PDF Studio
Every PDF tool your practice needs — and the files never leave your browser
Combine, reorder, compress, redact, sign and protect PDFs and images in a full-screen workbench inside Lexova. Files are opened and exported in your browser: nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and nothing touches a case.
Every immigration file ends in PDFs: a phone photo of a passport that has to become a page, six bank statements that have to become one file, a scan three times too heavy for the portal. Most practitioners get through it with a separate PDF subscription — or by dropping a client's documents on an online PDF site. PDF Studio is a full-screen workbench that opens from your Lexova dashboard. You drop the files once, do everything in one pass, and export. The work happens on your own device: the documents are not sent to Lexova or to anyone else, and the session is separate from your cases, so it works on any document, related to a case or not.
How it works
Drop the files once
PDFs, JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, multi-page TIFF and iPhone photos (HEIC/HEIF) open as page thumbnails, grouped by document. Up to 150 MB per file, and 400 MB and 2,000 pages per session.
Put every page where it belongs
Drag pages within a document or from one document to another, turn the sideways scan upright, delete the blank page, duplicate, split or extract — with undo and redo. Open a page to add text, a signature, a highlight, a whiteout or a redaction.
Export what the portal accepts
One PDF under the 4 MB upload limit with “Prepare for IRCC upload”, or your own choice: balanced or strong compression, a target size, page numbers, a watermark, a password, one file per document, or every page saved as a JPG or PNG image.
Why it matters
Client documents stay on your device
PDFs and images are opened, reorganized, edited and exported inside your browser. They are not uploaded, and Lexova never stores them.
One session, every tool
Combine, organize, split, compress, convert to PDF, edit, redact, number, watermark, protect and unlock without adding the files again between tools — and without a separate PDF subscription.
Built for the IRCC upload
One task produces a single PDF compressed to fit under the 4 MB online upload limit, with the document properties removed — and shows you the size before you download it.
Separate from your cases
Nothing in the studio is added to a case, a client portal or an export. Closing or reloading the tab clears the session.
Redaction that really removes
Open any page and the editor gives you text, a typed or drawn signature, an image, a highlighter, a rectangle, freehand drawing, check and cross marks, a whiteout — and the Redact tool, which says what it does before you export: everything under the box is permanently removed, and the page becomes an image in the exported file. A black rectangle drawn on top of a PDF leaves the text underneath in the file, where it can still be selected and copied; here the page is rebuilt with the box painted in, so what was under it no longer exists. The whiteout only covers, and the editor tells you that too.
Under the 4 MB limit, in one export
“Prepare for IRCC upload” is the chore most files end with. It puts every page in one PDF, compresses it to pass under the 4 MB limit of IRCC's online upload, and removes the document properties. The result screen shows the size before and after and confirms that the file is under the limit — and if the limit cannot be reached with the options chosen, it says so instead of handing you a file the portal will refuse.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to the files I add?+
PDFs and images are opened, reorganized, edited and exported inside your browser. They are not uploaded, and Lexova does not store them. Nothing is added to a case, a client portal or an export, and closing or reloading the tab clears the session — so download your export before you leave. One thing is kept, and only if you ask: a signature saved with “Remember on this device” stays in that browser, never sent to Lexova, until you choose to forget it.
Who can use PDF Studio?+
The firm's staff — the agency admin and the agents — on the Professional plan and up. It opens from the dashboard, under “PDF Studio” in the sidebar. Clients and employers do not have it.
Does the document have to belong to one of my cases?+
No. The studio does not read or write any case: it works on any PDF or image — a client's document, one of the firm's own, or anything else.
What does it not do?+
Three things, stated plainly. There is no OCR: a scan stays an image, and its text is not recognized. It does not edit the text already inside a PDF — you cover it with the whiteout and type over it. And IRCC's dynamic fillable forms (the IMM forms) are not opened here: those are filled in the case workspace, where Lexova autofills them.
How is a redaction different from a black box drawn on the page?+
A black rectangle leaves the text underneath in the file. A page that carries a redaction is rebuilt as an image with the box painted in, so nothing under it survives in the exported PDF. The trade-off is stated on screen before you export: that page becomes an image, so its text can no longer be selected.
Can I protect the exported PDF with a password?+
Yes. The exported PDF then asks for the password before it opens. Lexova cannot recover that password, so keep it somewhere safe. The studio also opens a protected PDF you hold the password for and exports a copy without protection.
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