DEV Community: kabir daki

How I Compress PDF Files Server-Side Using Ghostscript

kabir daki — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 23:24:36 +0000

When I started building PDFOnlineLovePDF, I had to pick an approach for PDF compression: do it entirely in the browser, or run it on a server.
I chose server-side, using Ghostscript. Here's why, and how it actually works under the hood.
Why not client-side?
Client-side PDF compression (rendering pages to canvas, re-encoding as JPEG, rebuilding the PDF with pdf-lib) is a real technique, and it works. But it has a real cost: it rasterizes every page into an image. That means the output PDF loses its text layer entirely — you can no longer select, search, or copy text from it. For a tool where a lot of users upload text-heavy documents (contracts, reports, invoices), that tradeoff didn't feel acceptable.
Ghostscript, on the other hand, works at the PDF structure level. It recompresses embedded images, downsamples resolution, and optimizes the internal object structure — without flattening pages into pictures. Text stays selectable. That was the deciding factor.
The actual implementation
The client only handles the upload and a lightweight preview (rendering page 1 to a canvas with pdf.js, just so the user can see what they're about to compress):
tsconst pdfjsLib = (window as any).pdfjsLib;
pdfjsLib.GlobalWorkerOptions.workerSrc =
"https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/pdf.js/3.11.174/pdf.worker.min.js";

/screen — low resolution (~72 dpi), smallest file, best for sharing quickly
/ebook — medium resolution (~150 dpi), the balance most users want
/printer — higher resolution (~300 dpi), for when print quality matters

The actual compression call:
tsawait execAsync(
gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dPDFSETTINGS=${gsPreset} -sOutputFile="${outFile}" "${input}",
{ timeout: 60000 }
);
Why this tradeoff made sense for me
Running Ghostscript per-request does mean every upload touches my server's CPU — that's a real cost client-side compression avoids. But in exchange:

Documents keep their text layer (searchable, selectable, copy-pasteable)
Compression quality is more predictable across different PDF structures (scanned images, vector graphics, mixed content) than a canvas-rasterization approach
The three presets map cleanly to Ghostscript's own tested profiles, instead of me tuning JPEG quality percentages by trial and error

The honest downside: files do get uploaded to a server for processing. I don't market this tool as "your files never touch a server" — because they do. What I do guarantee is that uploaded files are processed in a temporary directory and not retained afterward.
What I'd explore next
If I revisit this, the interesting middle ground is: use pdf.js client-side just to detect whether a PDF is text-heavy or image-heavy, and route text-heavy documents through Ghostscript (structure-preserving) while offering an optional aggressive image-rasterization mode for scanned documents where text-selectability was never possible anyway.

The compress tool is live at PDFOnlineLovePDF.com — free, no signup. Curious how others are approaching PDF compression — canvas rasterization, Ghostscript, something else entirely? Drop a comment.

I built a free alternative to iLovePDF — here's what I learned

kabir daki — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 22:08:18 +0000

Everyone uses iLovePDF. I did too.

Until I realized: every file I uploaded was sitting on their servers.
Contracts. Invoices. ID scans.

That bothered me. So I built something different.

PDFOnlineLovePDF — 31 tools, zero uploads

Here's the core difference:

❌ iLovePDF → uploads your file to their server
✅ PDFOnlineLovePDF → processes everything in your browser

Your files never leave your device. Ever.

What it can do

Convert PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint
Compress PDF (up to 90% smaller)
Merge, split, rotate, crop
OCR — extract text from scanned PDFs
Translate PDF into 50+ languages
Sign, protect, watermark

All free. No signup. No limits.

The tech stack

Next.js 15 — fast, SEO-friendly
PDF.js + pdf-lib — browser-side processing
Tailwind CSS — clean UI

What's next

More tools
Better OCR accuracy
Mobile app (maybe)

Would love your feedback! 🙏
Search "PDFOnlineLovePDF" on Google or drop a comment below.

showdev #webdev #javascript #productivity #opensource

Show DEV: I built a free browser-based PDF toolkit with 31 tools tags: showdev, webdev, javascript, productivity ---

kabir daki — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 21:39:04 +0000

Hey DEV community! 👋

I just launched PDFOnlineLovePDF — a 100% free, browser-based PDF toolkit.

The problem

Every PDF tool I tried had at least one of these issues:

Expensive subscriptions
Full of ads
Uploads your files to remote servers (privacy risk)
Requires signup just to compress a file

So I built my own.

What it does

31 tools, all running 100% in your browser:

Convert PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint
Compress up to 90%
Merge, split, rotate
OCR (extract text from scanned PDFs)
Sign PDFs
Translate into 50+ languages (AI-powered)

How it works

Everything runs client-side using WebAssembly and modern browser APIs. Your files never leave your device. No server, no storage, no privacy risk.

