Help

Quick start

PDFMy is a free PDF program. It runs in the browser or as an app – on a PC, on a Mac and on your phone. Your documents are not uploaded: everything happens on your device.

1. Open pdfmy.de (preferably in Chrome or Edge).
2. On first start, PDFMy asks in four steps for your name/initials, filing folder, scanner and PDF standard. Everything is optional and can be changed later under More → Setup.
3. Open a PDF, a photo or a scan – or simply drag it into the window. The start page has tiles for the most common tasks.

Search help: Type what you want to do into the search box at the top (or press /) – in your own words too, such as ‘signature’, ‘compress’ or ‘iPhone’. Matching answers appear immediately; a click shows the passage in context. In PDFMy, you will find the search box under Help.

Crash protection: PDFMy backs up unsaved changes on your device every few seconds. If the browser crashes or you close PDFMy by mistake, ‘Unsaved work’ appears on the start page the next time you open it – one click on ‘Restore’ brings the document back. This also applies to a camera scan that has not yet been finished with ‘Done’: it appears there as ‘Camera scan’. The backup is deleted after saving or closing, otherwise after 7 days at the latest. Use the ✕ or ‘Discard all’ to delete backups immediately, for example on a shared device.

Recently opened: Your latest documents are listed on the start page – a click opens them again (Chrome and Edge). Only the name and a reference are stored, no content; ‘Clear list’ removes everything.

Tip: With Ctrl+K (Mac: ⌘+K) you can find any function by keyword.

Scan

With your phone

On a phone, the big ‘Scan with the camera’ button is right at the top (on a PC: the ‘Scan with your phone’ tile). The camera detects the sheet, takes the picture by itself, crops it and straightens it. Several pages in a row are possible. For the best quality, take photos in daylight and without shadows.

Then save: Tap ‘Save’, ‘File’ or ‘Share’ at the bottom. The ‘×’ at the top closes the document; PDFMy asks first about pages that have not been saved yet. Closed it by mistake? For 20 seconds, ‘Reopen’ appears at the top – one tap and all pages are back.

Using it on your phone: At the bottom you will find Share, File and Save. The tools (text, highlight, signature …) appear as icons in the bar above the page – swipe sideways for more. ⋯ at the top right opens all other functions as a list. To sort and delete pages: page overview (the icon with four squares).

With a scanner or multifunction device – Windows

Install the small pdfmy Scan program once (‘Connect scanner’ button in PDFMy). After that, the button is called ‘Scan’: choose the scanner, insert the paper, done. Network devices are found without drivers (AirScan/eSCL and WSD, e.g. Epson, Dell, Brother), USB scanners via the Windows driver. Double-sided scanning and feeders are supported.

With a scanner or multifunction device – Mac

Just once, download pdfmy Scan for Mac and double-click ‘pdfmy-Scan-Mac.command’. It finds network scanners without drivers (AirScan/eSCL and WSD, e.g. Dell Color MFP E525w). Without extra software, it works with ‘Image Capture’ and a scan folder. Detailed guide for the Mac →

With a scanner or multifunction device – Linux

Just once, download pdfmy Scan for Linux and run it in a terminal: sh ~/Downloads/pdfmy-scan-linux.sh (without sudo). Network scanners work without drivers (AirScan/eSCL and WSD). For USB scanners and older devices, pdfmy Scan uses SANE, z. B. sudo apt install sane-utils sane-airscan ipp-usb. Manufacturer drivers (HP hplip, Brother brscan, Epson epsonscan2) are only needed for very old devices. Detailed guide for Linux →

With a scanner or multifunction device – Chromebook

On a Chromebook PDFMy needs no additional program – pdfmy Scan does not run on Chrome OS, but it isn’t needed either: Chrome OS controls many network and USB scanners itself (AirScan/eSCL, no drivers). Set up the scanner under Settings → Advanced → Print and scan, then use the ‘Scan’ app to scan as PDF or JPG into a folder, e.g. My files › Scans. In PDFMy, in the scan window, choose ‘Connect this folder as the scan folder’ – every new scan appears automatically, with text recognition. Install PDFMy via ‘Download app’: then the ‘Files’ app opens PDFs with Open with → PDFMy; printing works via ‘Save as PDF’, and Google Drive is integrated in the ‘Files’ app (selectable as the filing folder).

Will my device work?

In the device list you will find Brother, Epson, HP, Canon, Kyocera, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Sharp, Xerox, Lexmark, Dell, Samsung and document scanners – searchable by model and showing whether double-sided scanning is possible. Almost all network devices from recent years work without drivers.

Double-sided scanning

Feeder or glass: Under ‘Paper is’ you will normally see ‘Detect automatically’. You can also choose ‘in the feeder’ or ‘on the glass’ as a fixed setting. The note below it tells you what your scanner does in each case.

If your device has a duplex feeder, tick ‘Double-sided’ in the scan window. If it has a feeder without duplex (e.g. Epson L5290, many Brother DCP, Dell E525w), choose ‘Double-sided by turning over’: first scan the front sides, then turn the whole stack over and insert it again – PDFMy puts the front and back sides in the right order. If the order is ever wrong, a click on ‘Back sides reversed’ is enough. PDFMy removes blank back pages automatically.

Detect automatically: in the scan window, ‘Type’ and ‘Colour’ are set to ‘Automatic’ by default. PDFMy then scans in colour and recognises each sheet itself: Black-and-white document (plain text – razor-sharp, smallest file), Greyscale document (grey areas or black-and-white images), Colour document (coloured logo, stamp, highlighter) or Photo. The detected type appears in the page label and can be changed at any time at the top via the image processing selection (Document (grey), Document (colour), Black and white, Original …).

Scanning photos: with ‘Automatic’, PDFMy detects photos itself, crops them (even if they lie in a corner of the glass), leaves the colours unchanged and skips text recognition. For the best quality, choose ‘Photo’: PDFMy then scans from the glass at 600 dpi, in either Colour or Black and white (greyscale). Please do not put photos in the feeder. To save as an image: ‘Save’ → format ‘Images’, then choose the image format – JPG, PNG, TIFF or WebP.

Cropping: the ‘Crop’ tool in the bar above the page – drag the four blue corners to the desired edges and click ‘Apply’. Sheets photographed at an angle are straightened in the process; for photos the aspect ratio is preserved.

Epson EcoTank L5290 (e.g. ‘EPSON2CBBCB’)

Found automatically on Windows, Mac and Linux (AirScan/eSCL or WSD, flatbed and feeder). If not: in the scan window, choose ‘Add device by IP address’ and enter the IP or the device name , e.g. EPSON2CBBCB – on Mac and Linux, pdfmy Scan adds ‘.local’ itself. With Wi-Fi and LAN or VPN at the same time, it searches over every network connection. pdfmy Scan wakes devices in energy-saving mode itself before every search; otherwise choose ‘Wake scanners’ in the scan window. More about the Epson L5290 →

Scan folder (‘Scan to Folder’)

If your device saves scans to a folder, connect this folder under ‘Connect scanner’. New scans appear after a few seconds – straightened, with text recognition. Set up scanner (all methods) →

Several letters at once

More → Print separator sheet: place the sheet with the QR code between the letters and scan the whole stack. PDFMy separates the letters and leaves out the separator sheets.

Patch code separator sheets: If your office already has separator sheets for the document scanner (Kodak patch code, e.g. ‘Patch T’ or ‘Patch 2’ – four thick and thin black bars), PDFMy recognises them too, even if inserted upside down or sideways. You can get your own sheet under More → Print patch code separator sheet – please print it at actual size (100%).

Filing letters and deadlines

What does this letter want?

Above the page, one sentence tells you what it is about, e.g. ‘Invoice for €1,520.24 – payable by 28/10 – in 13 days’, with buttons for Transfer (GiroCode), Enter deadline, Forward and File. Sender, date, type, amount and deadline are shown on the right in the letter details and can be corrected.

File

Letter details only for post: PDFMy shows date, sender, subject, file, deadline and follow-up when the document looks like post – for scans or when a deadline, amount, IBAN or a sender with a date was recognised. For other documents (e.g. articles of association or a manual) only the file name and the link ‘Enter letter details …’ appear there, which expands the fields.

