Court Filing PDF Preparer (e-Filing Ready)

About the Court Filing PDF Preparer (e-Filing Ready)

A registry or an e-filing portal wants a filing as one tidy PDF: the documents in the order of the index, on A4 pages, numbered from the first to the last, with an index that gives the pages of every document, a bookmark for every annexure, and small enough to upload. This tool builds it on your own device from the files you give it, PDFs and JPEG or PNG scans. You put the documents in order and type the particulars of each as they should read in the index. It makes the index page (with the lines you type above it: the court, the case number, the parties), places pages that are not A4 on A4 pages, numbers every page, adds a bookmark for the index and for each document, and can make scanned pages searchable with text recognition. Type the size limit of the portal you file on: the pictures of scanned pages are re-encoded only as far as the limit needs and, if the filing is still over, it is cut into volumes at the ends of documents. A DOCX of the index comes with it, to edit or attach.

It never changes what a document says. Pages are copied, not redrawn; a page that is not A4 is scaled as a whole and never cropped; text recognition adds an invisible text layer; page numbers, bookmarks and the index are added. No court’s limits or formats are built in: every setting is yours, because each court publishes its own rules. The free preview prepares the whole filing and shows its index and first pages as marked page images; a Pro pass unlocks the PDF files and the DOCX index.

Common uses

• Advocates and their clerks who assemble a petition and its annexures into the single PDF a portal asks for.
• Litigants in person who have a pile of scans and need an index, page numbers and bookmarks.
• Law firms that paginate a bundle of documents for a hearing or a regulator.
• Anyone who must keep a set of PDFs under the size limit of an upload form without losing their order.

What it does to your documents, and what it never does

The documents are put in order with the same engine as the PDF Merge tool: pages are copied with their links and form fields, links to pages that are not in the filing are removed, and the text of every page stays text. A page that is not A4 is placed on an A4 page by moving and scaling its own content, clipped to the area the page showed, so nothing that was cut out of view comes back into view. A JPEG photo of a paper carries in its EXIF tag the way a phone was held; the page follows it, so a document photographed upright is an upright page whatever way round its pixels are stored. Page numbers are drawn over the pages (the layout of the Add Page Numbers tool, rotated pages included), and the bookmarks and the index are new. Digital signatures cannot survive any rewrite of a PDF: the page says when it removed one, and you sign the filing after it is prepared. Original bookmarks inside the documents are not carried into the filing; the filing has its own, one for each document.

The index and the page numbers

The index has a row for each document: its number, the particulars you typed, its annexure label (pleadings have none) and its pages. The pages are the numbers printed on them, or, if you choose no page numbers, their positions in the PDF. Three ways of numbering are offered: the index in small Roman numerals (i, ii) and the documents from 1, which is how many registries want it; every page in one run, the index included; or none. The number can read “1”, “Page 1”, “Page 1 of 41”, “1 of 41”, “1/41” or “– 1 –”, at the foot or the head of the page, left, centre or right, in the size you choose. The lines above the index are yours: nothing about a court is filled in.

Size limits, compression and volumes

Each court and portal sets its own limits for the size of a file, the number of files and the page size, and they change. Read the current rules of the one you file on, for example the Supreme Court of India’s e-filing resources or eCourts e-filing, and type the limit here; none is preset. When the PDF is over it, the tool uses the search of the Compress PDF to Size tool: the pictures of scanned pages are re-encoded, starting with the gentlest settings and stopping at the first that fits; text and drawings are never changed. The more it has to compress, the softer scanned pages look, so zoom in on a few pages before you file. If the filing is still over, it is cut into volumes: the tool makes each volume and measures it, ending volumes at the end of a document where that keeps at least half of what fits. A single page larger than the limit cannot be cut and is reported.

Text recognition on scanned pages

A scanned page is a picture, so a search of the PDF finds nothing on it. With text recognition on, each page that has no text is read with the OCR engine of this site and given an invisible text layer in the language you choose (English, Hindi and the other languages the engine offers), so the words can be searched and copied. Pages that already have text are not touched. It runs on this device, takes a few seconds for each scanned page, and downloads the recognition data of the language once. Recognition is not perfect, especially on poor scans and handwriting: the layer helps a search, it is not a transcript, and the picture is what the court reads.

Your documents stay on this device

The files are read in your browser and the filing is made there. Nothing is uploaded. The PDF engine, the fonts and, if you use text recognition, the recognition engine are files of this site, downloaded when first needed. Your settings (not the lines above the index, the file name or the documents) are remembered in this browser; the filing and the documents are not stored.

Limitations

• No court presets: page sizes, file-size limits, the number of files and naming rules differ by court and change, so every limit is typed by you. The page does not check a filing against any court’s rules.
• PDFs that need a password to open must be unlocked first. Word and other files must be saved as PDF first; JPEG and PNG scans are accepted, other picture formats are not.
• Digital signatures on the documents do not survive merging; sign the filing after it is prepared. Original bookmarks inside the documents are not carried over.
• Re-encoding scanned pictures to fit a limit makes them softer; a filing that is far over the limit may not fit without cutting it into volumes. A single page larger than the limit cannot be cut.
• Up to 100 files, 200 MB each, 600 MB together and 5,000 pages. Text recognition is slow on large scans and is not a transcript.

Privacy

On this device; its files download once

Your documents are read and the filing is made in your browser, on your device. Nothing is uploaded. Your settings, except the lines above the index and the file name, are remembered in this browser until you clear it.

Open-source components

This page can load these open-source components, each only when a task needs it:

• It uses libheif and libde265 under the LGPL v3, through heic-to: licence and source code.

You may replace them with your own builds. Their licences and the credits of every library the site uses are on the open-source credits page.