7 ms·

What do people use to perform those pdf tasks without uploading sensitive files to a website?

sanusihassan 2y ago
The files are deleted immediately after processing I'm considering implementing WebAssembly (Wasm) to do most of the work on the client's device and enable offline use
- bruce511 2y ago
  You say that here, but its not in the privacy policy as far as I can see. When you get to the stage of monetizing the site, I expect the most obvious starting point is monetizing the information inside the pdfs. Then there's the obscurity of how much (if any) is passed on to other services (like google). You may have one policy about the PDFs, they may gave another. So yeah, I'm in the "not for general use" camp myself. (Although there are edge cases where it may be useful.) Don't get me wrong, I can see the upsides, and your web site looks professional, but alas the downsides are too significant to overcome the inconvenience of searching out something local.
acidburnNSA 2y ago
Pandoc, ocrmypdf, libreoffice, pdftk, pypdf2
vikp 2y ago
For PDF to markdown, I recently released V2 of my tool marker - https://github.com/vikparuchuri/marker https://github.com/vikparuchuri/marker
- rch 2y ago
  This is very effective - it consistently yields great results.
tqwhite 2y ago
There is a site listed elsewhere in these comments that does the work entirely in-browser. That's what I would use.
brailsafe 2y ago
I use Preview on mac or even Spotlight for a good portion of these functions
lannisterstark 2y ago
Stirling-pdf. You can self-host it.
- senectus1 2y ago
  using this myself. its pretty good.
  - lloydatkinson 2y ago
    Only last week there was a HN thread about how the author said they just used chatgpt to make the entire thing and as a result the code is beyond bad. I don't think I'd trust it.
    - l8arrival 2y ago
      They didn't say that. They said they wrote the first version in a few days, using ChatGPT. Then worked on it almost another year since then. Something of that nature. Pretty big difference.
    - lannisterstark 2y ago
      >I don't think I'd trust it. You can audit the code yourself then. What's stopping you?
      - senectus1 2y ago
        Am not a Coder :-P
        lannisterstark 2y ago
        That's a fair point lol, my bad.
      - lloydatkinson 2y ago
        Nothing is stopping me using something else that isn’t ChatGPT hope and pray code.

The files are deleted immediately after processing I'm considering implementing WebAssembly (Wasm) to do most of the work on the client's device and enable offline use

bruce511 2y ago
You say that here, but its not in the privacy policy as far as I can see. When you get to the stage of monetizing the site, I expect the most obvious starting point is monetizing the information inside the pdfs. Then there's the obscurity of how much (if any) is passed on to other services (like google). You may have one policy about the PDFs, they may gave another. So yeah, I'm in the "not for general use" camp myself. (Although there are edge cases where it may be useful.) Don't get me wrong, I can see the upsides, and your web site looks professional, but alas the downsides are too significant to overcome the inconvenience of searching out something local.

acidburnNSA 2y ago

Pandoc, ocrmypdf, libreoffice, pdftk, pypdf2

vikp 2y ago

For PDF to markdown, I recently released V2 of my tool marker - https://github.com/vikparuchuri/marker https://github.com/vikparuchuri/marker

rch 2y ago
This is very effective - it consistently yields great results.

tqwhite 2y ago

There is a site listed elsewhere in these comments that does the work entirely in-browser. That's what I would use.

brailsafe 2y ago

I use Preview on mac or even Spotlight for a good portion of these functions

lannisterstark 2y ago

Stirling-pdf. You can self-host it.

senectus1 2y ago
using this myself. its pretty good.
- lloydatkinson 2y ago
  Only last week there was a HN thread about how the author said they just used chatgpt to make the entire thing and as a result the code is beyond bad. I don't think I'd trust it.
  - l8arrival 2y ago
    They didn't say that. They said they wrote the first version in a few days, using ChatGPT. Then worked on it almost another year since then. Something of that nature. Pretty big difference.
  - lannisterstark 2y ago
    >I don't think I'd trust it. You can audit the code yourself then. What's stopping you?
    - senectus1 2y ago
      Am not a Coder :-P
      - lannisterstark 2y ago
        That's a fair point lol, my bad.
    - lloydatkinson 2y ago
      Nothing is stopping me using something else that isn’t ChatGPT hope and pray code.