Five Free PDF Tools That Belong in Your Classroom Toolkit

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It’s Friday afternoon, and you’ve got three PDFs open on your computer. One has the reading passage you want students to use. Another has a worksheet with two pages you don’t need. The third is a scanned document that looks fine until you try to select any of the text.

You could print everything, get out the scissors, and make a new packet. Or you could use a few free PDF tools to put things together the way you want them.

I’ve found that PDFs are both a blessing and a headache in education. They preserve formatting across devices, which is handy when you need a worksheet to print correctly. But making changes to those files can be frustrating, especially when the software asks you to pay for a subscription.

Fortunately, several tools available through GitHub can help. Some are ready-to-use applications, while others offer possibilities for building custom classroom resources.

1. PDF Arranger: Build Better Classroom Packets

Best for: Combining, reorganizing, and simplifying printable materials.

PDF Arranger is a free, open-source application that lets you work with PDF pages visually. You can combine documents, remove unnecessary pages, rotate pages, and change their order.

Imagine preparing a science review packet. You’ve got a vocabulary sheet, a diagram, and a short assessment in three separate PDFs. Instead of distributing three documents, you can assemble them into one packet.

A teacher could also use PDF Arranger to create differentiated packets from materials they have permission to modify. Keep the reading passage, remove an unnecessary activity, and place the graphic organizer immediately after the text.

PDF Arranger works on Linux and Windows, with installation guidance for other platforms. It is especially useful for educators who want to work with documents on their own computers.

Try it: Take three sample classroom PDFs and combine them into a five-page learning packet. Put the pages in instructional order.

2. Stirling PDF: A Collection of PDF Utilities

Best for: Teachers and technology staff who need several PDF functions in one application.

Stirling PDF offers tools for merging, splitting, converting, compressing, signing, and processing PDF documents. It also includes optical character recognition (OCR), which can make scanned documents searchable.

Consider a teacher who receives a lengthy PDF resource but needs only pages six through nine. Or a campus administrator who wants to combine several public-facing documents into one file.

Stirling PDF provides a collection of utilities for both situations. It can run as a desktop application or through a self-hosted web interface.

There is one important consideration. Stirling PDF now uses an open-core licensing model, with restrictions on some components and production uses. Check the current license and subscription terms before planning a district-wide deployment.

For occasional individual work, it is worth investigating, but don’t assume every feature or institutional use is free.

Try it: Use a nonconfidential sample PDF to extract selected pages, then compare the original and resulting files.

3. OCRmyPDF: Make Scanned Documents Searchable

Best for: Digitized readings, historical documents, and scanned classroom resources.

OCRmyPDF solves a problem that shows up frequently in schools. Someone scans a paper document, saves it as a PDF, and shares it with students. Unfortunately, the document is essentially a collection of pictures.

You can look at it, but you may not be able to search for a word or copy a passage. OCRmyPDF uses optical character recognition to add a searchable text layer to scanned PDF documents. It can also straighten crooked pages and supports text recognition in many languages.

That makes it useful for social studies teachers working with historical documents, librarians preparing digitized readings, and educators adapting materials for students who benefit from selectable text. It is a command-line tool, so installing and using it may require help from campus or district technology staff. Or, you might also try Utilz.io’s PDF Tools.

Keep in mind that OCR can make mistakes, especially with old documents, unusual fonts, or poor scans. Searchable text also does not automatically make a PDF fully accessible to screen readers.

Try it: Scan a public-domain historical document, process it with OCRmyPDF, and ask students to locate three key terms using the PDF’s search feature.

4. pdfme: Create Reusable Classroom Templates

Best for: Certificates, organizers, forms, and repeatable printables.

pdfme takes a different approach. Instead of concentrating on fixing existing PDFs, it helps users generate documents from templates.

Its open-source toolkit includes a visual template designer and a PDF generator that can work with structured data.

