Pdfwithlove
Productivity
pdf tools
SHOW HN2026
177points
131comments
#343of 4,366 in 2026
Top 8%of 2026 by points
How HN took it
RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical
5 positive, 17 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 37 critical, out of 61 comments about the project. Thread score -0.46.
Idea: 0 for, 18 againstExecution: 2 for, 4 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 5 againstDesign: 1 for, 3 againstPricing: 0 for, 3 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Friendly interface and functional outcomes
From 1 comment
They’re created to offer functional outcomes. If they’re doing so in a friendly interface then I’m cool with that
greggsy on HN
Objections
Many similar client-side PDF tools already exist
From 2 comments
Seems like Clientside PDF editors are the new "hello world" app these days. From the last couple months on Show HN alone: Show HN: PDF Quick – Free PDF tools with 100%…
vunderba on HNSure, but if you just wanted a 100% client-side PDF tool, there are dozens of them in existence already. You can do as you like, but I don't think this is a particularly good use…
vunderba on HN
Source code not available, so local processing is hard to verify
From 2 comments
makes it difficult to verify that it runs locally. unobfuscated source is not available. important actions, like open a PDF, save edited PDF, will be stuck or error if you cut…
throwaway290 on HNThe "source" link at the footer seems to point to the author's GitHub profile, not source repository. The repo under it contains no code either.
qbane on HN
Vibe-coded front end looks generic
From 2 comments
Half of them also have a very obviously vibecoded front-end that looks exactly the same
flexagoon on HNSure, if they're tested well enough that there are no obvious UX issues (which is usually not the case) It's just that there's zero effort put into them so they don't really…
flexagoon on HN
Some actions hang when offline; assets load at runtime
From 2 comments
makes it difficult to verify that it runs locally. unobfuscated source is not available. important actions, like open a PDF, save edited PDF, will be stuck or error if you cut…
throwaway290 on HNThanks for pointing this out. You’re right - some assets are currently loaded at runtime, which can cause actions to hang if the internet is cut mid-session. All PDF processing…
pratik227 on HN
Requests
Offline support via PWA
From 1 comment
Great job! If it's all on client you should make a PWA out of it so it can be installed and used offline. Built a client only webapp myself and offline usage is the main thing…
Bewelge on HN
Downloadable desktop executable
From 1 comment
Might be better to provide a downloadable executable instead of asking the user to trust that the browser isn't doing what the browser was designed to do.
TZubiri on HN
Better handling of image-only PDF compression
From 1 comment
How does it fare with PDFs consisting entirely of images? Any PDF tool was struggling with compressing a passport scan (made with iPhone so might've contributed somehow, knowing…
asimovDev on HN
Workflow chaining of operations
From 1 comment
Oh cool. Can we add workflows to this? First merge all files then depending on output size compress to fit the size and other requirements? Or take out page 35, then compress…
2Gkashmiri on HN
Questions
How does it compare to Stirling PDF?
From 1 comment
How does it compare to stirling pdf?
burgerone on HN
Is the source available for self-hosting?
From 2 comments
Seeing it on GitHub I thought there was source code so that I can self-host it. Unfortunately that’s not the case :( Really nice project btw!
palla89 on HNThe "source" link at the footer seems to point to the author's GitHub profile, not source repository. The repo under it contains no code either.
qbane on HN
Alternatives named
iLovePDF
From 2 comments
ILovePdf - $10–15M annually Smallpdf makes $20M+ per year
pratik227 on HNWhere I live, pretty much everyone uses iLovePdf: https://www.ilovepdf.com/ They have existed for years, way before LLMs ;)
icar on HN
Stirling PDF
From 1 comment
I find Stirling to be one of the best ones out there. Open source and has been in development for a couple of years, at least - https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF/
mattpogue on HN
PDF24
From 1 comment
Doesn't a time-tested solution already exist in the form of PDF24?
Antibabelic on HN
PDFGear
From 1 comment
I haven't used anything else since I've found PDFGear. Have it installed on all my devices. Still surprised it isn't more known.
bhasinanant on HN
Ghostscript and ImageMagick
From 1 comment
I am already well served by ghostscript, GIMP, Imagemagick, etc: Optimize PDF: ``` #!/bin/bash INPUT="$1" OUTPUT="$(mktemp --suffix=.pdf)" gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite…
sam_lowry_ on HN