File name: an opened file keeps its name (‘Quote Smith.pdf’ stays ‘Quote Smith.pdf’). Only for scans and meaningless names from scanners, cameras and programs such as ‘Scan0001’, ‘IMG_1234’ or ‘Document (2)’ does PDFMy use a meaningful name from the letter data (date, type, sender, subject). You can change the name at any time on the right under ‘File name’.

Choose a filing folder once (e.g. a folder synchronised with OneDrive or SharePoint). After that, ‘File’ files every letter with a meaningful name and enters it in the post log. On request with a received stamp and a consecutive incoming number. Several companies? In the settings, each company gets its own folder.

Preview: Click a row in the post log – the first page of the document appears on the right with its file name and page count, without opening it. With the keyboard, simply press Tab to move to a row’s ‘Open’ button. Clicking the preview thumbnail or ‘Open’ loads the document for editing. The preview is available from a window width of about 900 pixels.

Custom fields: Under the tags in the letter details, click ‘Define custom fields …’ and name up to five fields, e.g. client, project or cost centre. They then appear for every letter. PDFMy suggests the values from the last letter with the same reference number or sender and offers previous values to choose from. The values appear in the post log (Excel column ‘Custom fields’, in the list below the subject) and in the PDF’s keywords; search finds them. With a filing folder, the field names apply to the whole team (file pdfmy-Felder.json).

Case files (client and matter files)

The letter details include the ‘Case file’ field, e.g. ‘Müller v. Schmidt’ or ‘Meier – Income Tax 2025’. PDFMy suggests the case file itself: if a letter has the same reference number as one filed earlier, it belongs in the same case file – otherwise the sender’s most recent case file is used. In Post log & case files (More → Office), the ‘Case files’ view shows each case file with the number of documents, open items, the next deadline and the people responsible. ‘Show documents’ filters the list to that case file; ‘Open case file’ opens all documents in the case file, sorted by date, as a single document – for reading, printing or saving together (with a connected filing folder). You assign previously filed letters in the ‘Case file’ column of the list; filters for case file and year help you search. The case file is also included in the post log’s Excel file.

Tags

In the ‘Tags’ field in the letter details, separate several terms with commas, e.g. ‘Tax 2025, Insurance, urgent’. As you type, PDFMy suggests tags you have already used. When you file the document, they are recorded in the post log and in the PDF’s keywords – so Windows Search and other PDF programs can find the document too. In the post log you can filter by tag, and clicking a tag shows all documents with that tag; use ‘+ Tag’ to add tags and ‘×’ to remove them directly in the list.

Versions and GoBD audit report

Versions: If you open a filed document from the post log, change it (e.g. the note ‘paid’) and save it, PDFMy replaces the file in the same place. The previous version is kept unchanged in the ‘_Versionen’ folder (with the date and time in its name); the entry shows ‘v2’, ‘v3’ … and receives the new checksum – no duplicate entry is created.

GoBD audit report: In the post log, ‘GoBD audit report …’ checks all filed files (SHA-256 checksum), the seal of each entry (makes later changes to the log detectable, e.g. in Excel) and gaps in the receipt numbers. The result is saved as a PDF in the ‘_Protokolle’ folder – with a procedure description as the basis for your procedure documentation. Checksum and seal make changes detectable; immutability itself must be ensured by the storage location (e.g. retention policies in SharePoint/Microsoft 365). (GoBD: German rules for proper digital bookkeeping and archiving.)

Deadlines, follow-up, reminder

Objection deadline for official notices: If an official notice (e.g. a tax assessment notice – Steuerbescheid) contains information on legal remedies (Rechtsbehelfsbelehrung) with a one-month time limit, PDFMy calculates the deadline for an objection (Einspruch or Widerspruch): the notice is deemed delivered four days after its date (§ 122 AO, German Fiscal Code, since 2025), then one month runs; if a day falls on a weekend or a nationwide public holiday, the next working day counts. The deadline appears in the info line and in the post log. Regional public holidays may extend the deadline further – so the deadline shown is never too late. If the notice demonstrably arrived later, the deadline starts later.

Deadlines and follow-ups appear on the start page. With ‘Remind’, you receive a notification once a day when something is due. ‘Enter deadline’ creates a calendar entry for Outlook.

Autopilot

Can be switched on in Setup: PDFMy files letters from known senders by itself after a short countdown. If it is unsure, it waits and gives the reason.

Tax adviser, bank statement, retention

• More → Receipts for tax adviser: a month's receipts as a ZIP with a list of receipts and a DATEV import file.
• Import the bank statement (CAMT or CSV) into the post log: paid invoices are recognised.
• PDFMy points out receipts whose retention period has expired. Nothing is deleted automatically.

Reply

‘Reply’ writes a letter in DIN 5008 format: the address and reference are already filled in, plus standard text blocks (e.g. objection, payment confirmation). On request, with your own letterhead.

