QR codes: what they actually do, and the mistakes that break them
Most QR code problems come from one misunderstanding: whether the code contains your link, or contains somebody else's link that redirects to yours.
6 min read
Blog
Guides to the document problems people actually run into — why a PDF is too big to email, what OCR really does, and how to get a conversion that does not need an hour of tidying afterwards.
How to fix a scanned PDF where the pages are sideways or out of order
The document feeder does not know which way up the paper went in. Fixing the result takes two minutes; rescanning takes twenty.
6 min read
How to turn a spreadsheet into a PDF without losing the right-hand columns
A spreadsheet is an unbounded grid. Turning it into pages means deciding where to cut, and if you do not decide, the software decides badly.
6 min read
What size should your images actually be on a website?
The most common image mistake on the web is uploading the file straight from the camera. It is also the easiest one to fix.
6 min read
Bates numbering: how to make a document bundle everyone can cite
Its origins are legal, but the problem it solves belongs to anyone assembling one document out of many: giving every page a name that cannot be confused.
6 min read
How to blur faces and details in a photo before you share it
A light blur over a house number can sometimes be reversed. A heavy one cannot. The difference is whether the detail was destroyed or merely disguised.
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How to crop the wasted margins off a PDF for reading on a tablet
A typical paper devotes a quarter of every page to blank margin. On a tablet that blankness is stealing the space your eyes needed.
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How to split a large PDF, and how to choose where to cut
Splitting is not the same as compressing, and reaching for the wrong one wastes time. The choice depends on why the file is a problem.
6 min read
JPG, PNG or WebP: choosing the right image format
Saving a photo as PNG makes it enormous. Saving a logo as JPG makes it fuzzy. The formats are not interchangeable, and the reason is how each one throws data away.
6 min read
Why your image gets cropped on social media, and what size to use
Platforms do not display your image. They display a version of it that fits their layout, and the difference is where your text goes missing.
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The data hiding in your photos and PDFs, and how to remove it
A photo posted from home can carry the coordinates of the room it was taken in. Most people have no idea the data is there, because nothing ever displays it.
6 min read
How to remove an image background without ruining the edges
The tools are genuinely good now. They still fail on the same three things every time, and knowing what those are saves you a lot of retouching.
6 min read
How to get a table out of a PDF and into Excel without retyping it
PDFs do not really contain tables. They contain text positioned so that it looks like one. That distinction explains every frustration you have had copying data out.
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Why your scan came out unreadable, and how to fix it before OCR
OCR accuracy depends far more on the quality of the image you feed it than on the software you use. Most failed recognitions are failed scans.
6 min read
Why your PDF looks different on someone else's computer
The whole promise of the format is in its name. When a PDF does not look the same everywhere, the cause is almost always a font that never travelled with the file.
6 min read
How to sign a PDF, and what actually counts as a signature
Most people sign PDFs by pasting a picture of their signature. That is usually fine, occasionally not, and the difference is worth ten minutes of your attention.
7 min read
How to redact a PDF properly (black boxes are not enough)
Every year an organisation publishes a document with names blacked out, and someone recovers them in seconds by selecting the text underneath. Here is why that keeps happening.
7 min read
Why page 1 of your PDF is not page 1, and how to fix it
There are two numbering systems in every PDF and nothing forces them to agree. That single mismatch causes an enormous amount of confused cross-referencing.
6 min read
How to find what changed between two versions of a PDF
The most expensive changes are the small ones nobody mentioned. Reading two versions side by side is exactly the task human attention is worst at.
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How to get clean text out of a PDF instead of a jumbled mess
PDFs store where each character sits, not what order it should be read in. Everything wrong with copying from a PDF follows from that one fact.
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What a watermark actually protects, and what it does not
Watermarks are communication, not protection. They are extremely good at the first job and almost useless at the second, and confusing the two causes real problems.
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How to print a long PDF without wasting half a ream
A two hundred page bundle does not need two hundred sheets. A few decisions before you press print typically cut it by three quarters.
6 min read
What to do when a PDF form will not let you type in it
Clicking a box and having nothing happen is not a broken reader. It usually means the form has no fields at all, and the fix depends on which kind you have.
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How to enlarge an image without it turning into mush
You cannot add detail that was never captured. Modern upscalers get impressively close by inventing it, which is fine until it matters that the detail is real.
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Why your Word document changes when you save it as a PDF
The document you exported is not always the document you were looking at. Word makes several decisions during conversion, and a few of them can be embarrassing.
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How to save a web page as a PDF that is actually readable
The page you see and the page that prints are two different documents. Knowing that explains every strange PDF you have ever produced from a browser.
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How to turn a pile of photos into one tidy PDF
Nobody wants twelve separate photographs of your receipts. Almost every form, claim and application asks for one PDF, and there is a right way to build it.
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How to export PDF pages as images without them coming out fuzzy
A PDF page has no resolution until you render it. That single fact is why the same export can come out crisp or blurry depending on one setting.
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How to check a downloaded file is the one you were meant to get
That string of hex characters next to a download link is not decoration. It is the only way to know the file you received is the file that was published.
6 min read
What actually makes a password strong (it is not what you were taught)
Length beats complexity by an enormous margin, and most of the rules people were taught produced passwords that were hard to remember and easy to guess.
7 min read
How to reduce PDF file size so it actually sends by email
Most mail servers reject attachments over 10MB, and scanned documents blow past that easily. Here is what actually makes a PDF large and how to fix it.
6 min read
PDF vs PDF/A: what is the difference and when do you need each?
Someone has asked you to submit a PDF/A and you are not sure what that means or whether your file already qualifies. Here is the practical answer.
6 min read
How to make a scanned PDF searchable with OCR
You can read the scanned contract perfectly well. Your computer cannot. Here is what OCR does about that, and how to get results worth relying on.
7 min read
How to convert a PDF to Word without wrecking the formatting
Some PDFs convert to Word almost perfectly. Others come out a mess. The difference is predictable once you understand what conversion is actually doing.
7 min read
How to password-protect a PDF (and safely remove the password later)
Sending payslips, medical letters or contracts by email? Encryption takes thirty seconds. Doing it properly takes one more decision that most people get wrong.
6 min read
How to merge PDFs into one file (and get the page order right)
A dozen receipts, four authors' sections, or a contract whose signature page came back separately. Here is how to combine them properly.
5 min read
How to compress images without visibly losing quality
Phone photos are several megabytes each, and almost none of that is doing any visible work. Here is how to reclaim it.
6 min read
How to remove or extract specific pages from a PDF
Someone wants page 12 of your thirty-page agreement. There are three tools that could do this, and picking the right one saves a lot of clicking.
5 min read
Why your PDF will not open — common causes and how to fix them
Before you assume the file is lost: most PDFs that refuse to open are recoverable, and the fix depends entirely on which of five things went wrong.
6 min read
Are online PDF tools safe? What actually happens to your files
You are about to upload a contract to a free website. That instinct to hesitate is correct — here is what to check, and why some tools never upload at all.
6 min read