Imagine a teacher creating a set of reading certificates. Each certificate needs a student’s name, the title of a book, and a completion date. Rather than rebuilding the document every time, a reusable template can keep the layout consistent while allowing the information to change.

The same approach could work for classroom organizers, exit tickets, labels, or instructional forms.

The catch? pdfme is primarily a developer-oriented toolkit. Teachers looking for a ready-made application may need help setting it up. Still, its visual designer makes it worth exploring for educators who create materials regularly.

Try it: Design a certificate template with placeholder information. Generate several examples using fictional student names.

5. Mozilla PDF.js: Put PDF Reading in the Browser

Best for: Browser-based PDF viewing and custom learning tools.

Mozilla PDF.js is an open-source project that displays PDF documents directly in web browsers.

Unlike PDF Arranger, it is not primarily a document assembly tool. It provides the viewing technology that developers can use in browser-based PDF applications.

Why might that matter in a classroom?

Suppose your students are completing a document analysis activity. You want them to open a PDF, examine a map or primary source, and respond to questions in a separate organizer.

PDF.js can provide the document viewing portion of such an application. A developer can combine it with instructional controls, guiding questions, or other features.

For teachers, the immediate value is understanding that PDF viewing does not necessarily require a paid product. For educators who build their own web tools, PDF.js offers a useful starting point.

Try it: Explore the PDF.js viewer with a sample document. Consider which classroom reading tasks would benefit from a dedicated browser-based viewing environment.

Which Tool Should You Choose?

Classroom Need	Tool to Explore
Combine worksheets and rearrange pages	PDF Arranger
Split, convert, compress, or process PDFs	Stirling PDF
Make scanned readings searchable	OCRmyPDF
Generate reusable certificates and forms	pdfme
Build a browser-based PDF viewing experience	Mozilla PDF.js

PDF Arranger is probably the easiest starting point for teachers who regularly assemble instructional packets. OCRmyPDF addresses a different problem: those scans that look readable but contain no searchable text.

The other tools may be more useful to technology staff or educators comfortable experimenting with software.

A Quick Classroom Challenge: Rescue a Problem PDF

Before introducing a new tool to students, try this activity with a document you already have permission to modify.

The challenge: Turn a difficult five-page PDF into a more useful classroom resource.

1. Inspect: Identify pages that are unnecessary, out of order, or difficult to search.
2. Improve: Use PDF Arranger to reorganize the pages. If the document is scanned, consider OCRmyPDF to add searchable text.
3. Evaluate: Open the revised document. Check reading order, text selection, print quality, and accessibility.

This makes a useful professional learning exercise for teachers or instructional coaches. It also demonstrates an important digital literacy habit: choosing tools based on the problem you’re trying to solve.

Before You Upload That PDF

Free software does not automatically mean a tool is appropriate for student information.

Before processing classroom documents, check where the files go. A locally installed application may keep processing on your computer, while a web-based service could transfer documents to a server.

For files containing student names, grades, accommodations, or other protected information, use only district-approved systems and workflows. A self-hosted application also requires appropriate security, configuration, and maintenance.

Review accessibility, too. A searchable PDF is useful, but an accessible document may also need headings, meaningful reading order, alternative text, and properly labeled form fields.

And remember that modifying a PDF does not give you permission to redistribute copyrighted materials.

Start With One Document

You don’t need five new applications installed on your computer. Pick one task that keeps consuming your time.

If you’re constantly combining worksheets, start with PDF Arranger. If you have a collection of scanned documents that students can’t search, investigate OCRmyPDF.

For schools interested in producing their own printable materials, pdfme and PDF.js offer additional possibilities, especially when technology staff can support development.

The goal is straightforward: spend less time fighting with PDF files and more time preparing resources students can actually use.

Explore these, then choose one tool that addresses a recurring classroom problem, and test it with a sample document before adopting it more widely. And, Firefox browser just added PDF tools to its feature set.