Edit PDFs

• Split PDF: Tile ‘Split PDF’ or ‘… More → Split PDF …’ – every N pages a new file, at the bookmarks (per chapter), by file size (e.g. at most 5 MB for e-mail attachments) or by page ranges such as 1-3, 4-7, 8-. Result as a ZIP file or saved individually to your filing folder.
• Place on your own letterhead: In the save dialogue under ‘Page numbers, header/footer …’ → ‘Place on my letterhead’. Page 1 of your letterhead (PDF) lies under the first page, page 2 (if present) under all further pages. The same letterhead as for ‘Reply’. For normal PDFs; on scanned pages the scanned image covers the background.
• Scripts in PDFs: PDFMy does not run JavaScript from opened PDFs. Calculation fields that you create yourself in a form only calculate in the recipient’s PDF program, and never in PDF/A.
• Remove hidden data: Before passing a document on to third parties, tick ‘Remove hidden data’ in the save dialogue – PDFMy removes comments, notes and markup from the original, scripts, embedded files and media as well as author, subject and keywords. Links are kept.
• Remove white margins and fit to A4: In the save dialogue under ‘Page numbers, header/footer, format …’ → ‘Remove white margins’ trims empty margins around the content; ‘All pages to A4’ fits US-Letter, receipts and mixed formats onto A4 true to scale and centred (portrait or landscape). Text, links and form fields are preserved.
• Multiple pages per sheet and booklet: In the print window or the save dialogue, choose ‘2 pages per sheet’, ‘4 pages per sheet’ or ‘Booklet (folded A4)’. For the booklet, print double-sided (flip on the short edge) and fold in the middle – the pages are then in the right order.
• Shapes and images: Choose the ‘Shapes’ tool, next to it Rectangle, Ellipse, Line or Arrow, colour and line width, and drag it out on the page (with Shift a line becomes exactly horizontal or vertical). ‘Image’ inserts a logo or photo (PNG, JPG); then move it and enlarge it with the handle at the bottom right. Both are written sharply into the PDF.
• Measuring: ‘Shapes’ tool, next to it ‘Measure: distance’, ‘Measure: area’ or ‘Measure: polygon’ – drag a line or rectangle, or for a polygon click the corners one after another (double-click, clicking the first point or Enter closes it, Esc cancels; gives area and perimeter, e.g. for L-shaped rooms), and the value appears right next to it (e.g. ‘4.25 m’ or ‘18.30 m²’). Choose the drawing scale (1:1 to 1:1000) or ‘From known distance …’: measure a distance of known length, select it and enter the real length – all measurements in this drawing then use it. The page size comes from the PDF; for scans and photos PDFMy assumes A4. Measured values are saved as text. For trades, construction and architecture – like the measuring tool in Acrobat Pro.
• File attachments: More → File attachments shows the files embedded in the PDF (e.g. spreadsheets, photos, invoice XML) – save, remove or add new ones with ‘Attach file …’. Attachments are kept when you save. With PDF/A, only attachments that are themselves PDF/A are kept (required by the standard).
• Merge and organise pages: open several files, then in the page overview (G) sort, rotate, delete, insert blank pages and split.
• Save to the original file: If you have opened a PDF (double-click, Open, drag or ‘Recently opened’), Ctrl+S in Chrome and Edge offers ‘Save to original file’ – just like in Word. The first time, the browser asks for permission once. ‘Save as …’ always creates a new file.
• Many files at once (batch processing): ‘Batch processing’ tile on the start page, select files, then choose: Compress, Archive (PDF/A, with text recognition), Prepare for sharing, Greyscale and compress, Add page numbers, Make searchable or Recognise and file letters. The result comes as a ZIP file or goes straight into a folder; the list shows each file with its size before/after. ‘Pause’ stops after the current file. Any open document remains unchanged.
• Watch folder (automatic): ‘Watch folder’ tile on the start page: choose an input folder – for example the one your scanner or copier saves to – plus what should happen (Make searchable, Archive (PDF/A), Compress, a custom workflow or Recognise and file letters) and a destination folder. Every new file is then processed without a click, named after its content if you wish (e.g. 2026-10-21_Utility_Invoice.pdf), and the original moves to the subfolder ‘_erledigt’. This runs in a separate PDFMy window as long as it is open; your work in the main window is not disturbed. Files that cannot be processed end up in ‘_fehler’. Requires Edge or Chrome on a computer.
• Compress: choose ‘Small’ when saving; the size is shown in advance.
• Task bar: If you choose a task on the start page (e.g. Redact, Sign, merge, Form), a line above the page shows what to do next – with a matching button (e.g. ‘Find personal data’, ‘Add more files’, ‘Fill in with my details’) and ‘Done & save’.
• Redact: Drag over areas or redact a search term everywhere. The content is genuinely removed, including from the text layer. ‘Find personal data’ suggests places to redact: names after a title (e.g. ‘Mrs Jane Smith’), street with house number, postcode with town, IBAN, email, phone, tax ID, date of birth and National Insurance number – please check before saving; click anything unsuitable and delete it with Delete.
• Change text: Choose the ‘Change text’ tool, click in a line and type over it – or faster: in the ‘Select’ tool, double-click the text. If the line belongs to a paragraph, the whole paragraph becomes editable and is automatically re-wrapped as you edit – with the line spacing of the original; hyphenations at line ends are joined up. Addresses and lists keep their lines. PDFMy matches the look of the original: typeface (serif or sans serif, monospaced), bold and italic, text colour, background colour (e.g. grey boxes) and width. In PDFs with text, the font is identified exactly; in scans, the colour, background, bold type and whether the font has serifs (e.g. Times) – for very small text, a sans-serif font is used. Unchanged lines stay as they are.
• Original font when editing: If the font is embedded in the PDF and contains all the characters of the new text, PDFMy carries on writing in exactly that font – the edited text looks just as it did before. If a character is missing (PDFs often contain only the letters actually used), PDFMy uses a font with the same character widths: for Arial/Helvetica, Times, Courier and Calibri the text runs exactly as wide as in the original; for other fonts the width is adjusted to match.
• Large documents: PDFMy saves even documents with hundreds of pages quickly – unchanged pages are carried over in a single pass, and scanned pages are compressed on several processor cores at once.
• Opening scanned PDFs: PDFMy prepares long batches of scans on several processor cores at once when opening them (cropping, straightening, detecting separator sheets) – so they open much faster.
• Protection against forgery: Certificates, master craftsman and journeyman certificates, school and employment references, ID documents, official notices (e.g. tax assessment notice (Steuerbescheid)) and court decisions cannot be altered with ‘Change text’ and ‘Cover’ – redacting, highlighting, notes and signatures still work. For bank statements, payslips, invoices and similar records, changes are possible but are marked in red, and the page receives the note ‘subsequently changed’ at the bottom. In addition, every PDF with replaced or covered text carries the keyword ‘subsequently changed (PDFMy)’. This keeps PDFMy a tool for your own documents – not for forgeries.
• Digitally signed PDFs: Before you use ‘Change text’, ‘Cover’ or ‘Text’ in a signed PDF for the first time, PDFMy gives a clear warning once: the change invalidates the digital signature, and the new file no longer carries a valid signature. ‘Do not change’ leaves everything as it is; ‘Understood, change anyway’ allows editing for this document. The original file remains valid.
• Forms: Fill in fields and save. If nothing else in the document was changed, the saved PDF stays fillable; if it was combined with other pages or annotated, the entries are written in permanently. On a mobile, the ‘Fill in form’ button takes you to the fields. More → Detect form fields makes flat forms or scans fillable. If you open a non-fillable form with typical labels (name, street, telephone …), PDFMy offers this directly in a bar: ‘Detect fields’. It detects writing lines – including drawn lines with the label underneath –, boxes and checkboxes; each field is named after its label (additions such as ‘if applicable’ are dropped).
• My details – fill in forms with one click: in the form area on the right, ‘Fill in with my details’. The first time, you enter your details once (name, address, date of birth, phone, email, IBAN, tax ID …); you can change them at any time under … More → My details …. PDFMy recognises the matching fields by their label – including ‘Surname, first name’, ‘Postcode, town’ or ‘Place, date’ (with today’s date) – and fills only empty fields; fields for other people (e.g. ‘Child’s name’, ‘Maiden name’) are left blank. Please check the result briefly. ‘Take from this form’ picks up details from a form you have already filled in. Your details stay only in this browser on this device and are never transmitted; on shared devices, remove them with ‘Delete all’.
• Create a form: Choose the ‘Form field’ tool, next to it the type – Text field, Multi-line, Date, Checkbox, Drop-down list or Radio button – and drag a rectangle on the page (or simply click). For a drop-down list, PDFMy asks for the entries (e.g. ‘Mr, Mrs, Other’). Radio buttons with the same name form a group from which only one option can be selected (‘Yes’ / ‘No’) – simply place several side by side; the value is taken from the label to the right. The ‘Required field’ tick box marks fields that must be filled in (it also applies to the currently selected field). PDFMy takes the name from the label next to it, e.g. ‘First name’; double-click to rename, Del deletes. When you save, real form fields are created that anyone can fill in with a PDF program, in the browser or in PDFMy – also as PDF/A and accessible (screen readers read out the field name).
