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Hi HN. I built PDF Otter to solve a headache my last company faced. We needed to fill in PDF contracts repeatedly and there was no service out there that did th

Hi HN. I built PDF Otter to solve a headache my last company faced. We needed to fill in PDF contracts repeatedly and there was no service out there that did that, so we had to build something in-house. We couldn't use [hello/docu]sign because sending users there lowered our conversion rates. The PDF Otter API powers the PDF editor advertised on the homepage. The editor is simple but I think its better than similar services because you don't need to sign up/pay to fill-in and download your PDF. I think there's a lot of potential out there for apps built on the API. Feel free to reach out to me at mariusz [at] pdfotter [dot] com if you have any questions or ideas!

ankurscheese 9y ago
I know this pain. Thanks for a solution that doesn't require multiple hoops for users to jump through!
djamconway 9y ago
Sweet deal. Definitely useful. :)
rubidium 9y ago
Adobe pro has this built in, or am I missing something...?
nemo1618 9y ago
Any plans to allow inserting images (i.e. a signature)? Filling out PDFs is a huge pain for me and I'd love to replace it with this, but I need to insert handwritten signatures, not just text.
- mariusz331 9y ago
  Yes! I'll be adding a way to apply images to PDFs soon. Do you usually have an image of your signature handy on your computer or would you create one if the image feature was available? Another thought I had was maybe adding a "signature pad" where users can scribble their signature and I'd save it for them to use repeatedly. I'd love your thoughts on this.
  - nemo1618 9y ago
    I have an photo of a handwritten signature that I use in Adobe. They do a pretty good job of extracting the signature contours from the photo. I've also seen a (much crappier) version of this on my mobile banking app, for processing photos of checks. They basically just blow up the contrast until only the blackest part of the image remains. It looks awful, but it might be a good place to iterate from. If you implement something more sophisticated, it definitely makes sense to save it on the backend so you don't have to redo the (possibly expensive/slow) image processing operation every time. A signature pad could work too; I think HelloSign has something like that. But it's not a great solution if you don't have a tablet, since it's really hard to draw a proper signature with a mouse. Honestly, even just adding a "handwriting font" might be good enough for most circumstances. Most of the document signing services provide this, and it could be implemented very quickly with minimal changes to your API. If I were you, I would probably start with a handwriting font, and add hand-drawn signature support afterward. I would also look into what the law says about this sort of thing. I know that services like HelloSign require that you authorize them to use your signature in a legally-binding manner. But I don't know if that regulation would apply to your service, since your service is a lot more bare-bones. For example, you don't store the PDFs indefinitely, and you don't coordinate any sort of multi-party signature operation; that all happens out-of-band. So you might be in the clear.
    - mariusz331 9y ago
      Thanks for all this great info. We do have a font option called 'Dancing Script' available now which can make your text look like a signature. I'll do some more research on e-signatures, though. I assume there's more to it than just changing your text's font.
      - kanzure 9y ago
        well, you should consider doing actual cryptographic signatures over the document, plus timestamping like via https://opentimestamps.org/ https://opentimestamps.org/
NKCSS 9y ago
Why not use Crystal Reports? I know it's a pain in the ass, but afaik it's still the best thing to do to generate PDF's and you have full control.

ankurscheese 9y ago

I know this pain. Thanks for a solution that doesn't require multiple hoops for users to jump through!

djamconway 9y ago

Sweet deal. Definitely useful. :)

rubidium 9y ago

Adobe pro has this built in, or am I missing something...?

nemo1618 9y ago

Any plans to allow inserting images (i.e. a signature)? Filling out PDFs is a huge pain for me and I'd love to replace it with this, but I need to insert handwritten signatures, not just text.

mariusz331 9y ago
Yes! I'll be adding a way to apply images to PDFs soon. Do you usually have an image of your signature handy on your computer or would you create one if the image feature was available? Another thought I had was maybe adding a "signature pad" where users can scribble their signature and I'd save it for them to use repeatedly. I'd love your thoughts on this.
- nemo1618 9y ago
  I have an photo of a handwritten signature that I use in Adobe. They do a pretty good job of extracting the signature contours from the photo. I've also seen a (much crappier) version of this on my mobile banking app, for processing photos of checks. They basically just blow up the contrast until only the blackest part of the image remains. It looks awful, but it might be a good place to iterate from. If you implement something more sophisticated, it definitely makes sense to save it on the backend so you don't have to redo the (possibly expensive/slow) image processing operation every time. A signature pad could work too; I think HelloSign has something like that. But it's not a great solution if you don't have a tablet, since it's really hard to draw a proper signature with a mouse. Honestly, even just adding a "handwriting font" might be good enough for most circumstances. Most of the document signing services provide this, and it could be implemented very quickly with minimal changes to your API. If I were you, I would probably start with a handwriting font, and add hand-drawn signature support afterward. I would also look into what the law says about this sort of thing. I know that services like HelloSign require that you authorize them to use your signature in a legally-binding manner. But I don't know if that regulation would apply to your service, since your service is a lot more bare-bones. For example, you don't store the PDFs indefinitely, and you don't coordinate any sort of multi-party signature operation; that all happens out-of-band. So you might be in the clear.
  - mariusz331 9y ago
    Thanks for all this great info. We do have a font option called 'Dancing Script' available now which can make your text look like a signature. I'll do some more research on e-signatures, though. I assume there's more to it than just changing your text's font.
    - kanzure 9y ago
      well, you should consider doing actual cryptographic signatures over the document, plus timestamping like via https://opentimestamps.org/ https://opentimestamps.org/

NKCSS 9y ago

Why not use Crystal Reports? I know it's a pain in the ass, but afaik it's still the best thing to do to generate PDF's and you have full control.