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PDF Tool – Modify PDFs in the browser without uploading

pdftool.org

61–70 of 198 posts

Re: PDF Tool – Modify PDFs in the browser without uploading

#61

Big fan of offline tools. I have a small collection of tools at https://www.webutils.app/ and have been meaning to add pdf tools for a while.

Can you please explain why? I care about privacy and security, and this trend seems like we're going backwards. If something needs network access, web apps make sense. But I liked offline tools better when we called them "programs". Web apps to me seem like they turn the web browser into an operating system. I already have an OS.

There are some advantages to using the web as a platform: it’s fully cross platform, completely sandboxed, easy to use, has good backwards compatibility so will likely work forever regardless of OS/browser updates, gives you good debugging tools, and means you can use it without saving it locally if you want

Re: PDF Tool – Modify PDFs in the browser without uploading

#63
post #46

> "Keep your sensitive data to yourself. Wether you are modifying banking statements, prescription or other critical documents, we have no access to it." > Source not available, no acknowledgement or explanation as to why > Hacker News upvotes it to the front page

Browsers need a "block all outgoing request from this page from now" button.

Not just browsers. (Other) Native apps have the same problem. For some reason we have elaborate permissions for all sorts of things but nothing remotely user friendly for various kinds of network activity.

Re: PDF Tool – Modify PDFs in the browser without uploading

#64

Big fan of offline tools. I have a small collection of tools at https://www.webutils.app/ and have been meaning to add pdf tools for a while.

Can you please explain why? I care about privacy and security, and this trend seems like we're going backwards. If something needs network access, web apps make sense. But I liked offline tools better when we called them "programs". Web apps to me seem like they turn the web browser into an operating system. I already have an OS.

There is no guarantee traditional program does not connect to internet, or run a bitcoin miner. So technically they are not better at privacy.

Web applications are sandboxed, available on almost all the platform desktop and mobile and does not require installation.

Re: PDF Tool – Modify PDFs in the browser without uploading

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need this button!! Someone from Firefox team please make this happen.

Alt - F - K (menubar File => Work offline) It applies to the whole browser, not the current tab. But good enough.

Does this absolutely prevent a page from saving information, eg local stiarge, and later transmitting it when you either visit the site or a Web page where it is iframed?

Re: PDF Tool – Modify PDFs in the browser without uploading

#66
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Browsers need a "block all outgoing request from this page from now" button.

Not just browsers. (Other) Native apps have the same problem. For some reason we have elaborate permissions for all sorts of things but nothing remotely user friendly for various kinds of network activity.

Little Snitch and Lulu on Mac are reasonably user friendly. I am pretty sure there are equivalents on Linux, though not entirely certain about Windows.

Re: PDF Tool – Modify PDFs in the browser without uploading

#67
post #51
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Browsers need a "block all outgoing request from this page from now" button.

You can quickly go offline via dev tools. In Chrome, it's very simple[0]. [0] https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/network/reference...

Workaround:

1. Install ServiceWorker.

2. Save data to LocalStorage/IndexedDB/ServiceWorker Cache/ServiceWorker Memory.

3. Wait for devtools to be closed, enabling internet access, send data from ServiceWorker.

Re: PDF Tool – Modify PDFs in the browser without uploading

#68
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just browsers. (Other) Native apps have the same problem. For some reason we have elaborate permissions for all sorts of things but nothing remotely user friendly for various kinds of network activity.

Little Snitch and Lulu on Mac are reasonably user friendly. I am pretty sure there are equivalents on Linux, though not entirely certain about Windows.

Having to find and install separate firewall software is exactly what I mean by not remotely user friendly, regardless of how relatively user friendly any particular firewall may be.

Why can I not simply disable network access in the app settings? Why am I not being asked to grant this permission just like I'm asked to grant access to my photos?

Permissions systems on desktop platforms are mostly useless for regular users and only somewhat less useless on mobile.

Re: PDF Tool – Modify PDFs in the browser without uploading

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alt - F - K (menubar File => Work offline) It applies to the whole browser, not the current tab. But good enough.

Does this absolutely prevent a page from saving information, eg local stiarge, and later transmitting it when you either visit the site or a Web page where it is iframed?

For that you may use containers, private mode, the menu to delete site data, and auto-delete.

Re: PDF Tool – Modify PDFs in the browser without uploading

#70
post #4

So most common online pdf tools like smallpdf.com and ilovepdf.com are blocked on office networks for obvious reasons. Can we save this page as .html file on a local folder and run it from browser -- never triggering the firewall / websense blockers etc?

i just created an account for you :-) save it as an PWA to your machine, if you have no internet it will cache the last version - so you will be able to go fully offline and not even need to fetch the dns queries
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