• Calculating and checking in forms: The field types also include Number, Amount (€), Email, IBAN and Postcode. For Number and Amount, the field can calculate itself: enter a formula under ‘Calculation’, e.g. Quantity * Unit price, Net * 0.19 or SUMME([Item 1]; [Item 2]; [Item 3]) – field names with spaces in square brackets; allowed are + − * /, brackets, SUMME, MIN, MAX and MITTELWERT. In the saved PDF, the fields calculate and check themselves (e.g. in Adobe Acrobat Reader, Foxit or Firefox); an incorrect IBAN or email address is reported. When filling in with PDFMy, PDFMy calculates along and shows missing required fields and invalid entries directly at the field – even in third-party forms with total fields. For this, calculating and checking fields get a small form script in the PDF – only these fields, not date or text fields. Some company mail filters hold back PDFs with scripts. PDF/A does not allow form scripts; there the fields are created without calculation.
• Page numbers, watermarks, Bates numbers, headers and footers: in the save dialogue.
• Insert links: Choose the ‘Link’ tool, drag over an area (e.g. over ‘Annex 2’ or a web address) and enter the target: a web address (pdfmy.de), an email address or a page number. In the saved PDF the area is clickable – also as PDF/A and accessible. Page links move along when pages are reordered. Double-click to change the target. For security reasons, only web and email links are possible.
• Comments and highlights: More → Comments and highlights shows all notes, highlights (with the highlighted text), texts, stamps, signatures, form fields and redactions in the document – with page, filter and search. A click jumps there, ✕ deletes (Ctrl+Z undoes it). ‘Copy as text’ provides a summary for an email or minutes.
• Compare: More → Compare with another version shows what has changed – as ‘Text’ (inserted and removed words) or as ‘Image (overlay)’: the pages are laid on top of each other, red is only in the first version, green only in the second, and dashed frames show each changed area. This also reveals changed images, stamps, signatures and layout.
• Merge alternately: If your scanner has no duplex feeder, scan the front and back sides separately and choose both files via the ‘Merge alternately’ tile. If the back sides are the wrong way round, tap ‘Reverse second file’.
• Convert: PDF to Word, Excel, text or images; images to PDF; extract images from the PDF in their original resolution.
• PDF to Word – with structure: when saving as a Word document, PDFMy reassembles the text into whole paragraphs (words hyphenated at the end of a line are joined up), turns large text into real Word headings (‘Heading 1/2’ – visible in the navigation pane), keeps lists and line breaks in addresses and converts tables into Word tables: column widths as in the original, header row in bold and repeated on every page, amounts right-aligned. For scans this happens after text recognition – PDFMy hides table lines for this so that no cell gets lost; complex layouts (multiple columns, text boxes, merged table cells) are simplified.
• Summarising and asking without upload: Menu → ‘Summarise and ask …’. Google Chrome’s built-in AI (from version 138, on a computer with at least 16 GB of memory or a graphics card with 4 GB) summarises the document – as Key points, Brief summary, What is it about? or Headline, from short to detailed – or answers questions such as ‘By when do I have to pay?’. Everything runs on your device; the document is not uploaded. The first time, Chrome downloads the AI model (one-time, several GB). PDFMy summarises long documents section by section. The result can be copied; please check it against the document.
• Setting up the AI assistant: Under ‘… More → AI assistant …’ you can see whether your browser’s AI is ready on this device. ‘Set up browser AI’ downloads the AI model once in advance so that it does not have to load the first time you summarise. With Off, Summarise and Translate disappear from the menu – for example if a company does not want AI features. The AI always works on your device; the document is not uploaded.
• Check privacy yourself: Under ‘… More → Check privacy yourself …’ (or by clicking ‘Files stay on your device’ on the start page) you can see which connections this window has made since it was opened and how much data was sent to the internet – normally 0 bytes. Requests to pdfmy.de only load program components, fonts and language files. Connections to 127.0.0.1 or localhost go to programs on your own PC (pdfmy Scan, local AI). The easiest way to check: turn off Wi-Fi – PDFMy keeps working.
• Check the program version: In the same dialog, PDFMy compares the program files currently running with the published checksum list for this version and shows their fingerprint. You will find the same fingerprint in the release log on GitHub (github.com/haus-it/pdfmy, docs/RELEASES.md) – independent of pdfmy.de. This lets you see that pdfmy.de delivers exactly the published version. For IT departments: pdfmy.de/pruefsummen.txt can be checked with sha256sum -c against a copy of the site.
• Local AI on this PC: If you use an AI program such as Ollama or LM Studio on the same computer, you can choose it under ‘… More → AI assistant …’: select the program, ‘Check connection’, choose a model, save. Summarising, questions and translating then run with this model – the text does not leave the computer; PDFMy rejects addresses outside this PC. Allow once: in LM Studio, start the server under ‘Developer’ and switch on ‘Enable CORS’; for Ollama, open ‘Edit environment variables for your account’ in Windows, create the variable OLLAMA_ORIGINS with the value https://pdfmy.de and restart Ollama. The default remains the browser AI; with Off, the AI is switched off completely.
• Translating without upload: Menu → ‘Translate …’, choose the source and target language. PDFMy uses Google Chrome’s built-in translator for this (version 138 or later, on a computer): the translation runs on your device and the text is not uploaded. The first time, Chrome downloads the language pack. The result opens as a new PDF in its own tab – with headings, paragraphs, lists and tables; numbers and amounts stay unchanged. The original page layout is not reproduced. Machine translation: please check before sending. In other browsers, PDFMy shows a notice.
• Saving workflows: In the save dialogue, choose the settings you want (e.g. format, page numbers, footer, letterhead, greyscale) and click ‘Save as workflow …’ next to Saved workflow at the top – with a name such as ‘Invoice to customer’. Next time, simply select the workflow. In batch processing, your own workflows (PDF and PDF/A) are offered as additional options – so many files are handled the same way at once. For security reasons, password and signature are never saved.
• Halve pages: Menu → ‘Halve pages …’ splits double-page scans (open book or booklet) and A3 sheets into two pages – vertically (left/right) or horizontally (top/bottom), optionally landscape pages only. Without loss of quality: text and vector graphics are preserved and the file does not get larger. For books read from right to left: ‘Right half first’.
• Word and Excel to PDF: simply open Word files (.docx) and Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx) or drag them into the window – PDFMy converts them to PDF on your device, without uploading. From Word, PDFMy carries over headers and footers (with logo and page number ‘Page 1 of 3’), headings, paragraphs (including bold and italic mid-sentence, centred, right-aligned), bulleted and numbered lists, tables (with the column widths, alignment and bold header row from Word), images, page breaks and the page format; from Excel, all visible sheets as a table with number, currency, percentage and date formats. Text boxes, columns and special fonts are not carried over – for an exact copy, choose ‘Save as PDF’ in Word or Excel. Please save older formats (.doc, .xls) as .docx/.xlsx first.
• Opening RTF and XPS: PDFMy takes RTF files as text without formatting or images, and XPS files with text and images in place, but without lines or filled areas. For an exact copy, print via the ‘PDFMy’ printer.
• What is preserved when saving: Page labels, link destinations, bookmarks, layers and XMP metadata are preserved as long as the pages do not become images. Structure tags are preserved when all pages of a single file are saved. The save dialogue tells you beforehand if anything will be lost.
• Damaged PDFs: PDFMy rescues whatever is still readable and names the missing pages. If the beginning of a file is missing, or if the page data is stored compressed and has been cut off, there is usually nothing left to rescue.
• E-books (EPUB) to PDF: simply open EPUB files – PDFMy typesets them as a PDF in a handy A5 book format: title, each chapter on a new page, headings, paragraphs, lists, tables and images. Copy-protected e-books (DRM) cannot be converted.
• LibreOffice and OpenOffice: PDFMy converts text documents (.odt) and spreadsheets (.ods) to PDF in the same way – with headings, lists, tables, images and the page format, or with all sheets including number, currency, percentage and date values.
• Text, Markdown and CSV to PDF: simply open text files (.txt), Markdown (.md) and tables (.csv, e.g. from Excel or your accounts software) or drag them into the window – PDFMy turns them into a clean A4 PDF: headings, lists and tables from Markdown are typeset, CSV tables get the header row on every page, many columns go into landscape format, and amounts are right-aligned. Accented characters from older Excel files are recognised correctly.
• iPhone photos (HEIC) and TIFF: simply open iPhone photos (.heic/.heif) and TIFF files – including multi-page ones from a fax or scanner – or drag them into the window; PDFMy converts them in any browser, including Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Each TIFF page becomes a PDF page, and fax resolutions (e.g. 204 × 98 dpi) are correctly rectified. The conversion takes place on your device.
• Print as poster: Start page → ‘Print as poster’, or in the save dialogue, under pages per sheet, choose ‘Poster on 4 A4 sheets’ or ‘on 9’. Each page is enlarged and spread across several sheets, with a 1 cm overlapping margin for gluing together.
