Smallpdf - incredibly useful

The Zurich startup Smallpdf is one of the 1,000 most visited websites in the world. Fortunately, I’ve now found out about it too. SmallPDF is incredibly useful, even for school! Dealing with PDF files, images and generally different formats is one of the basic skills of media literacy. Of course, I immediately added the tool to my list and here are a few more possible uses.

Application documents

Digital applications are required more and more frequently. These should not be too big (reduce PDF with “Compress PDF”), all documents should be in one PDF (merge with “Merge PDF”).

Data protection: Smallpdf GmbH is based in Switzerland and is therefore subject to Swiss data protection. You guarantee that all files will be deleted after an hour. If that is not enough for you, it would be better not to apply via the Internet, especially not by e-mail.

Insert PDF as an image in your own documents

If you want to use images from PDFs in your own documents, it’s not that easy on iPads, Chromebooks or cell phones. With a screenshot, the resolution is too low and most apps struggle with PDFs. Here you can use the “PDF to JPG” tool to convert PDFs into images or extract images from PDFs.

Convert PDF to Word, PowerPoint or Excel

These three Smallpdf tools (PDF to Word, PDF to Excel, PDF to PPT) particularly impressed me, because Smallpdf can do that better than comparable services. As an example, I used a PDF from Lehrmittelverlag Zürich. This lists tasks from the mathematics teaching material in preparation for the vocational school. Since the document is only available as a PDF, I can hardly edit it. With Smallpdf, however, I can now convert the PDF into Word, PPT or Excel files of very impressive quality.

Connection with Google Drive or Dropbox

As with most tools, the large cloud storages can also be connected (Office 365 not yet). Schools using G Suite for Education can convert files directly online without going through a computer.

Really free?

Not really. For example, the online utility AnyPDF is completely free. Smallpdf can be used free of charge, but with a limit of two times an hour. Of course there is a Pro version with unlimited use for $ 6 a month or $ 48 a year.