Ledge

How to combine several images into one PDF on a Mac

· 6 min read

Select the images in Finder, Control-click one of them and choose Quick Actions > Create PDF. macOS writes a single PDF into the same folder, one image per page, and leaves the originals alone. There is nothing to install. The parts that take some care are the page order and getting images that live in different places into one selection.

Create the PDF from Finder

  1. Open the folder that holds the images.
  2. Select the ones you want. Apple’s guidance is that the pages appear in the order you select the files, so if order matters, click the first image and then Command-click the others one at a time in sequence.
  3. Control-click any of the selected images and choose Quick Actions > Create PDF.
  4. A new PDF appears in the same folder with a name similar to the first file you selected. Rename it to something the recipient will recognize.

There is a second place to find the same command. Choose View > Show Preview in Finder and a pane opens on the right side of the window. With several images selected, a Create PDF button sits at the bottom of that pane.

The quick action is not limited to pictures. If the selection includes existing PDFs, their pages are included too, which is useful when one page of a set arrived as a PDF and the rest as photos.

If Create PDF is not in the menu, choose Quick Actions > Customize and tick Create PDF in the list that opens. It also disappears when the selection includes something it cannot use, such as a folder or a text document.

Get the pages in the right order

Order is where most attempts go wrong. Three habits help.

  • Select deliberately. Command-clicking in sequence is the surest way. If you select a run of files with Shift-click or by dragging a box around them, the order usually follows how the window is sorted, so sort the window the way you want the pages first with View > Sort By.
  • Number the files. Names such as 01-cover, 02-receipt and 03-statement sort correctly in every view and make the order obvious at a glance. How to rename a batch of files on a Mac before you send them shows how to do that in one step.
  • Fix it afterward. You do not have to start over if a page lands in the wrong spot. Open the PDF in Preview, choose View > Thumbnails and drag the pages up or down in the sidebar. Select a page and press Delete to remove it.

Use Preview when you want paper-sized pages

The Finder route is the fastest way to end up with one file. Preview takes a little longer and gives you a document laid out for printing.

  1. Select the images in Finder, Control-click and choose Open With > Preview. They open together in one window with thumbnails down the side. If each opens in a window of its own, go to Preview > Settings > Images and choose the option to open all files in one window, then try again.
  2. Drag the thumbnails into the order you want.
  3. Click any thumbnail and press Command-A to select them all.
  4. Choose File > Print. Check the orientation and how each image is scaled on the page.
  5. Open the PDF menu at the bottom of the print dialog and choose Save as PDF. Give the file a name and save it.

Every image is fitted onto a page of the paper size you picked. That is the right result for something that will be printed or filed alongside other letter-sized documents. For a different goal, printing the images themselves on paper, see how to print several files at once on a Mac.

Gather images from different folders first

Create PDF works on one selection, and a Finder selection lives in one window. Real sets of images are rarely that tidy. The scans are in Downloads, two screenshots are on the desktop, a photo came in through a message and one picture is still on a web page.

The built-in answer is a working folder. Make a new folder, then drag each image into it from wherever it is. That works, but every trip needs the source and the working folder visible at the same time, and you rearrange windows once per image. Remember that dragging within the same disk moves a file; hold Option as you drop if you want a copy.

Ledge removes the window arranging. As you find each image, drag it up to the notch at the top of the screen and let go. It lands on a shelf that drops from the notch and stays there, so you can collect from several apps and folders without keeping any particular window open. When the set is complete, open the working folder in Finder, open the shelf with Option-Space or a click on the notch, and drag the images onto the folder window. Then select them and run Create PDF as above.

A detail worth knowing before you drop: on a Finder window, the shelf hands over the file itself, so the images move into the working folder. If an original needs to stay where it was, duplicate it first with Command-D and stage the duplicate.

The finished PDF can take the same route out. Drag it up to the notch, switch to the app that is waiting for it and drag it off. Dropped on a chat app, it uploads. Dropped on a Finder window, it moves into that folder. For email, how to attach a file to an email in one drag covers the details.

To be plain about the limits: Ledge does not create, merge or edit PDFs, and it does not read or index your images. The combining is done by macOS. What the shelf adds is a place for the pictures to wait while you track down the rest, with no account and no cloud involved, which matters when the images are receipts, IDs or signed forms.

Keep the file size reasonable

Photos from a phone camera are large, and a PDF made from twenty of them can be too heavy to email. Two built-in fixes:

  • Shrink the images first. Select them in Finder, Control-click and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image. Pick a smaller Image Size and macOS writes resized copies next to the originals. Build the PDF from the copies.
  • Shrink the PDF afterward. Open it in Preview, choose File > Export, and set Quartz Filter to Reduce File Size. Save under a new name and look at the result before you send it, because fine print can come out soft.

Questions

Does Create PDF delete or change the original images?

No. It writes a new PDF and leaves every image exactly as it was. You can delete the originals yourself once you have checked the PDF.

Can I add another image to the PDF later?

Yes. Turn the new image into its own PDF with Create PDF. Open both PDFs in Preview with View > Thumbnails showing, then drag the new page from one sidebar into the other at the spot where it belongs.

Why are my pages in the wrong order?

The pages follow the selection, not what you had in mind. Reorder them in Preview’s thumbnail sidebar, or delete the PDF, number the image files and create it again.