• Invert colours: Start page → ‘Invert colours’. Useful, for example, for printing dark slides using less toner. The text stays text. PDF format only.
• Label pages: Start page → ‘Label pages’. The front matter is then numbered i, ii, iii, after which numbering starts at 1. Only the page labels in the PDF program change, not the content of the pages.
• Non-copyable text: Start page → ‘Non-copyable text’. Each page is saved as an image without text layer, form fields or links, which usually makes the file larger. Text recognition can still read the text. So always use ‘Redact’ for confidential content.
• Prepare for AI: Start page → ‘Prepare for AI’. PDFMy saves the text as Markdown with headings, tables, page markers and brief details about the document. The file stays on your device. The content only leaves your device if you upload it to an AI service yourself.
• Scanning with the camera: The back gesture does not end the scan while you have captures. To finish, tap ‘Done’. If the camera has detected the sheet incorrectly, tap the thumbnail and then ‘Adjust corners’. If it is too dark, PDFMy will let you know.
• Blurry captures: If a page looks blurry, its thumbnail gets a yellow border. Tap it to check the page and delete it if necessary.
• Search: Upper and lower case make no difference, and ‘ß’ and ‘ss’ count as the same: ‘Strasse’ also finds ‘Straße’. Phrases such as ‘15 November’ are found too. With ‘Whole words only’, ‘Test’ no longer finds ‘Testament’. This also applies to highlighting, replacing and ‘Redact all matches’.
• Continue reading: PDFs of 5 pages or more reopen at the page you were last on. For this, your browser remembers only a checksum of the file and the page number, no file name and no content.
• What is not preserved when saving: If a PDF contains layers, structure tags, page labels or an XFA form, the save dialogue tells you beforehand. The same applies to PDF/A: form fields are fixed permanently into the page, and attachments that are not PDF/A are dropped.
• Saving in greyscale: In the save dialogue under ‘Page numbers, header/footer, format …’ → Colour → ‘In greyscale’. All pages, stamps, highlights, signatures and inserted images turn grey – like a black-and-white copy, saving colour toner. The pages are saved as an image; the text remains searchable. Also works with PDF/A.
• PowerPoint: In the save dialogue under Format → ‘PowerPoint’. Each page becomes a slide in the page format – with stamps, markups and signatures. The text sits invisibly in its place and can be searched and copied in PowerPoint, Keynote or Impress; scanned pages are recognised first (OCR). Handy for showing documents in a meeting or reusing slides from a PDF.
• Markdown and HTML: In the save dialogue under Format → ‘Markdown’ or ‘HTML’. PDFMy recognises headings (font size, bold), paragraphs (including words hyphenated at the end of a line), bullet points and tables. Markdown is ideal for AI assistants, wikis and note-taking apps; HTML produces an accessible web page. Scanned pages are automatically recognised first (OCR).
• Highlight text: select the ‘Highlight’ tool, then drag the mouse over the words – exactly the text is highlighted, even across several lines; a click highlights a single word. Next to it, choose the colour (yellow, green, blue, pink, orange) and the style: Highlight, Underline or Strikethrough. A selected highlight can be recoloured or deleted with Del. Dragging on an empty area highlights a region (e.g. an image). All occurrences at once: Ctrl+F, enter the term, ‘Highlight all’ – every occurrence in the whole document is highlighted, including phrases such as ‘15 November’; Ctrl+Z undoes them all. Highlights from other programs: if you open a PDF that is already highlighted, PDFMy imports the highlights with comment and author – they can be recoloured and deleted (not for digitally signed PDFs, so that the signature remains valid). When saving, these become real PDF highlights: other PDF programs show them as comments with the highlighted text and can remove them.
• Search in the document: Ctrl+F opens a search bar above the page – just like in Word. It shows ‘3 of 12’; Enter or F3 jumps to the next match, Shift+Enter to the previous one, Esc closes it. The current match is highlighted in orange. For scans and photos, searching works after text recognition (OCR). To redact all matches at once: on the right under ‘Search in document’.
• Find & replace: In the search bar, click Replace …, enter the new text and choose Replace (current match, Enter) or Replace all (Ctrl+Enter). Each affected line is replaced faithfully, as with ‘Change text’ – same font, colour and width; the old text is removed when you save. Certificates, references and official notices are skipped; in bank statements and invoices, the changes are visibly marked. Undo with Ctrl+Z – even ‘Replace all’ across many pages in a single step.
• Document properties: More → Document properties (Ctrl+D) shows title, author, subject, keywords as well as PDF version, page size, creation date, producer application and password protection. You can change title, author, subject and keywords – they are written into the PDF when you save. Tip: good keywords make PDFs quick to find in Windows Search and in Finder. The properties of an opened PDF are preserved when saving.
• Contents and bookmarks: The ‘Contents’ button (key I) shows all chapters of the PDF; a click jumps there. Ctrl+B creates a bookmark for the current page; PDFMy suggests the first line of text as its name. Rename with ✎, indent as a sub-item with ⇥, delete with ✕. Bookmarks are written into the PDF when you save and appear as a table of contents in PDF programs and browsers. When merging, PDFMy automatically creates a bookmark for each file.
• Scrolling: Use the mouse wheel to scroll through the whole document, just like in Word; ‘Page X of Y’ is shown at the bottom left – clicking it (or Ctrl+G) jumps to a page. The left and right panels can be collapsed with [ and ].
• Several documents: ‘Add’ appends further files to the open document, ‘New tab’ opens another document alongside – a tab bar appears at the top, and a click switches between the documents. If you open a file while a document is already open, PDFMy asks whether it should be added, opened in a new tab or replace the current one.
• Print: ‘Print’ button in the toolbar (or Ctrl+P): all pages, this page or specific pages such as ‘1-3, 5’ – optionally 2 or 4 pages per sheet or as a booklet.
• Present: F5 shows the pages full-screen; move on with the arrow keys or a presenter remote.
• Read aloud: The recognised text is read aloud with a voice from your device – without an online service.
• Reading mode (comfortable reading on your phone): … More → Reading mode or under ‘Recognised text’. The text is reflowed – no more zooming and scrolling sideways. Paragraphs, headings and lists are kept, and words hyphenated at the end of a line are joined up again. A−/A+ change the text size (remembered), ‘Jump to’ takes you to pages and headings. For scans, the text appears after text recognition.
• Save accessible and as PDF/A (long-term archive) – check in the Pre-send check (see below).
• Check before sending (pre-send check): tile ‘Check PDF before sending’ or … More → Pre-send check …. Choose the recipient: beA / court (German e-filing rules ERVB 2025: no JavaScript, no attachments, printable, permitted file name, at most 200 MB), ePA (electronic patient record: PDF/A, at most 25 MB), Accessible (BITV 2.0 / PDF/UA: tags, language, title, headings, table header cells, alternative texts), Archive (GoBD) (German bookkeeping rules: PDF/A, unencrypted, text recognised) or PDF/A – all check items (identifier, colour profile, fonts, scripts, encryption, comments, compression, transparency, attachments, title – each item individually). The file is checked as it would be saved. ✓ means met, ✗ error, i note. ‘Fix automatically’ chooses the right way to save (beA-compliant, PDF/A ‘Small’, make accessible, PDF/A). ‘Save report as PDF’ saves a check report with date, result and SHA-256 fingerprint of the checked file – as proof for the case file or the process documentation. It is a quick check of the most common rejection reasons; it does not replace a full validation.
• Make PDF accessible (PDF/UA): tile ‘Make PDF accessible’ or … More → Make PDF accessible …, then ‘Save’. PDFMy recognises – even in scans – headings, paragraphs, lists and tables and tags them so that screen readers read them out correctly and you can jump between them: headings as level 1 and 2, lists with list items, tables with a header row. Headers, footers and page numbers are hidden (otherwise the screen reader would read them out on every page) but remain searchable. A table of contents (bookmarks) is created from the headings; title and document language are set. The file is saved as PDF/UA-1, also PDF/A. PDFMy then checks the finished file and shows the result, e.g. ‘8 of 8 points met · detected: 4 heading(s), 1 table(s)’. Helpful since the German Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG). Describe images: beforehand, PDFMy looks for photos, logos and graphics on every page and shows them in a window – there you briefly enter what can be seen (e.g. ‘Site plan of the property’; for a logo PDFMy suggests the sender), or tick ‘Decoration only – do not read out’. The screen reader reads described images out at the point where they appear on the page. The check report also shows whether headings are tagged and whether tables have header cells. Limitations: PDFMy does not write a description itself (that would only be reliable with cloud AI); for publications we recommend a spot check with a screen reader.
• Check PDF/A: … More → Pre-send check …, recipient ‘PDF/A – all check items’ shows whether the PDF meets the most important rules for long-term archiving – PDF/A identifier, embedded colour profile, all fonts embedded, no encryption, no scripts or forbidden actions, printable comments, no LZW compression. These are the most common reasons why courts (beA), authorities and archives reject files. ‘Fix automatically’ saves as PDF/A and checks the saved file again straight away: the result is a valid PDF/A-2b and accessible at the same time. The quick check does not replace a full validation.

