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Unfortunately, most of the PDF work I do involves things I’m not uploading to a service - ever. I don’t care if they’re “deleted immediately after processing”

Unfortunately, most of the PDF work I do involves things I’m not uploading to a service - ever. I don’t care if they’re “deleted immediately after processing” - they left my control. This sort of software would be great if it were 100% offline. This isn’t just a niche issue either: this is a very real consideration for any corporate user. More companies are taking data loss and security issues seriously, which often means restricting what cloud services they are willing to use.

sanusihassan 2y ago
I understand that you want to keep your work private and not expose your documents to the internet, but there might be a situation where the document isn't that important to you and any online solution would be sufficient, let's say you one of your friends tells you to ask the ai a math problem they want to know how to solve/learn but the ai only understands text then you need to ocr the pdf which is jpg converted then copy it to the ai, you might be on your phone or away from your desktop environment, here you might consider using an online solution like pdfequips :)
pan69 2y ago
Sounds to me like that (a desktop app version) is the product to sell (since the online service seems to be free).
thekevan 2y ago
I'd also not upload any personal or identifying docs up to this, but I would use it for fliers and it would REALLY be useful converting PDFs I downloaded off the ineternet to begin with. (I've downloaded stuff in the past that I had to convert in order enter the data on the PDF into my computer. Geologic data for maps, list of states with capitals, alphabetized by them--well before ChatGPT, the list goes on.)
ranger_danger 2y ago
Stirling-pdf. You can self-host it. Even though it all runs locally anyway
re-thc 2y ago
> This isn’t just a niche issue either: this is a very real consideration for any corporate user Very true, but I'd wish this "common" knowledge is more widespread. Security is a major issue commonly overlooked. People do a lot of insecure things for convenience.
m3h 2y ago
In that case, you can use https://www.pdftool.org/ https://www.pdftool.org/, which runs in the browser but offline and never uploads your files to any server.
- szundi 2y ago
  How can I really know that as a random user
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    Unplug your network cable when you use it.
    - zo1 2y ago
      And it stores it in local storage and uploads it using a service worker later when I'm online?
      - Rinzler89 2y ago
        Use incognito mode then close that window before reconnecting online?
        navane 2y ago
        I'd suggest install a separate browser (there exists a myriad by now), unplug internet, use the service, uninstall the separate browser, reboot pc.
        Rinzler89 2y ago
        I suggest a separate VM for that, that you can delete when you're done. Add put the VM on a separate PC that you bought with cash off craigslist. Then toss the PC away in a different postcode when you're done. Then you can use the PDF tool safely without fear you're being tracked.
harryf 2y ago
I work at https://www.pdf-tools.com https://www.pdf-tools.com and we hear this again and again. Despite the proliferation of cloud services, most large enterprises DO NOT want their sensitive documents entering the cloud. And in some cases, e.g. patient medical records, there are strict regulations about how those documents can be stored, which means on-premise is a requirement. Good news for us, as that's what we specialise in, but also perplexing how trends in the software industry can completely ignore what customers actually want.
- iLoveOncall 2y ago
  No PHP nor JavaScript SDK? You guys don't like money?
  - harryf 2y ago
    It's a fair point. Most of our customers work with CPP, C# and Java in enterprise / back office contexts, which is why no PHP or Javascript right now - we've been tied up with other priorities. That said we just added Python to our main SDK and PHP is coming. Plus our enterprise automation product can basically talk to anything via REST API ( https://www.pdf-tools.com/docs/conversion-service/api/conversion-service/ https://www.pdf-tools.com/docs/conversion-service/api/conver... ). But yeah - now you got me fired up to annoy some colleagues ;)
    - tracker1 2y ago
      I would think that JS/TS support would be relatively high up... my own bias speaking, but a lot of development and effort to easing cloud apps is JS/TS centric.
  - lomase 2y ago
    PHP and Javascript? So you never worked on "enterprise"?
    - iLoveOncall 2y ago
      I work in a FAANG on stuff that is definitely "enterprise software", a major part of what we develop is written in TypeScript. I admit PHP will not be as good of a candidate but for smaller companies it is still extremely attractive, and it's probably easier to develop since you can write PHP extension in C.
chakintosh 2y ago
docker pull frooodle/stirling-pdf-base
- nashashmi 2y ago
  This was on hn a couple of days ago. Stirling pdf is a self hosted docker container and this way you don’t have to worry about files being uploaded. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40242639 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40242639 I almost thought this hn post was the same service wrapped in a show and tell.
  - darken 2y ago
    I had just setup "Stirling PDF" on my home NAS a few of weeks ago, since my SO needed to merge some documents and I'd recently read that (or a similar) HN thread. I definitely would recommend it. It was really quick to setup; though my already having a reverse proxy with wild card TLS certs setup probably helped streamline the networking side of things. https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF
hyuuu 2y ago
this might be a stupid question, but how do the teams share the documents?
nip 2y ago
For anyone looking edit/fill PDFs locally (the data you fill in and document you load stay in your browser): https://SimplePDF.eu https://SimplePDF.eu You can read more in the privacy policy [1] It can also be embed in any website [2] Disclosure: I’m the developer behind it [1] https://simplepdf.eu/privacy-policy https://simplepdf.eu/privacy-policy [2] https://simplepdf.github.io/ https://simplepdf.github.io/

