---
title: Compress, resize, rotate and the other tools
source: https://arazioformac.com/docs/tools
---

# Tools, not conversions

A conversion turns a file into a different kind of file. A tool changes the
file while leaving it the kind of file it already was — a smaller PDF is still
a PDF.

Tools live on <kbd>⌥</kbd>.

**The one-gesture way**

1. Pick the file up in Finder, as if you were moving it.
2. Hold `⌥`. A ring of tools appears around the cursor.
3. Let go toward **Compress**. The new file lands beside the original.

Six tools work on PDF files — hold ⌥ and they appear around the cursor:
Compress, Extract Pages, Merge, Rotate, Split, Strip Metadata.

Six actions work on any file at all — hold ⌃, including on files Arazio cannot
convert: AirDrop, Shelf, Copy, Move, Copy Path, Terminal.

That is the whole thing. It works on one file or four hundred, and
nothing is uploaded — the compression happens on your Mac.

## What is on the ring

Which tools appear depends on what you are dragging, because most of them only
make sense for one kind of file.

**On an image** — Compress, Resize, Crop, Rotate, Flip, Strip Metadata.

**On a video** — Compress, Trim, Split, Rotate, Extract Audio, Remove Audio.

**On audio** — Compress, Trim, Split, Normalize.

**On a PDF** — Compress, Merge, Split, Extract Pages, Rotate, Strip Metadata.

**On an archive** — Extract. (This one is also on the formats ring, because
nobody dragging a ZIP wants a different archive format.)

## The ones worth knowing about

**Compress** on a PDF does not rasterise it. Most PDF compressors turn every
page into a photograph of itself, which shrinks the file impressively and
destroys your ability to select, search or copy a word of it. Arazio subsets
the embedded fonts instead, then renders the result and compares it against the
original pixel by pixel, and throws its own work away if anything moved.
[The full story](/docs/compress-a-pdf).

**Strip Metadata** removes the camera, the lens, the timestamp and — on a photo
from a phone — usually the exact coordinates where it was taken. Worth doing to
anything before you put it on the internet.

**Extract Audio** pulls the soundtrack out of a video into its own file,
without touching the video.

**Merge** takes a selection rather than one file, and the order follows the
order you selected them in.

## Tools that ask a question

Most tools just run. A few need to know something first — Resize needs
dimensions, Trim needs a start and an end, Extract Pages needs to know which
pages — so they open a small panel when you release.

The panel is the only part of Arazio that is a window rather than a gesture,
and it closes itself when it is done.

## Next

[Make it yours](/docs/make-it-yours) — settings, and changing the modifiers.