Signing and digital signatures

Signature, initials and company stamp

One click on the ‘Signature’ tool opens the selection with your saved signatures as images (signature, initials, company stamp). Click one of them – it then sticks to the mouse pointer – and click or tap the desired place in the document. In the selection, under ‘Add’, you choose whether only the date or place and date should appear automatically below the signature (e.g. ‘Paderborn, 17.10.2026’) – PDFMy remembers your choice and the place; the text can be moved, changed or deleted like any other. Nothing created yet? In the selection, click ‘Create signature’ – three ways:

• Draw with a mouse, finger or pen (smoothed lines, ‘Undo last stroke’). On a phone, hold it sideways.
• Type: Enter your name and choose one of five handwriting styles.
• Upload image: on the desktop, via the ‘Upload image …’ button in the toolbar, by dragging an image file into the signature window, or with Ctrl+V (e.g. a snip from the Snipping Tool) – a photo or scan of your signature on paper (on the phone, directly ‘Take photo’), a stamp or a logo. PDFMy removes the background automatically – the paper becomes transparent – and crops it. For coloured stamps and logos, choose ‘Keep original colours’.

Colour: black, blue or dark blue. At the top, choose what you are creating: Signature, Initials (paraph) or Company stamp / logo – all three can be saved separately and selected in the toolbar. ‘Initials on all pages’ places your initials at the bottom right of every page with one click, as is usual with contracts. Once created, the signature sticks semi-transparently to the mouse pointer – simply click the desired place (tap it on a phone); Esc cancels. Move it by dragging, resize it with the handle at the bottom right, delete it with Del. Signature, initials and stamp are remembered on this device (switched on by default, only in your browser – nothing is uploaded); in the signature window you can see what is saved and delete it.

Find signature places automatically

With the ‘Signature’ tool, PDFMy searches the whole document for places such as ‘Signature …’, ‘Signatory’, ‘Place’, ‘Date’ or ‘Place, date’ – with a line next to, above or below them, even if the line is drawn and the label is underneath. Yellow labels ‘✍ Sign here’ or blue ones ‘📅 Insert date’ and ‘📍 Insert place’ appear there – one click places your signature neatly on the line (without overlapping the text above), the date or your place (the first time, PDFMy asks for the place and remembers it). ‘Next spot’ in the toolbar jumps through all remaining places so that none is forgotten in long contracts. For scans, this works after text recognition.

Send for signature (several people)

How to have a document signed by others – no server and no upload, similar to DocuSign:

1. ‘… More → Office → Send for signature …’: enter the names and email addresses of the people in the desired order, plus your own address for the reply and, if required, a deadline. If you have saved a template, select it at the top – people, fields, message and deadline are applied.
2. PDFMy already suggests fields at detected spots such as ‘Signature …’ or ‘Place, date’ – clicking the name in a field assigns it to another person. More fields: choose ‘Field type’ at the top (Signature, Initials, Date, Name, Text, Checkbox), then click the person’s name and the spot. PDFMy fills in the date and name itself when signing; text fields (e.g. address) must be filled in by the person beforehand. Remove incorrect fields with ‘✕’. For recurring documents (tenancy agreement, employment contract …): ‘Save as template …’.
3. ‘Send …’: PDFMy prepares the email with the PDF to the first person (open the .eml file and send it). With a filing folder, a copy is filed, and the post log shows the status.
4. The person opens the PDF on pdfmy.de, clicks ‘Sign here’ in their highlighted field and then ‘Signed – forward’. The email to the next person is prepared, with a copy to you.
5. Without PDFMy: The person’s fields are real PDF form fields in the file – they can also fill in and sign in Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview on the Mac or Edge (e.g. with ‘Fill & Sign’), save and send the PDF back to you. When you open it in PDFMy, PDFMy takes over the entries and recognises the signature: ‘Accept as signed …’ (otherwise ‘Signed in another program …’) – then the email goes to the next person. The audit trail states ‘Signed in another PDF program’.
6. Anyone who does not want to sign clicks ‘Decline …’ and can give a reason – you receive it by prepared email, and the request is then ended.
7. After the last signature, the PDF comes back to you, with an attached ‘Audit trail’ page (people, times, details, checksums, sequence). When it is opened, PDFMy shows ‘Everyone has signed ✓’, and the post log shows ‘Done’.

In your language: PDFMy writes the e-mails to signers, reminders and the audit trail in the language you are currently using PDFMy in.

For information: In the dialogue you can enter addresses that do not sign but receive a copy of the result (e.g. tax adviser, accounts department) – on completion or decline, not at every intermediate step. They also appear in the audit trail and in the template.

Guided filling-in: The signer sees in the bar how many entries are still missing. ‘Next field →’ jumps from field to field (first to outstanding required entries), as does Enter in a text field – handy on a phone.

Bulk send to many recipients: In the ‘Send for signature’ dialogue, tick ‘Bulk send’ and enter the recipients – one line per person (Name; Email), copied from Outlook (Name <Email>) or as a CSV file from Excel (columns such as ‘Name’ or ‘First name/Last name’ and ‘Email’ are recognised). Place the signature field once, then ‘Send to … recipients’: each person receives their own copy and signs alone, e.g. consent forms, membership applications or house rules. For up to 10 recipients, PDFMy with pdfmy Scan opens the emails directly in Outlook; otherwise all drafts are saved in a ZIP file together with a recipient list. In the post log, each person is listed with their own status and ‘Remind’.

Emails straight into Outlook: With pdfmy Scan on Windows (version 1.8.8 or later), PDFMy opens prepared emails – signature requests, forwarding, reminders, ‘Share → Email’, error reports – directly as a new, ready-to-send message with attachment in your email program. Without pdfmy Scan, an .eml file is saved as before, which you open and send.

Verifiable authenticity: PDFMy appends each signature to the received file instead of rewriting it (incremental saving per the PDF standard). Each version therefore remains unchanged in the file. In the finished PDF, ‘Overview’ shows ‘✓ contained unchanged’ for each person – or a notice if the file was re-saved or modified in between (e.g. in another PDF program).

Deadline and reminder: The deadline appears in the post log and on the start page under ‘Deadlines’ (with the daily reminder, if switched on). In the row of the request, ‘Remind’ prepares a friendly reminder email to the person whose turn it is – if nobody has signed yet, with the filed PDF attached.

Sent, received, read: Under ‘Overview’, PDFMy shows the history for each person, with times: ✓ Sent (email prepared), ✓✓ Received (the PDF was opened in PDFMy), ✓✓ Read (every page was viewed) and ✍ Signed. Above it you can see who the request is waiting for, since when, how the deadline stands and who comes next.

Send via WhatsApp, Signal or Teams – with read receipt: instead of ‘Send by email’, click ‘Send via messenger’ – the share menu opens; choose WhatsApp, Signal, Teams or another program there. Once the person has looked through all pages in PDFMy, ‘Send read receipt’ appears for them: one tap sends you ‘✓✓ Read’ with a link in the same messenger. Tap the link – PDFMy notes ‘Read’ with the time in the post log. The link contains nothing from the document and is verified with a key known only to the request; PDFMy detects forged receipts. The messenger’s blue ticks only show that the message was displayed – this receipt shows that the document has been read. It deliberately does not work without the person’s involvement: that would require a server secretly keeping count.

What to do now: If a request is stuck, PDFMy suggests the next step to the sender – for example, sending a reminder if there has been no response for three days, or a quick call if someone has read the document but not signed it yet. In the post log, ‘Remind’ is then highlighted in red; PDFMy counts the reminders and shows when the last one was sent.

Without a server – how the status reaches you: ‘Received’ and ‘Read’ are stored in the PDF itself and travel with it. You see them as soon as a newer version reaches you (you are copied in every time it is forwarded). It is quicker with the read receipt: every request and reminder email asks for one – the recipient’s email program asks whether it should be sent.

Who has signed? In the post log, below the subject, you can see who has already signed and when. In the open PDF, ‘Overview’ shows each person with the time and the SHA-256 checksum of the version they received. The details travel inside the PDF as the attachment ‘pdfmy-unterschriften.json’. A drawn signature is a simple electronic signature; for greater evidential value, also digitally sign the finished document (‘Also digitally sign …’).

Verify signatures

If you open a digitally signed PDF (contract, official notice, invoice), PDFMy shows a bar above the document: green – signed by …, unchanged since signing; yellow – valid, but something was appended afterwards; red – signature invalid, e.g. because the document was altered. ‘Signature details’ shows the signatory, time, reason, place, issuer, certificate validity, timestamp and whether it is a qualified certificate (eIDAS). The check runs on your device. PDFMy does not check whether the issuer is a recognised certification authority – use the free official validation services for that, e.g. the European Commission's eIDAS signature validation (DSS) or the validation service of the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur). Important: if you save the PDF with changes, the signature is lost; the original remains valid. That is why PDFMy asks once before the first text change or cover-up in a signed PDF.