Tech highlights

100% client-side processing
WebAssembly for performance
AI-powered translation
Zero dependencies on external servers

Try it

👉 pdfonlinelovepdf.com

Also live on Product Hunt if you want to show some support:
👉 Product Hunt page

Would love your feedback — what features would you add? 🙏

Best PDF Tools in 2026: I Tested 7 — Here's the Honest Truth

kabir daki — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 22:28:04 +0000

I spent a week testing the most popular PDF tools. Here's what I found — and why I ended up building my own.
Adobe Acrobat — Powerful, but $19.99/month for basic tasks is hard to justify.
iLovePDF — Clean UI, but hits limits fast and forces signup.
Smallpdf — Same story. 2 free tasks/day, then paywall.
PDF24 — Generous free tier, but no AI features.
Sejda — Good, but 3 tasks/hour limit.
PDFescape — Outdated UI, limited tools.
PDFOnlineLovePDF — 31 tools, no signup, no watermark, AI-powered. Built this one myself after getting blocked one too many times.
The gap nobody fills: unlimited + no signup + AI features together.
Try it free → pdfonlinelovepdf.com

I Tested Adobe, iLovePDF, and 5 Other PDF Tools — Then Built My Own (Free, No Limits)

kabir daki — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 15:54:29 +0000

Everyone has that moment.
You need to compress a PDF. You Google it. You click the first result. You upload your file. Then — "Sign up to download your file."
Or worse: "You've reached your free limit. Upgrade to Pro."
I got tired of it. So I tested the most popular PDF tools out there, and then I built my own. Here's what I found.

The Contenders
ToolFree LimitSignup RequiredAI FeaturesAdobe Acrobat2 tasks/dayYesYes (paid)iLovePDFLimited tasksYesNoSmallpdf2 tasks/dayYesNoPDF24UnlimitedNoNoSejda3 tasks/hourNoNoMy ToolUnlimitedNoYes

Adobe Acrobat — Powerful but Expensive
Adobe is the gold standard. The UI is polished, the features are deep, and the AI Assistant is genuinely useful. But the free tier is aggressively limited — 2 tasks per day — and the paid plan starts at $19.99/month.
For occasional users, it's overkill. For daily use without paying? Forget it.

iLovePDF — Great UI, Frustrating Limits
iLovePDF has a clean interface and covers most common tasks: merge, split, compress, convert. It's probably the most popular free option out there.
The problem? You hit the limit faster than you expect. And the "free" experience is designed to push you toward the paid plan. No AI features either.

Smallpdf — Same Story
Smallpdf is smooth and well-designed. But 2 tasks per day is basically nothing if you work with PDFs regularly. It also requires an account to do anything useful.

PDF24 — The Hidden Gem
PDF24 is genuinely generous. No signup, no hard limits, and it covers a wide range of tools. The UI feels a bit dated, but it works.
No AI features though.

So I Built My Own
After testing all of these, I noticed a gap: unlimited + no signup + AI features didn't exist in one place.
So I built [pdfonlinelovepdf] — a free PDF toolkit with 31 tools and AI features baked in. No account needed. No daily limits. No paywalls.
What it does that others don't:

✅ AI-powered PDF summarization
✅ Ask questions about your PDF (chat with PDF)
✅ All 31 tools completely free
✅ No signup, ever
✅ No file limits

The Honest Comparison
If you need deep editing and professional features → Adobe is worth paying for.
If you want a clean UI for occasional use → iLovePDF or Smallpdf work fine.
If you want unlimited, free, with AI → try what I built.

Final Thought
The PDF tool space is dominated by freemium products designed to frustrate you into paying. I wanted to see if it was possible to just... not do that.
So far, so good.
👉 [Try it free — no signup needed] https://pdfonlinelovepdf.com/

I built a free PDF toolkit with 31 AI tools — no signup, no limits

kabir daki — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:39:03 +0000

The Problem

Every PDF tool online either:

Costs money 💸
Requires registration 📧
Uploads your files to their servers 🔓

My Solution

I built PDFOnlineLovePDF — a 100% free, browser-based PDF toolkit.

What it does

31 tools including:

Convert: PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG
Edit: merge, split, compress up to 90%
AI-powered: translate into 50+ languages, summarize, OCR
Security: protect, unlock, redact

Why it's different

✅ No signup required

✅ Files never leave your browser

✅ 100% free, no limits

✅ Powered by AI

Try it

👉 https://pdfonlinelovepdf.com

Would love your feedback!