Every online PDF tool I've used uploads your documents to their servers. Tax returns, contracts, medical records — they all go to some third-party server for processing. That bothered me enough to build an alternative.
PDF Toolbox is a set of PDF tools where everything runs locally in your browser.
How it works
- You select a PDF file
- The file loads into browser memory (ArrayBuffer)
- pdf-lib processes it entirely in the browser
- You download the result
The file never leaves your computer. No upload. No server. No privacy risk.
Features
- Compress PDF (reduce file size)
- Merge multiple PDFs into one
- Split PDF into individual pages
- Convert PDF to JPG images
- Convert JPG images to PDF
- Unlock password-protected PDFs
Why I built it
I handle sensitive documents regularly and the thought of uploading them to random servers makes me uncomfortable. With WebAssembly and modern PDF libraries like pdf-lib, there's no technical reason PDF tools need server-side processing anymore.
Tech Stack
- Next.js 16 with App Router
- pdf-lib for PDF generation and manipulation
- pdfjs-dist for PDF rendering
- Tailwind CSS 4 for styling
- Vercel for hosting
Try it out
PDF Toolbox — completely free, no registration, no limits.
Feedback and feature requests welcome!
GitHub: github.com/hwlsniper/pdftoolbox
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