Secure PDF Tools

What you can do

• Twelve tools, one workspace

  Pick Edit PDF, Compress, Split, Merge, Convert to PDF, PDF to Images, OCR, Organize Pages, Protect, Stamp, Redact, or Sign PDFs from the Secure PDF Tools hub. Eleven of the twelve run on your own device — your file never leaves it for the work itself. Sign PDFs is a server-side signing workflow with an audit-trail (the document is stored encrypted on RCIC App while it is out for signature). A live search bar at the top of the hub helps you jump straight to the tool you need.

• Edit PDF: annotate any document, fill any form

  Drop any PDF and edit it like a professional editor. Add text (with Bold / Italic / Underline + a Helvetica / Times / Courier picker + multi-line support), draw freehand, drop rectangles / ellipses / circles / lines / highlights / whiteouts, paste images. Every annotation has resize and rotate handles you can drag in-canvas. The inspector pinned above the page lets you delete, change colour, or fine-tune any object. If the PDF carries a fillable form, Edit PDF auto-detects every field on every page and lets you fill it directly — text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns. For real-world hybrid IRCC forms like IMM 5476 (Use of Representative) and IMM 5645 (Family Information) where one PDF engine refuses, a second engine takes over so the fields still surface and still save. Dynamic-XFA forms (IMM 0008, 5257, etc.) detect at ingest and steer you to the Adobe Reader path. Files stay on your device the whole time.

• Compression that keeps your text selectable

  Our engine recompresses images in place instead of rasterizing the page, so text stays selectable and vectors, fonts, and annotations are preserved exactly. Real-world example: on a 211-page IRCC bundle the three tiers landed at 39% (Maximum), 30% (Balanced), and 25% (Quality-first); iLovePDF posted 38%, 27%, and 26% on the same file. Results vary with the contents though. On image-heavy bundles server-side tools sometimes compress further than ours, and the gap can be large in either direction depending on the file. Try a sample first if the exact output size matters for a deadline. The durable difference is privacy: your file never leaves your device.

• Split a PDF three ways

  Custom Ranges takes a typed range string (1-5, 8, 12-15, 20-) AND an iLovePDF-style visual editor with per-range From / To spinners and an Add Range button. Every N Pages chunks at a fixed interval. Visual Picker shows thumbnails of every page so you can click-select or place cut-points between groups.

• Merge PDFs and images into one PDF

  Combine up to 20 PDFs and images (JPG, PNG) into a single output PDF. Drag tiles to reorder in File Mode, or click Show pages for Page Mode (a flat grid of every page across every source — reorder, rotate, exclude, or duplicate page-by-page up to 300 pages). PDF pages copy via pdf-lib's copyPages so text stays selectable; images embed natively.

• Convert images and Word documents to PDF

  Drop JPG, PNG, TIFF (multi-page), HEIC / HEIF photos straight from your iPhone, and Word documents (.docx) onto the workspace. Pick Letter or A4 (or auto-match the image), choose Fit / Fill / Actual, set margins and a quality preset, then convert. One PDF per file, or one combined PDF, in slot order. Multi-page TIFFs become multi-page PDFs. Word documents render through Word's saved pagination hints so the page count tracks your printed view.

• PDF to Images: export pages as JPG or PNG

  The inverse of Convert to PDF. Drop a PDF and save each selected page as a JPG or PNG image file (one image per page). Useful when a portal asks for an image and won't accept a PDF, when you need a single passport page as a JPG to attach somewhere, or when you want a quick visual record of a scanned bundle. Pick the format, a resolution preset (Standard, High, or Maximum, roughly 100 / 150 / 300 DPI on letter size), a JPG quality preset, and a page range (All pages, or a typed range like 1-5, 8). Download each image, grab them all as a ZIP, or save every image to Google Drive or OneDrive as separate files in a single folder.

• OCR: make a scanned PDF searchable

  Drop a scanned PDF (image of a document, no text layer) and OCR adds a real selectable / searchable text layer underneath each page's image. The original page visuals are preserved exactly; the new layer lets Ctrl-F / Cmd-F find any word, lets you copy quotes into your notes, and lets downstream tools (IRCC portals, PDF readers) treat the file as text instead of pictures. Runs tesseract.js on your device — the PDF never reaches our servers. Best results on clear 200 / 300 DPI scans of English text; handwriting and very low-resolution scans degrade gracefully.

• Organize Pages: rotate, reorder, insert, delete

  Drop a PDF and reshape it page by page. Rotate, reorder, duplicate, exclude, or delete individual pages. Insert another PDF (its pages append at any chosen position) or a blank page (Match previous, Letter, A4, or Legal). Drag tiles to reorder, or use the per-tile arrows. Use a typed range selector (1-5, 8) to act on many pages at once. Output runs through pdf-lib's copyPages so text stays selectable and your vectors, fonts, and annotations come through untouched. Up to 300 pages per job.

