Easily Split and Merge Your PDF Files

very good
key review info
application features
  • Merge multiple PDF files
  • (1 more, see all...)

PDF files… can't live with them, can't live without them. The PDF file format is, in my opinion, one of the best there are on the market. You can scan books or other materials and save them as PDF, it allows you to insert pictures, drawings, etc. and can also contain customized display settings, including page display layout and zoom level.

However, all these features have a price and that is the size of the output file and the loading time. But we already know that quality does not come for free, and for those who want to split very large PDF files in individual pages or merge them into a bigger file, there is a simple solution designed to do just that.

Gios PDF Splitter And Merger is a small application that allows you to split your PDF files into single page ones or merge multiple PDF files. The software is released under the LGPL license, which means you can use it for free for as long as you want, without any limitations, and it is also portable, meaning you don't have to install it and you can take it wherever you go on a flash drive.

The graphical user interface of the app is as simple as it gets, though it looks a little oldish, but we have to focus on the functionality of the application and not on its looks, since here you can find all the options and features without surfing through bulky menus. Leaving the retro looks of the software aside, the easy-to-use interface is designed for any category of users, and knowing a little English is enough to make your way through the options. The main application window is divided into two major panels, each of them almost equally important in terms of the tasks it will perform.

The left panel of Gios PDF Splitter And Merger allows you to adjust the Project Settings and permits you to browse through the files and folders of your computer or drag and drop the files you want to process. You can choose the target location for the output files and enable / disable some of the offered features.

“Always ask destination file” tickbox enables the application to ask you every time a destination file is chosen. By default the program prompts you every time it's going to overwrite the destination file; that can be changed by ticking the Overwrite destination file without prompt checkbox. You can also choose to open the newly created files with the default reader by checking the Open with default reader after creation box.

The lower part of the left window of Gios PDF Splitter And Merger allows you to view the PDF files added to queue. You can easily change their order by pressing the UP and DN buttons or remove the ones you do not want to process by pushing the X button, on the right of this window. Also, if you want to merge or split only some of the queued files you can do that by selecting/deselecting them with a push of a button on the box left of each entry.

The right panel of Gios PDF Splitter And Merger allows you to view and edit the selected Element Settings. It displays the file path, a shortcut that allows you to view the selected file with your default reader or image viewer and enables you to choose to Include this element in the merge or not by simply ticking the assigned checkbox.

In this window you can also view the number of pages in the selected PDF document or preview of the selected image. You can choose to include all pages in your conversion process or only a handful, whichever suits you best.

The splitting and merging of the files is done very quickly just by pressing the Merge PDF! and Split into single page files! buttons from the status bar on top of the two panels. The splitting process is done very quickly and preserves the quality of the PDF or image files selected. As for the merging operation, Gios PDF Splitter And Merger makes it very fast and easily merges the selected files with no loss in quality.


The Good

Gios PDF Splitter And Merger is a small, easy-to-use and portable application that helps you quickly split or merge your PDF and image files, either into individual pages or multiple batches of pages, as needed.

The Bad

Apart from the retro look of the interface, Gios PDF Splitter And Merger uses too many system resources even when idle (60-70 MB of RAM), and during the conversion process the CPU values climb to 30-40%, a bit high for this kind of application (tested on Athlon 3000+ with 1 GB RAM).

Some good additions would be the possibility to automatically sort your documents, preview window for the PDF files, select / deselect all, which can come in handy when converting a large number of files, as well as the possibility to split various page ranges.

The Truth

Gios PDF Splitter And Merger is a handy tool that helps you merge or split your PDF and image files quickly and with little effort. It's a bit stressful on your system resources and surely needs some improvement but all in all it does a great job an it's worth a try.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:  

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user interface 3
features 3
ease of use 5
pricing / value 4


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good