Can you add a tool to remove the security on pdf that prevents editing, not opening? smallpdf has this. Great work!
Thank you :) I added this to my feature list, I will try to look into it.
Show HN: Privacy friendly suite of PDF tools
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Re: Show HN: Privacy friendly suite of PDF tools
#12Honestly, you should charge like $1 for each operation. People will trust it more that way, as you're not incentivized to snoop on their files (or put 500 ads everywhere).
In general, I have been thinking about how to get some earnings from this, it would allow me to spend more time and continuing to improve the tool faster. I am still not sure the best way to do it without scaring away too many users. If I could get some earnings and also increase trust that would be great. Need to think about this idea, maybe I can do a test and see how it works out...
(I already ruled out ads, since I don't want to clutter the tool and also most ad networks are not exactly privacy friendly which one of the main ideas behind the tool)
Re: Show HN: Privacy friendly suite of PDF tools
#13How is it safer than any offline app?
I guess it is just as safe. One advantage that I see with this tool, is that it runs in the browser so you don't have to install anything and can use it from any device with a web browser like your phone or tablet.
Re: Show HN: Privacy friendly suite of PDF tools
#14This is very cool. I had to build something similar but did it server side... client side seems like a much better option. My first thought was... I don't know of any client side pdf libraries that work in the browser... this seems like a good case for WebAssembly.
I looked under the hood and did see a wasm reference.
Re: Show HN: Privacy friendly suite of PDF tools
#15Can you share which C++ library is used? Thanks.
It is my own library that I have created. I am planning to release the code with some open source license hopefully soon. The library is still very small and only include a tiny part of the whole PDF specification.
Re: Show HN: Privacy friendly suite of PDF tools
#16Re: Show HN: Privacy friendly suite of PDF tools
#17Honestly, you should charge like $1 for each operation. People will trust it more that way, as you're not incentivized to snoop on their files (or put 500 ads everywhere).
In general, I have been thinking about how to get some earnings from this, it would allow me to spend more time and continuing to improve the tool faster. I am still not sure the best way to do it without scaring away too many users. If I could get some earnings and also increase trust that would be great. Need to think about this idea, maybe I can do a test and see how it works out... (I already ruled out ads, since…
I think you should be able to make some money by offering your services to corporations. They don't know that everything runs on the browser, but they will like and pay for the idea of adding this capability to their website (pdftools.acmecorp.com). Start with lawyers, I think they are prime customers (pdfux.biglaw.com). Once you explain to their IT that you are only leveraging the clien-side processing, they'll leave you alone. All they would do is give you access to a vps or a vm in their hypervisor, or heck you could dockerize and sell it branded to them(biglaw inc all over the place). I do believe that's called.. bespoke service!! lol.. and of course.. the annual support income.
Re: Show HN: Privacy friendly suite of PDF tools
#18Very cool, I like it. I resort to using smallpdf.com on occasion, would love to use this instead. Hope you will have a chance to add more features. What else do you think would be feasible browser side?
Happy to hear that you like it. As an example, I have started to look into if it is possible to add different features based on OCR. I still haven't gotten it to work but I think it should be possible. Some things are definitely harder to do in the browser vs on the server but still possible with some work.
Re: Show HN: Privacy friendly suite of PDF tools
#19Have you written this library or is an already existent one? Also can be used offline but maybe provide an easy way to download it so can run it locally or host it on own server? (Unless of course there's a plan to monetize this.)
Re: Show HN: Privacy friendly suite of PDF tools
#20Very nice set of tools! I'd love a native version that doesn't require a browser, though ;)