How to Combine Multiple PDFs into One Document

Strategies for handling bulk merging tasks. How to combine 10, 50, or 100 files efficiently.

Stack of many papers turning into one book

How to Combine Multiple PDFs into One Document

Merging two files is easy. But what if you have a folder with 50 invoices that need to be combined into a single monthly report? Dragging and dropping them one by one is not an option.

The Challenge of Bulk Merging

  • Order: Ensuring files appear in the correct sequence (e.g., by date or by name).
  • Size: The final file might become huge (100MB+).
  • Bookmarks: Navigating a 500-page document is impossible without a Table of Contents.

Strategy 1: Naming Convention

Before you start, rename your files so they sort naturally.

  • Bad: Invoice.pdf, Invoice (1).pdf
  • Good: 2025-01-01_VendorA.pdf, 2025-01-02_VendorB.pdf

Strategy 2: Use a Batch Tool

Don’t use online tools for 50 files; the upload/download time will kill you. Use a desktop tool like PDFsam or a command-line tool like PDFtk.

  • Command: pdftk *.pdf cat output combined.pdf

Strategy 3: Add a Table of Contents

A 500-page PDF is useless if you can’t find anything. Advanced tools can automatically generate bookmarks based on the original filenames.

Conclusion

Bulk merging requires a bit more preparation than simple merging, but with the right file naming and tools, it can be done in seconds.

Need to automate bulk merging? Discover how MergeCanvas can process thousands of documents via API. Start your free trial today.