possible and output a single file with excellent speed. No matter how big the files are, it can also process them in a short time. Overall, Cisdem PDFMaster is a comprehensive PDF tool that is essential for individuals and companies to work with. It boosts productivity, accessibility, and enables team collaboration.

Product Detais:

• Compatibility: macOS 10.13 or later; Windows 11/10/8/7
• Latest version: Mac 5.2.0; Windows 2.2.0

Main Features:

• Edit text, images, links and other elements
• Merge two or multiple PDFs into one document
• No limit to files size and the number of PDF files
• Convert PDF files to multiple formats and vice versa
• Convert scanned PDF to searchable and editable PDF with OCR
• Make PDF fillable with interactive text fields and fill out forms
• Protect information with passwords/watermark/redaction/signature
• Organize PDF pages by inserting, replacing, splitting, removing...
• Compare two similar PDFs side by side
• Compress PDF files with 5 compression levels
• Remove password from PDF quickly

Guide to Combine PDF files into One on Mac or Windows:

1. Download and run Cisdem PDFMaster.
   Free Download macOS 10.13 or later Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
2. In the Home page choose "Merge" from "Advanced Editing Tools".
   
3. Choose the PDF files you want to combine, and click open. 
   
4. Add more PDF files by clicking "Add Files" in the top left corner, You can changing the page range for each merging PDF file. Also, you can change the Pages size of the output merged PDF. 
   

5. Click on the Merge button.

6. Then, set the output folder and set the name for the combined PDF file and click on Save. 
   

How to Merge PDF Files Without Adobe Acrobat on Mac?

Freeware is the biggest boon for users who focus on functionality but don’t want to subscribe to any software. Don’t miss this part if you are a Mac user. In this section we have prepared a free merger without downloading anything for you. You can easily merge files on your Mac without Adobe Acrobat and without paying. 

Combine PDF Files into One in Mac Preview

There is a vendor-supplied image viewer and PDF file merger of the Mac device. As a built-in app in macOS system, Preview provides basic and handy PDF tools that users need when handling files. Adding text box, filling in form, adding signature, adding password, converting image files to a variety of file types, combining PDF documents are popular features in Preview. Now, let’s figure it out.

1. Head to Preview > File > Open and import a PDF file from your folder. 
2. Click View Menu and open Thumbnails. Then page thumbnails will be displayed in the sidebar.
3. Go to Edit > Insert > Page from File, and choose PDF files from your computer. When you need to merge multiple files, just hold down the Command key and select multiple files to open them.
4. Under the File menu, click on Save as to download your combined file.

How to Combine PDF Files on Windows 10 Without Adobe?

For higher efficiency, combining too many files or files with too many pages requires professional PDF combiner. Considering that some Windows users want to find the merge methods offline, we also discovered 2 solutions on Windows 10, including free ways.

#1 PDFsam Basic

There is one mighty free PDF file combiner that is worth trying — PDFsam Basic. It is also called PDF Split and Merge Basic, which is a free and open-source cross-platform desktop solution that provides users handy tools to merge, split, rotate, extract and mix PDF files. In addition to merging PDF files, it even allows users to merge bookmarks and interactive forms.

Its two other versions, PDFsam Enhanced and PDFsam Visual, present a richer set of PDF tools, but are paid software.

Here’s How to Combine PDF Files on Windows 10/11:

1. Head to PDFsam Basic > Merge.
2. Click on Add and import multiple PDF files to the program.
3. There are several merge settings you can choose such as adding a footer, normalizing pages size and file destination. If you want to merge some page in your PDF, double-click on the Page range icon and specify the pages.
4. After setting, click Run to start merging your multiple PDF files into a single file with ease.

Combine PDF Files in Bluebeam 

Why we pick Bluebeam Revu here? It is actually a construction software that designed for innovators such as engineers, architects, builders and trusted by over 2 million professionals. But users who work with PDF files can also use this app to create, edit, markup, organize and collaborate. If Bluebeam Revu is installed on your Windows, no matter Win 7/8/10/11, try to combine two or more than two files into one with effortless.

If Bluebeam Revu is installed on your Windows, no matter Win 7/8/10/11, try to combine two or more than two files into one with effortless.

1. Run Bluebeam Revu and head to File > Combine...
2. In the pop-up “Combine PDF Files” window, you can insert files from device or add open files directly. Plus, there are more options you can choose from the properties.
3. Click OK to start combining two or multiple files into one PDF with ease.

How to Combine PDF Files in Google Drive?

“Free online” is a buzzword in Google search. After all, many users just need to solve the few PDF problems at hand, and free online websites are the quickest and most time-saving tools. Here we pick a popular online free PDF file combiner for users who have the need to merge large PDF files.

Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service created by Google, which provides 15 GB free storage for users. Google Drive is a vital part of Google Workspace. Actually, the method of merging files we will use in this article is getting add-ons in Google Workspace Marketplace.

How to Combine PDF Files in Google Drive?

1. Enter the website of Google Drive and log into your Google Account.
2. Click the Get Add-ons icon on the right-sidebar.
3. Type “PDF Merge and Split” in the search bar and install the extension in your Google Drive.
4. Right-click a PDF file and go to Open with > PDF Merge and Split.
5. Select files, folders from Drive or choose files from the local device.
6. Click Create PDF to create a new PDF file.

Final Thoughts

Most of the recommendations in this article are free PDF file combiners. But in fact, only Cisdem PDFMaster and PDFsam Basic are professional managers of PDF files. If you have higher requirements for processing PDF files, Cisdem PDFMaster is more suitable for you. An all-in-one editor that integrates editing, merging, splitting, converting, annotating, compressing, and protecting, for both beginners and professionals.