sanusihassan 2y ago

I understand that you want to keep your work private and not expose your documents to the internet, but there might be a situation where the document isn't that important to you and any online solution would be sufficient, let's say you one of your friends tells you to ask the ai a math problem they want to know how to solve/learn but the ai only understands text then you need to ocr the pdf which is jpg converted then copy it to the ai, you might be on your phone or away from your desktop environment, here you might consider using an online solution like pdfequips :)

pan69 2y ago

Sounds to me like that (a desktop app version) is the product to sell (since the online service seems to be free).

thekevan 2y ago

I'd also not upload any personal or identifying docs up to this, but I would use it for fliers and it would REALLY be useful converting PDFs I downloaded off the ineternet to begin with. (I've downloaded stuff in the past that I had to convert in order enter the data on the PDF into my computer. Geologic data for maps, list of states with capitals, alphabetized by them--well before ChatGPT, the list goes on.)

ranger_danger 2y ago

Stirling-pdf. You can self-host it. Even though it all runs locally anyway

re-thc 2y ago

> This isn’t just a niche issue either: this is a very real consideration for any corporate user Very true, but I'd wish this "common" knowledge is more widespread. Security is a major issue commonly overlooked. People do a lot of insecure things for convenience.

m3h 2y ago

In that case, you can use https://www.pdftool.org/ https://www.pdftool.org/, which runs in the browser but offline and never uploads your files to any server.

szundi 2y ago
How can I really know that as a random user
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  Unplug your network cable when you use it.
  - zo1 2y ago
    And it stores it in local storage and uploads it using a service worker later when I'm online?
    - Rinzler89 2y ago
      Use incognito mode then close that window before reconnecting online?
      - navane 2y ago
        I'd suggest install a separate browser (there exists a myriad by now), unplug internet, use the service, uninstall the separate browser, reboot pc.
        Rinzler89 2y ago
        I suggest a separate VM for that, that you can delete when you're done. Add put the VM on a separate PC that you bought with cash off craigslist. Then toss the PC away in a different postcode when you're done. Then you can use the PDF tool safely without fear you're being tracked.

harryf 2y ago

I work at https://www.pdf-tools.com https://www.pdf-tools.com and we hear this again and again. Despite the proliferation of cloud services, most large enterprises DO NOT want their sensitive documents entering the cloud. And in some cases, e.g. patient medical records, there are strict regulations about how those documents can be stored, which means on-premise is a requirement. Good news for us, as that's what we specialise in, but also perplexing how trends in the software industry can completely ignore what customers actually want.

iLoveOncall 2y ago
No PHP nor JavaScript SDK? You guys don't like money?
- harryf 2y ago
  It's a fair point. Most of our customers work with CPP, C# and Java in enterprise / back office contexts, which is why no PHP or Javascript right now - we've been tied up with other priorities. That said we just added Python to our main SDK and PHP is coming. Plus our enterprise automation product can basically talk to anything via REST API ( https://www.pdf-tools.com/docs/conversion-service/api/conversion-service/ https://www.pdf-tools.com/docs/conversion-service/api/conver... ). But yeah - now you got me fired up to annoy some colleagues ;)
  - tracker1 2y ago
    I would think that JS/TS support would be relatively high up... my own bias speaking, but a lot of development and effort to easing cloud apps is JS/TS centric.
- lomase 2y ago
  PHP and Javascript? So you never worked on "enterprise"?
  - iLoveOncall 2y ago
    I work in a FAANG on stuff that is definitely "enterprise software", a major part of what we develop is written in TypeScript. I admit PHP will not be as good of a candidate but for smaller companies it is still extremely attractive, and it's probably easier to develop since you can write PHP extension in C.

chakintosh 2y ago

docker pull frooodle/stirling-pdf-base

nashashmi 2y ago
This was on hn a couple of days ago. Stirling pdf is a self hosted docker container and this way you don’t have to worry about files being uploaded. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40242639 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40242639 I almost thought this hn post was the same service wrapped in a show and tell.
- darken 2y ago
  I had just setup "Stirling PDF" on my home NAS a few of weeks ago, since my SO needed to merge some documents and I'd recently read that (or a similar) HN thread. I definitely would recommend it. It was really quick to setup; though my already having a reverse proxy with wild card TLS certs setup probably helped streamline the networking side of things. https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF

hyuuu 2y ago

this might be a stupid question, but how do the teams share the documents?

nip 2y ago

For anyone looking edit/fill PDFs locally (the data you fill in and document you load stay in your browser): https://SimplePDF.eu https://SimplePDF.eu You can read more in the privacy policy [1] It can also be embed in any website [2] Disclosure: I’m the developer behind it [1] https://simplepdf.eu/privacy-policy https://simplepdf.eu/privacy-policy [2] https://simplepdf.github.io/ https://simplepdf.github.io/