Digital signature

In the save dialogue, tick ‘Digitally sign’. With your own certificate (.p12/.pfx), PDFMy signs directly in the browser according to the European standard PAdES (ETSI EN 319 142, eIDAS); the password is never stored. Several people can sign one after another: if the next person opens the signed PDF unchanged in PDFMy, the signature bar shows ‘Co-sign’ – their signature is appended and the existing ones remain valid. On Windows, pdfmy Scan also lets you use Windows certificates and signature cards, including qualified ones – from pdfmy Scan 1.8.0 also according to PAdES (older versions sign in the previous format; pdfmy Scan reports updates itself, otherwise right-click its icon next to the clock → ‘Check for updates’).

With timestamp: When pdfmy Scan is running (version 1.9.0 or later on Windows, 1.1.9 on Mac and Linux), the ‘with timestamp’ tick box appears next to ‘Digitally sign’. An independent timestamp authority (e.g. DigiCert or Sectigo) then confirms the time of signing in accordance with RFC 3161 (PAdES B-T) – so it remains provable that the signature existed at that time, even if the certificate expires later. Only a hash of the signature is transmitted, not the document.

E-invoice

Read: Simply open ZUGFeRD PDFs and XRechnung invoices (XML) – PDFMy displays the invoice in readable form and picks up the amount, deadline and IBAN exactly.

Check: When opening an e-invoice, PDFMy checks it straight away: mandatory fields (invoice number, date, seller with VAT ID no. (USt-IdNr.) or tax number, buyer, items) and calculation rules (items, net, VAT, gross, amount due) under EN 16931, and for XRechnung also the Leitweg-ID (public-sector buyer reference), contact person and payment method. The letter details show ‘✓ checked’ or the number of errors; a click shows the details. You can check other files via More → Check e-invoice … without opening them. The full official validation with all rules is offered by the free validation tool from KoSIT.

Write: ‘Write e-invoice’ tile: outgoing invoice according to EN 16931 as a ZUGFeRD PDF or as an XRechnung (e.g. for German public authorities with a Leitweg-ID). Your company details are remembered, and missing mandatory information is reported clearly.

App and default PDF program

• Without internet (offline): Once opened with internet – whether start page, tool page or help –, PDFMy saves itself on the device (computer, mobile, tablet). ‘✓ Offline ready’ appears at the bottom right; after that, scanning, text recognition, editing, signing and saving also work without a connection. PDFMy downloads additional files such as the fonts for Word files over Wi-Fi (not over the mobile network). iPhone and iPad: Safari deletes a website’s offline storage after about 7 days without use – so add PDFMy via Share → Add to Home Screen, then it stays available offline permanently. Text recognition in a language other than German and the interface language needs internet the first time.
• Install as an app: the ‘Download app’ button at the top of PDFMy. iPhone: in Safari, Share → Add to Home Screen. Mac with Safari: File → Add to Dock.
• Phone: open a PDF in PDFMy (Android): If PDFMy is installed as an app (‘Download app’ or in Chrome ⋮ → Install app), PDFMy appears in the list when sharing: tap a PDF, photo or scan (e.g. in Gmail, WhatsApp, ‘Files’ or Downloads), Share → ‘PDFMy’. The file opens immediately in PDFMy and stays on the phone. If PDFMy was installed before, the entry appears after Chrome’s next automatic app update (usually within a few days) – immediately if you remove the app and reinstall it. Android does not allow web apps to be set as the default app for PDFs; ‘Share → PDFMy’ is the intended way.
• iPhone and iPad: Apple allows web apps neither an entry in the share menu nor assignment as the PDF program – that only works there with an app from the App Store. How to open PDFs quickly anyway: start PDFMy from the Home Screen and tap ‘Open’ – the picker shows the ‘Files’ app with iCloud Drive, downloads and attachments you have saved there (in Mail: touch and hold the attachment → Save to Files).
• Attachments from Outlook or Thunderbird: double-clicking the attachment opens it in PDFMy. Outlook stores attachments in protected or short-lived folders that the browser is not allowed to read – pdfmy Scan (Windows from 1.8.7, Mac and Linux from 1.1.7) saves the file immediately or passes it on to PDFMy; this also applies if the Chrome app ‘PDFMy’ is set as the default. Without pdfmy Scan: save the attachment in Outlook (‘Save As’) and then open it.
• Attachment won’t open? PDFMy now names the exact cause: pdfmy Scan is not running or is out of date (start or update it), Outlook has already removed the temporary copy (open the attachment again) or – on a Mac – macOS privacy protection is blocking access. On a Mac, the most reliable fix is: menu → ‘Set as default for PDFs …’ and choose ‘PDFMy (pdfmy Scan)’; Outlook then passes the file directly to PDFMy. Alternatively, allow ‘perl’ in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access. An immediate fix always works: save the attachment in Outlook with ‘Save As’ and then open it.
• Mac: open PDF attachments from Outlook directly in PDFMy – one-off setup:
  1. On pdfmy.de, click ‘Scan’ at the top and download ‘pdfmy Scan for Mac’ (or go directly to pdfmy.de/scanner.html).
  2. Open the file ‘pdfmy-Scan-Mac.command’ (right-click → Open) and let the setup run. If you already have pdfmy Scan, simply run the setup again – it brings the program up to date.
  3. When asked „Sollen PDF-Dateien künftig per Doppelklick in PDFMy geöffnet werden?“ (‘Should PDF files open in PDFMy on double-click from now on?’), click „Ja, PDFMy verwenden“ (‘Yes, use PDFMy’).
  PDF attachments from Outlook will then open directly in PDFMy on double-click. If macOS asks whether PDFMy may access data from other apps, choose ‘Allow’.
• Windows – PDFs by double-click: with pdfmy Scan, under More → Set as default for PDFs.
• Printing to PDFMy (Windows): More → Set up ‘PDFMy’ printer … (or in the pdfmy Scan icon at the bottom right) creates a printer just for you – using the PDF driver built into Windows; Windows asks for confirmation once. After that, in any program (Word, browser, inventory management …) Print → printer ‘PDFMy (your name)’: the document opens in PDFMy after a few seconds, with real, searchable text. The print files are kept in a folder that only your account can access and are deleted after 7 days – save important documents from PDFMy. Remove it via the same menu item. On terminal servers (several users at the same time) the printer is not offered. If ‘Microsoft Print to PDF’ is turned off, pdfmy Scan (version 1.10.1 or later) opens the Windows window for turning it on – check the box there and click OK.
• Open in Office program: More → Open in Office program … shows the Office programs on your computer – and what you can do with each one. You choose: ONLYOFFICE (edit PDF directly), LibreOffice or Collabora Office (Writer: as a Word document, Draw: as a drawing with largely the same layout), FreeOffice TextMaker or SoftMaker TextMaker and Apache OpenOffice Writer (as a Word document), Inkscape (as graphics – for plans, flyers, logos) or Microsoft Word (Word converts the PDF into a Word document and asks once beforehand – confirm with OK). ‘As a Word document’ means: PDFMy assembles paragraphs, headings and tables itself (as with PDF to Word) and gives this file to the program. PDFMy remembers your choice for next time. The file stays on your computer (pdfmy Scan 1.11.0 or later on Windows, 1.4.0 or later for Mac and Linux – FreeOffice, OpenOffice, Inkscape and ‘as a Word document’ from 1.12.0 or 1.5.0; stored in a local folder, not in OneDrive). Save the result in the program with ‘Save As’ to your usual location. No Office program installed? ONLYOFFICE Desktop, LibreOffice and FreeOffice are free.
• Save to cloud folder (Nextcloud, ownCloud, Seafile, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud): … More → Save to cloud folder … shows the folders of the sync programs on your computer – e.g. the folder of your Nextcloud program. A click on ‘Save’ puts the PDF there in the subfolder ‘PDFMy’; ‘Show in folder’ opens it. Uploading is then done by your own sync program – to your own storage, e.g. your company’s Nextcloud server. PDFMy itself does not connect to the cloud and needs no login details. Requires pdfmy Scan 1.12.0 (Windows) or 1.5.0 (Mac, Linux) or later. No cloud folder found? Install your provider’s sync program (e.g. Nextcloud Desktop) – or choose any folder under ‘Choose filing folder …’. On your phone: choose ‘Share …’ and your cloud storage app.
• From Office programs into PDFMy: in ONLYOFFICE, LibreOffice, Collabora Office, Word, Excel, SoftMaker, WPS or any other program, simply choose Print and pick the ‘PDFMy’ printer (on a Mac: in the print dialogue ‘PDF’ → ‘In PDFMy öffnen’) – the document opens immediately in PDFMy, with real, searchable text.
• Printing to PDFMy (Mac): pdfmy Scan for Mac (1.3.0 or later) adds ‘In PDFMy öffnen’ to the PDF menu of the print dialogue: in any program, Print → bottom left ‘PDF’ → ‘In PDFMy öffnen’. The document opens in PDFMy with its title as the file name.
• Linux – PDFs by double-click: pdfmy Scan for Linux adds ‘PDFMy’ to the applications menu and asks whether it should become the default for PDFs. Later: in the file manager, right-click a PDF → Open With → PDFMy → set as default, or in PDFMy More → Set as default for PDFs.
• Mac – PDFs by double-click: pdfmy Scan for Mac creates the ‘PDFMy’ app and asks whether it should become the default for PDFs. Later: in Finder, Get Info → Open with: PDFMy → Change All. It is best to choose the ‘PDFMy’ app from Applications (not the Chrome app of the same name). ‘Print’ in Finder sends the PDF directly to the default printer (from pdfmy Scan for Mac 1.1.6).
• Browser extension: PDFs you click in the browser open directly in PDFMy – in Chrome and Edge, on Windows and on the Mac. Go to the extension →

