What it does
PDFsam's desktop family includes Basic for splitting and merging, Visual for thumbnail-based processing, and Enhanced for full editing. Basic is free and open source.
PDFsam Basic's Mix operation alternates pages from two files, useful after scanning the front and back of a stack separately with a single-sided scanner. Basic also merges, splits, extracts and rotates pages offline on Windows, Mac and Linux, without signup. Visual adds thumbnail-based page tools and a fourteen-day trial. Enhanced is the Windows full editor; its free viewing/creation requires registration, and paid access adds full editing. Basic's free status therefore does not cover every edition.
Strengths
- Alternating-page mixing addresses two-pass scanning workflows.
Watch out for
- Full content editing is outside the Basic edition.
Best for
- Combining front-side and back-side document scans
Sources
- Split and merge PDF files. Free and open source - PDFsam (Oct 26, 2026)