PDFCraft: A Free, Privacy‑Focused PDF Toolkit with 90+ Browser Tools

When it comes to handling PDF documents in the age of cloud‑first developers, security, performance, and usability are the key metrics that matter most. PDFCraft is a modern open‑source solution that tackles all three: it runs fully client‑side in a web browser, uses WebAssembly for near‑native speed, and ships with more than 90 professional tools.

What is PDFCraft?

PDFCraft, available on GitHub under the AGPL‑3.0 license, is a privacy‑first PDF toolkit that can be used from the edge— directly in your browser— without ever uploading your files to a server. It covers every common PDF task:

• Merging & Splitting: Combine dozens of PDFs into a single file, or split them into parts, by page range or bookmarks.
• Conversion: Turn images, Office files, Markdown, and many more formats into PDF, and vice‑versa.
• Editing & Annotating: Add text, images, signatures, bookmarks, and fill‑out forms.
• Security: Encrypt with passwords, strip metadata, and remove restrictions.
• Optimization: Compress, linearize, or convert to PDF/A archival format.
• Workflow Editor: Create node‑based pipelines to batch‑process multiple PDFs.

All interactions happen in the browser using a combination of PDF.js, pdf‑lib, and PyMuPDF compiled to WASM, meaning no data ever leaves the client.

Key Features

Getting Started Locally

You can spin up PDFCraft in a few minutes.

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/PDFCraftTool/pdfcraft.git
cd pdfcraft

# Install dependencies (Node 18+)
pm install
# or
# yarn install
# or
# pnpm install

# Run development server
npm run dev
# or yarn dev / pnpm dev

Open http://localhost:3000 and start experimenting.

Docker Quick‑Start

If you prefer containers:

# Dev profile
docker compose --profile dev up

# Production export + Nginx
docker compose --profile prod up --build

Visit http://localhost:8080 after the production build.

Deploying to the Cloud

PDFCraft is a static export app, so it can be hosted anywhere that serves static files.

Vercel

1. In your terminal: npm run build.
2. Push the out/ directory to a GitHub branch and connect the repo to Vercel.
3. Set the build command to npm run build and the output directory to out.

Netlify

1. Connect the repo.
2. Build command: npm run build.
3. Publish directory: out.

GitHub Pages

Push out/ to the gh‑pages branch and enable Pages in repo settings.

Nginx / Apache

Copy the out/ contents into your server root and configure the server block to handle static files.

Contributing

Feel free to submit feature requests or pull requests. The repo is welcoming to new contributors:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a branch: git checkout -b feature/awesome-feature.
3. Commit changes: git commit -m "Add awesome feature".
4. Push and open a Pull Request.

Why PDFCraft Stands Out

• Zero Dependency on Cloud: Perfect for regulators, lawyers, or anyone working with sensitive data.
• High‑Quality UI: Tailwind CSS and Next.js App Router provide a slick, app‑like experience.
• Extensibility: The workflow editor lets you create reusable pipelines—think of it as a lightweight ETL for PDFs.
• Community‑First: It’s built on the lessons of BentoPDF while adding modern tools and performance optimizations.

Ready to Try It?

Jump into the documentation on the official site or clone the repo to explore the 90+ tools yourself. Whether you’re a developer looking for a library or an end‑user needing quick PDF solutions, PDFCraft makes it fast, private, and free.

TL;DR

• Open‑source, privacy‑first, browser‑based.
• Over 90 tools: merge, split, convert, edit, secure, optimize.
• Deploy on Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages, or self‑host.
• Contribute via GitHub: fork → branch → pull request.

Try PDFCraft today and see how effortless secure PDF handling can be.