Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor

#1

Post by philjohnson » Sat, May 03, 2025, 6:15 PM UTC

Add text, input boxes, pictures, signatures, delete pages, merge PDFs and password protect them. All happening in the browser, 100% free and no sign-up.

Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor
breezepdf.com

Re: Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor

#2

Post by jdjdjdjdjd » Sat, May 03, 2025, 7:31 PM UTC

Seems broken to me. Uploaded a pdf but I cant scroll down to see the bottom of the pdf, its just stuck... tried with FF and safari, same deal.

Re: Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor

#3

Post by behnamoh » Sat, May 03, 2025, 7:34 PM UTC

doesn't "edit" PDF text, just adds more.

Re: Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor

#4

Post by a1371 » Sat, May 03, 2025, 7:35 PM UTC

I like it! It has most of the features I need in a PDF doc and nothing of the bloat. The only features missing for me are: callout text comments, redact text, and flatten PDF. It's snappy and pretty easy to understand. Good job

As much as I'd like it, we all know it can't remain "100% free and no sign-up". What's your plan to avoid enshitification?

Re: Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor

#5

Post by philjohnson » Sat, May 03, 2025, 7:45 PM UTC

behnamoh wrote: post #3

doesn't "edit" PDF text, just adds more.

yes, that's why the description says "add text" not edit :)

there aren't existing packages that can edit existing PDF text in the browser, but I'll do it myself sometime soon

Re: Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor

#6

Post by kwanbix » Sat, May 03, 2025, 7:46 PM UTC

philjohnson wrote: post #5

behnamoh wrote: post #3

doesn't "edit" PDF text, just adds more.

yes, that's why the description says "add text" not edit :) there aren't existing packages that can edit existing PDF text in the browser, but I'll do it myself sometime soon

The website says: Edit PDFs Freely & Privately, Right in Your Browser.

Re: Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor

#7

Post by wild_pointer » Sat, May 03, 2025, 7:47 PM UTC

behnamoh wrote: post #3

doesn't "edit" PDF text, just adds more.

That's the problem with all the pdf editors available out there. I guess adding stuff is much easier than editing existing stuff which you didn't add, and can be laid out in a gazillion ways, because PDF is a format for viewing and printing, not for editing.

I had a period when I worked with lots of documents. I could only find one fairly decent PDF editor which deserves to be called that way. I could use it to open any PDF and delete an existing element, or change text in an existing field. Sometimes things behaved funny, for example a text field can have each letter in a separate block, but I assume the tool did what it could within reasonable effort. It worked fine for me overall.

Re: Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor

#8

Post by moffkalast » Sat, May 03, 2025, 7:49 PM UTC

You'd think at this point there would be a dozen solid competitors to Adobe Acrobat. You'd really fuckin think so.

And yet filling out a pdf and signing it with a certificate (aka the bog standard procedure for much of modern bureaucracy) is still too much to ask for any pdf software on linux. It just doesn't exist. How?

Re: Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor

#9

Post by jbarrow » Sat, May 03, 2025, 7:50 PM UTC

Wonderful! Inserted form-fields show up in Preview and Acrobat, which is not a trivial task. I run a little AI-powered tool that automatically figures out where form fields should go (https://detect.penpusher.app) and robustly adding form fields to the PDF was the hardest part.

Fwiw, I do see the issue with being unable to scroll down across both Safari and Chrome.

Re: Show HN: Free, in-browser PDF editor

#10

Post by cbracketdash » Sat, May 03, 2025, 7:51 PM UTC

Scrolling is broken. Also for modals, it'd be nice to be able to click anywhere on the screen to close it (or pressing Esc) rather than just pressing "cancel".

Also for text, different fonts is a necessary requirement (and bolding, italics, underline, etc).

Also, it seems like I can't edit text boxes after creating them... I can't even tell if I've selected the text box (an outline would be nice).

Also the confirm modal for deleting a page is realllly annoying. You should just have it automatically delete the page and create an undo feature. (Basically store the original PDF, and store all the "actions" a user makes in an array, and then undo/redo the actions to the original pdf).

Also the arrow to close the page overview on the left side of the screen is very unintuitive. Why does the entire page shift to the left? The only reason I'd use that feature is to see my centered page more clearly. On this topic, a zoom feature is super important too.

Overall, the concept of a privacy-based PDF editor sounds really cool! Just note that for users to actually make a serious switch to this, you must at least match 1/4 of the quality of other PDF services like ilovepdf.com or smallpdf.com.

Good luck!