Languages

• Interface language: PDFMy is available in 40 languages – German, English (British and American), French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Albanian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Irish, Maltese, Icelandic, Catalan, Basque, Galician, Luxembourgish, Welsh, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. PDFMy starts in your browser's language; change it under More → Language. The translations are machine-generated – the German version is authoritative.
• All pages of pdfmy.de: Help, scanner guide, device list, tool pages, browser extension, press, accessibility, legal notice and privacy policy are also available in all 40 languages – switch at the top right of the page. Each language version has its own address for sharing, e.g. pdfmy.de/fr/hilfe.html or pdfmy.de/en-GB/pdf-verkleinern.html. The choice also applies to PDFMy and vice versa. For the legal notice and privacy policy, the German version is legally binding.
• Dates and numbers: PDFMy shows dates, times, amounts and file sizes in the format of your language (e.g. 18/10/2026 in English (UK), 10/18/2026 in English (US)). In your documents (stamps, notes, signature date, headers and footers, e-invoices) and in file names, the date remains unchanged.
• Letters in other languages: Text recognition reads German letters and detects the language of other documents by itself – all the languages listed above, including Cyrillic script (Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Belarusian) and Greek. PDFMy downloads the matching language file (1–4 MB) the first time; after that it also works offline.
• Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean: PDFMy recognises these scripts too. Arabic and Chinese letters are detected automatically; for Persian, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean and Traditional Chinese, choose the language under Settings → Scanning → Document language. The recognised text is searchable and copyable in the saved PDF (also as PDF/A), included in Word, Markdown and HTML, and can be translated. PDFMy only downloads the language data (0.4–2 MB) when it is first needed.
• Fixed document language: If you mostly receive post in another language, set it under Settings → Scanning → Document language – this saves the second pass.
• Saved PDFs carry the detected document language (important for screen readers and PDF/UA); Read aloud uses an offline voice for that language.

Law firm: beA and exhibits

• Check for beA: … More → Pre-send check … (recipient ‘beA / court’) shows whether the PDF meets the technical requirements of the German courts (Elektronischer-Rechtsverkehr-Bekanntmachung 2025, the official notice on electronic legal communication): no JavaScript, no embedded files or media, printable and not encrypted, at most 200 MB, file name of at most 90 characters using only letters (including ä, ö, ü, ß), digits, underscore and hyphen. Notes are given on non-embedded fonts and on pages without text (text recognition is recommended but not mandatory). You enter the file name directly in the check window – PDFMy suggests a permitted one and checks it as you type. If several files are open, each one is also listed individually in the result.
• Save beA-compliant: in the Pre-send check (recipient ‘beA / court’), click ‘Fix automatically’: creates a PDF/A without JavaScript and attachments under the entered (permitted) file name and checks the saved file once more. An e-invoice attachment (XML) is not included.
• Number exhibits: Open the exhibits to your brief one after the other (Add), then More → Number exhibits …. Each file becomes an exhibit – prefix letter of your choice (K, B, AS, AG, BK, BB …), starting at any number, label can be changed. PDFMy places the stamp “Anlage K 1” at the top right of the first page, creates a list of exhibits and, if required, saves each exhibit as a separate beA-compliant file with logical numbering (e.g. Anlage_K1_Kaufvertrag.pdf) – as ZIP or directly to the filing folder.
• Confidentiality: checking, conversion and numbering run entirely on your device – client documents are not uploaded.

Privacy and security

• Documents, recognised text and letter details stay on your device. No cookies, no tracking, no third-party servers. Text recognition (AI) also runs locally.
• You can delete what the browser stores (settings, search index, remembered signature …) under Settings → Delete all locally stored data.
• PDFMy is developed according to the principles of ISO 27001 and ISO 9001; PDF/A and PDF/UA are checked with veraPDF.
• Safe updates: Every new version of PDFMy is checked automatically in the browser before release and can be rolled back to the previous one straight away if there is a problem. An update re-downloads only the files that have changed – usually a few hundred KB instead of around 20 MB, which saves mobile data on the move. pdfmy Scan (from 1.13.0) installs an update only if it carries a valid digital signature from Mentor GmbH and is newer than the installed version – a planted or older file is rejected. A new version of PDFMy is never activated in the middle of your work: if a scan or another operation is running or a document is open, ‘New version available – reload now’ appears at the bottom right, and you decide when.
• pdfmy Scan only accepts jobs from PDFMy: The helper program only answers requests from pdfmy.de on your own computer – other websites can neither control it nor read anything from it, not even by detours (DNS rebinding). It only installs updates with a valid, unrevoked signature from Mentor GmbH (Paderborn) and only if the file itself really is newer (from Windows 1.14.1, Mac/Linux 1.6.1).
• Terminal servers and multiple users: If several users are signed in to one computer at the same time (Windows terminal server or Remote Desktop, Mac or Linux with several accounts), pdfmy Scan only serves the user who started it – programs of other users are rejected and cannot get at files, the log or signatures. Every user has their own pdfmy Scan; PDFMy finds it by itself, and scans and double-clicks always end up with the right person. Nothing needs to be set up for this (from Windows 1.15.0, Mac/Linux 1.7.0).
• Access statistics and download counting: We only see aggregated figures that our web host IONOS compiles from the server logs (visitors, pages viewed) – without cookies, without embedded counting services, without an identifier. When you download pdfmy Scan or the extension, PDFMy additionally requests an empty page (e.g. /download/zaehlung/windows.html) so that the download appears in these statistics. Your documents are never affected. Details: Privacy policy, section 3.
• Details: Privacy policy · Accessibility
• Open source: PDFMy is available on GitHub (haus-it/pdfmy) for further development – © Mentor GmbH, for non-commercial purposes only (PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0); commercial use only with a licence from Mentor GmbH. Anyone using the code must visibly credit www.pdfmy.de. Using pdfmy.de itself remains free for everyone. We welcome bug reports, ideas, translations and contributions.

Frequently asked questions

Keyboard shortcuts

On a Mac, ⌘ instead of Ctrl.

Get help

PDFMy is constantly being developed further. If something does not work, please report it straight away – we will fix it quickly.

• In PDFMy, click ‘Report a bug’ at the bottom right (or More → Report a problem; from this page: Report a bug). Choose ‘Error’ or ‘Suggestion for improvement’ and, if you like, answer three short questions: What did you do, what happened, what did you expect? The report contains versions, the log, program errors that occurred and – if pdfmy Scan is running (from 1.14.0, Mac/Linux 1.6.0) – the internal network address and the computer name, but no documents; file names and senders are made unrecognisable. Under ‘Report contents’ you can see everything beforehand. Nothing is sent until you click ‘Send’ in your mail program.
• When something goes wrong: If an unexpected program error occurs in PDFMy, PDFMy offers once at the top to report it – the error is then already filled in. ‘Close’ hides the notice.
• By email: wumertens@mentor-group.de
• For press and media: press page with press releases, images and contact details.