How to combine multiple PDFs in macOS using Preview

Preview is the built-in image and PDF viewer application of macOS. Whenever you open an image or PDF, MacOS will open it in Preview until you have manually changed the default application. It is worth noting that Preview is not just a simple application to check the preview of images or PDF files. It is really powerful and can be used for editing and file conversion purposes. In this article, I will explain how you have merge PDF files on Mac using the Preview. That means you do not need to download a separate app for merging PDFs in Mac.

Also see: Convert HEIC Files to JPG Using Preview on Mac

Merge PDFs in macOS using Preview

In this article, I will discuss two different methods of merging PDF files using the Preview app in macOS.

Method 1

First of all, open one of the PDFs you want to merge together in the Preview app. Now Click on View and select Thumbnails.

It will start showing the thumbnail of PDF pages at the left sidebar. Here’s a preview of what Thumbnails look like in the PDF file after you enable it.

Now open another PDF file that you want to merge in different Preview and also enable the Thumbnails in that.

Now you need to drag the thumbnail of the second PDF file into the sidebar of the first PDF file and it will create another thumbnail in the sidebar of the first one. If you want to change the order of pages, you can drag the thumbnails.

Now you just have to save the new PDF to merge both of them together. It will merge the PDF pages as per the order they were in.

Method 2

This method also uses the Preview app of the Mac. Open the PDF file. Click on Edit and then take mouse over to Inset option. Here select page from file.

Now select the PDF file that you want to merge and it will open both PDF files in the same Preview window with thumbnails on the left side.

Now you just need to save the new PDF file and it will merge both into one.

Final Words

Now you know that there is no need to download an app to merge PDF files in macOS. The Preview app is powerful enough to do this task for you. So, next time when you have a task to merge PDF files, you just need the Preview app and it will perform your task.

The Preview app of the macOS is powerful enough to perform several tasks like image editing, image conversion, image annotation, image resize and more. I use this one for all these tasks.