The GetPDFPro blog
Practical, sourced writing on PDFs and the tools that work with them. Tutorials, format primers, and honest comparisons — all built on facts we can cite.
8 min readiLovePDF alternatives: an honest 2026 comparison
iLovePDF is the default PDF tool on the internet. It is also not the only option, and not always the best one. This is an honest, sourced comparison of the major alternatives in 2026.
comparisonreviewiLovePDF
5 min readSplitting large PDFs: the 4 GB problem nobody warns you about
The PDF spec caps any single file at ~4.7 GB. Hitting that ceiling is more common than you'd think — legal discovery, design files, medical imaging. Here's how to work around it.
splitlimitsdeep-dive
6 min readCompressing PDFs: what actually works in 2026
PDF compression is dominated by two levers: re-encoding images, and stripping redundant data. Text-heavy PDFs barely shrink. Image-heavy PDFs shrink a lot. Here's the math.
compressperformancedeep-dive
7 min readThe PDF file format: a 2026 primer
PDF looks like a document. Under the hood, it's a typed object graph with a specific structure. Here's what every developer and curious user should know about the format in 2026.
explainerspecdeep-dive
5 min readHow to merge PDFs: a 2026 guide that actually works
Merging PDFs is the most common PDF task. Here's the order-of-operations that produces clean output, preserves bookmarks, and avoids the two bugs that show up in most free tools.
mergetutorialbeginner