How to combine PDFs for a court filing

Combining court exhibits at a glance

Your court’s rule	What it means	What to do
Exhibits may share a PDF with the main document	One file for the document and its exhibits, under the size limit	Combine them in order
Each exhibit is its own PDF	The main document and every exhibit are separate attachments	Don’t combine them; file each exhibit as its own attachment
The combined PDF is over a federal court’s maximum file size	CM/ECF rejects the PDF	See “What if the combined PDF is too large?” below

Can you combine exhibits into one PDF?

Combining exhibits into one PDF is allowed at some courts and not at others, so read your court’s e-filing rules first. Guidance posted by four courts, read on November 12, 2026:

Court	Exhibits in one PDF?
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California	May share a PDF with the main document, or be filed separately if the file would exceed 50 MB
U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana (training module, July 1, 2020)	Exhibits under 25 MB in total can be one PDF; over 25 MB, they must be filed individually or in groups
Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco	The filer’s choice for a declaration; one document for a proposed order, stipulation and order, judgment or verdict
U.S. District Court, Western District of Kentucky	No. Each exhibit must be its own PDF, at most 75 MB

In one example from the Northern District of California, a 500 KB complaint has 2 MB of exhibits, and the court recommends combining them into one PDF.

How to combine PDFs here

FairFill PDF combines PDFs in your browser, in the order you set, with slip sheets you type yourself.

1. Open the main document with the button above. Your PDFs are never uploaded.
2. Place the $1.99 hold. Nothing is charged until you download, and the hold is released if you don’t download within 24 hours.
3. Press Add files and pick the exhibit PDFs. You can pick several at once, and they go after the last page.
4. Put the pages in order. In the page side bar, drag a page, or press its up and down arrows.
5. For a slip sheet, press the ⋯ button on the page just before an exhibit and choose Add a blank page after.
6. Choose Text, click the blank page, and type the exhibit’s name, such as Exhibit A. Do the same before each exhibit.
7. Press Download, then the Download button in the window that opens. We charge the $1.99 then, and your browser saves one combined PDF.

You can also open the merge PDF files tool directly.

What goes on a slip sheet?

The San Francisco Superior Court requires slip sheets, used as exhibit tabs, wherever exhibits share one document with a declaration or with each other. It describes them as pages where the only words printed are “Exhibit A,” “Exhibit B” and so on. That court doesn’t allow blank pages as slip sheets.

At that court, when you upload a group of exhibits as one document, you must add a caption page with a specific title. The court’s example is “Exhibits A-E to Declaration of Joe Smith in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment.”

Do court exhibits need bookmarks?

Some courts require bookmarks in electronic exhibits. The Judicial Council of California sets the format of motion papers in California Rule of Court 3.1110. Under that rule, a party other than a self-represented party must include bookmarks to the first page of each exhibit. The filer must also provide an index of exhibits that briefly describes each exhibit and gives its number or letter and page number.

FairFill PDF can’t add bookmarks, and bookmarks in PDFs added with Add files aren’t kept.

What if the combined PDF is too large?

Each federal court sets its own maximum PDF size in CM/ECF, the federal e-filing system, and the system rejects a larger PDF. FairFill PDF doesn’t show a file’s size and can’t make a PDF smaller, so check the saved file’s size on your device. To file a larger PDF, split it into parts. See what is the CM/ECF file size limit for the limits at five courts and the steps.