The changes you would notice, newest first. Corrections to what a page said are listed here too, and on the About page.
- Pages checked against the tools. Every tool page, guide, recipe and comparison was read against the code that does the work, and corrected wherever it promised more than the tool does. For example: hidden rows and columns in a spreadsheet are not always left out of Excel to PDF, Flatten does not remove the text of comments, and pages you delete can still leave traces in the file. Each page now says what the tool does today.
- Bylines. Guides, answers, comparisons and recipes now say they are written with AI assistance, and link to how we write and review them.
- Tool pages. Each tool page is now the one complete guide to its job: the steps, a worked example, what to do when the result is not right, the tool’s limits, and questions written for that tool alone. The separate Help article for each tool is merged into its page, and the old address opens the tool page.
- Corrections on tool pages. These claims were corrected. The searchable PDF from OCR is a redrawn copy of the scan, not the original image left untouched. Protect’s Allow choices are permission flags stored in the file, which some PDF readers ignore, not a lock. Sign no longer says a visual signature carries much the same weight as signing a printed copy.
- Delete pages. Select all and Select none now do what they say. They were the wrong way round: Select none ticked every page for deletion and Select all cleared the ticks. Extract pages was not affected.
- Images to PDF. Fit each page to its image no longer stretches large photos. A 4032 × 3024 phone photo used to get a square page and was stretched to fill it. It now gets a page with the photo’s own proportions.
- Email attachment size limits. A new page lists the attachment limit of Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, iCloud Mail and other mail services, and of some government upload portals, each linked to the page where the provider or agency states it. A checker compares a file’s size with every limit. It reads only the file’s name and size and never opens the file.
- Redaction guide. Corrected to match the tool. It said Redact searches for terms, reads scans with OCR and asks you to confirm each match. It does none of these: you drag a box over each area yourself, so the guide now starts with finding every occurrence in your own viewer.
- About. Now explains how pages are written and checked, and what the “Reviewed” date on a page means. Guides, answers, comparisons, recipes and the upload test show a byline with that date.
- Adobe Acrobat online comparison. Now sets out what Adobe’s free online tools allow, and where they ask you to sign in or pay, quoted from Adobe’s own pages. It also corrects an earlier statement that every Adobe tool needs a sign-in before you can download.
- PowerPoint to PDF guide. Explains why slides can move or stop fitting the page when they become a PDF, and what happens to audio and video.
- Overlay. The page now says plainly that Overlay has no transparency setting, and how to make a stamp faint before you overlay it.
- Metadata guide. Answers whether you should remove metadata before publishing a PDF, and notes that metadata stored inside embedded photos is not removed.
- Compare. Answers whether two PDFs match, including the differences a text comparison cannot see.
- Redact a bank statement. This recipe now covers what to hide on a bank statement, whether the recipient will accept a redacted copy, and why drawing a black box is not redaction.
- Images to PDF. Explains why combined photos come out as pages of different sizes, and that choosing A4 or Letter makes every page match.
- Tool pages. A tool used by a workflow recipe now links to that recipe from its page.
- Compress. Now lets you choose Keep quality, Reduce or Smallest under Pictures. Keep quality is the default and re-encodes nothing. Reduce and Smallest re-encode only the pictures. The rest of the file is checked to be unchanged, and if the result is not smaller you get the lossless version instead. Pictures in signed PDFs and XFA forms are never re-encoded.
- Which online PDF tools upload your file? A measured test of well-known online PDF compressors: whether each one uploaded a test file, and how many advertising and analytics services it loaded before the visitor did anything. The method and the raw data are published with it.
- Answers to common questions. Seven new pages answer questions people ask before choosing a PDF tool.
- Every tool page. Rewritten to describe that tool’s own controls and limits, checked against the tool itself. Three claims that were not true were removed: that Word to PDF keeps tables, that the Organize PDF pages tool can add blank pages and import other PDFs, and that Crop takes typed edge values.
- Page numbers. The Prefix box now works: “Page” prints as “Page 1”, “Page 2” and so on. Before, the prefix was silently left out. A prefix in a non-Latin script is refused, with a pointer to Header, footer & Bates, which handles any script.
- Redaction guide. Now cites two documented cases where a blacked-out document was read anyway, with sources.
- Scan to PDF. The two review images now have text descriptions for screen readers.
- PDF to PNG. Has its own page. The converter has always been able to save pages as PNG.
- Six new workflow recipes. Each takes one file through several tools without choosing it again, and ends with a finished file.
- Five more comparisons. Each quotes the other service’s own pages, lists the tools Filozy does not have, and says when the other service is the better choice.
- Processing receipt. Now also reports what the browser itself logged while your file was being processed, such as “0 network requests during the job”. On a tool’s first run it counts the requests for the site’s own engine files instead of hiding them.
- Home page. Links straight to Merge, PDF to Word, Edit, Images to PDF and Compress, and leads with the promise that nothing is uploaded.
- About. Now says who runs Filozy, how it is paid for, and why the code is not public.
- Check that nothing is uploaded. Three checks you can run yourself, including one with the internet switched off, with what each one does and does not prove.
- Processing receipt. Now reads, for example, “1 page · 16ms · 0 document bytes sent”. It names which bytes it counts, and no longer says “1 pages”.
- WebP to PDF. Has its own page. Images to PDF has always accepted WebP pictures.
- Tool pages. Show every question and answer written for the tool, not just the first two.
- Three comparisons. Each is sourced from the other service’s own pages, and says where it is the better choice.
- Sign and Edit. A bigger signature pad, with a Larger drawing area button. Pinch with two fingers to zoom and move the page on a touch screen. Selection is simpler: four corner handles, a rotation handle, and Smaller, Larger, rotate by 15° and Straighten buttons.
- Tool workspaces. One strip shows the file name and size. Optional settings are tucked away, while required ones stay visible. The progress bar shows real progress. Adjust settings takes you back from the results without losing them. Split by size or bookmark remembers page-count and size values separately and accepts MB, KB or bytes.
- Guides for every tool. Ten new guides cover the last fourteen tools that did not have one.
- PNG to PDF. Has its own page. Images to PDF has always accepted PNG pictures.
- Protect. Asks for the password twice, shows whether the two match as you type, and will not encrypt if they differ. A mistyped password would otherwise lock the file for good.
- OCR. Choose a page range instead of recognising the whole document.
- Edit. A redesigned workspace. Place a text box and type straight onto the page. New boxes start empty, and empty boxes are left out of the saved file. Resizing a box changes its width, not the size of the letters.
- Editing handles. Round handles that fade after ten seconds without use and come back when you hover or touch.
- Results with several files. Save all (ZIP), Share all, and Open all in one viewer tab.
- Compress. Choose Maximum, Balanced or Minimal compression.
- Split. Higher-contrast scissors between pages.
- Four new guides. On combining photos, PDF tables to spreadsheets, PDFs that will not open, and exporting pages as images.
Filozy launches
- Launch. Filozy goes live with 39 PDF tools that run in your browser, with no upload and no account.
- Saving finished files. Rename, Download, Open, and Share or save through your device’s share menu, with plain messages about where the file went.
- Compress. Shrinks embedded fonts, checking every page after the change, and takes an optional target size.
- Forms in page tools. Merge, Split and the other page tools stop and explain when a PDF has fillable form fields they cannot copy safely, and suggest flattening it first, instead of producing a copy with broken fields.
- Privacy policy and terms. Clarified: who operates Filozy, your responsibilities for the documents you open, and the legal rights you keep.
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