• Protect: AES-256 password protection in your browser

  Drop a PDF, pick a password, and download the protected copy. Encryption runs entirely on your device via pdf-lib's encrypt method — the file never leaves your computer. The protected output requires the password to open in Adobe Reader, Preview, or any standard PDF viewer. Heads up: do not password-protect files you plan to upload to IRCC; the IRCC portal rejects protected files.

• Stamp: watermark, page numbers, headers and footers

  Add a watermark (centered diagonal, horizontal banner, or tiled) and / or header and footer text across every page. Header and footer split into six zones (top-left / center / right, bottom-left / center / right). Token expansion fills in dynamic content: {n} for the page number with an Acrobat-parity 'first page is numbered N' offset, {N} for total pages, {date} for today (EN or fr-CA format), {filename} for the source filename, and {bates} for an auto-incrementing zero-padded counter with the prefix you choose. Pick the colour, font sizes, page range, and whether stamps overlay the content or make room for it.

• Redact: mark, rasterize, verify

  Drop a PDF, click and drag to mark the text or regions you want removed. Each marked page is rasterized at 200 DPI with opaque rectangles painted over the marks; pages without marks pass through unchanged with their original text layer intact. A mandatory verification pass reloads the output and confirms no recoverable text remains under any redaction quad — if any sliver survives, Redact refuses to emit the file and tells you which page failed. Document-wide metadata (title, author, subject, keywords, producer, creator) is stripped from the output.

• Sign PDFs: multi-recipient electronic signing with audit-trail

  Upload a PDF, add up to ten recipients with name + email + an optional access code as a second factor, place signature, initials, date-signed, full-name, email, text, or checkbox fields anywhere on the page, then click Send. Recipients receive a private signing link, confirm their identity, scroll through the document, click each field to sign deliberately (Type / Draw / Upload), and submit. When everyone has signed, RCIC App generates a flattened, owner-password-protected final PDF with the audit certificate appended at the end (one file, not two) and emails it to each recipient as an attachment. Tenants can pick parallel (everyone signs in any order, the default) or sequential (one signing-order group at a time) and set auto-reminders (default 7 days × 3, configurable 1-30 days × 1-5 reminders). One-click Save to Drive sends the completed package to your linked Google Drive or OneDrive folder under 'RCIC App / Secure PDF Tools / Signed PDF files / <date>'. This is the only Secure PDF Tool that is server-side — the document is encrypted at rest on RCIC App from upload through completion, which a privacy notice on the upload form calls out.

• IRCC dynamic form detection

  Drop an IMM 0008, IMM 5257, IMM 5645, or any Adobe LiveCycle XFA dynamic form into Merge, Convert, Organize, Stamp, or Redact and the tool detects it at ingest, paints an amber warning, and walks you through the Adobe Reader flatten path (File > Print > Microsoft Print to PDF, or File > Save As Adobe PDF on Mac). This preserves both your filled-in fields and the 2D barcode IRCC scans at intake. Browser-side rasterizing would lose one or both — we don't pretend otherwise.

• Client-side processing for eleven of the twelve tools

  Edit PDF, Compress, Split, Merge, Convert to PDF, PDF to Images, OCR, Organize Pages, Protect, Stamp, and Redact all run on your own device. Verified by the network tab: zero outbound requests during the processing window. Save-to-Drive is an optional step that transits only the FINISHED output to your linked drive — never the original. Sign PDFs is the exception: a server-side signing workflow needs to be server-side to route signing requests, hold the document for a multi-day signing window, and persist a tamper-resistant audit ledger. Files are encrypted at rest with a per-tenant key throughout that window.

• One-click save to Google Drive or OneDrive

  Connect your drive in Profile once, then save Compress, Split, Merge, Convert, PDF to Images, OCR, Organize, Protect, Stamp, Redact, or completed signed packages directly to your drive. Most tools save under 'RCIC App / Secure PDF Tools / <today's date in your timezone>'; Sign PDFs uses 'RCIC App / Secure PDF Tools / Signed PDF files / <date>' so signed documents cluster cleanly. PDF to Images saves each exported image as a separate file in that folder, not bundled as a ZIP. Only the output ever transits our infrastructure briefly on its way to your drive; the original stays on your device.

• SHA-256 trust badge on every output

  Each output also carries a SHA-256 trust badge so you can verify the file you downloaded is the file we produced. Useful as an integrity check when forwarding an output through email or shared drives. The Sign PDFs completion email cites the same SHA-256 in the audit certificate, so a recipient can verify the merged signed package matches the bytes we generated.