4 ms·

Show HN: pdfdark.com – view pdf's in "dark mode" all on client

22 points by iamdan 2y ago

I wanted a way to read PDFs at night and not burn my retinas out so I whipped together this super simple website with Claude to solve my problem. It uses Mozilla's pdf.js library to load and render a PDF and then inverts the colors with CSS. It has basic controls like zoom in, zoom out, reset zoom, previous and next page. There are some keyboard shortcuts that you can find by toggling the "q" key.

jktzes 2y ago
[dead]
miles 2y ago
For those uncomfortable uploading documents, a number of other native apps also dark/inversion mode, including Skim for macOS: https://skim-app.sourceforge.io https://skim-app.sourceforge.io .
imiric 2y ago
Zathura can also do this. E.g. https://github.com/dracula/zathura https://github.com/dracula/zathura
- iamdan 2y ago
  that's sweet, love dracula theme
KTibow 2y ago
It's unfortunate that this isn't a default option. The only viewer I've seen that happens to be able to do this is Gnome's Document Viewer.
- rudy6912 2y ago
  Also PDF Tools for Emacs, where PDF can match your theme.
- johnisgood 2y ago
  You can invert colors in MuPDF, and someone added a way to save your settings (incl. width and height, position of window, inverted color, zoom) and whatnot upon quitting. This person added a search history too (per PDF). I forgot who though, which might make my comment not-so-helpful. If interested, I am willing to look for it, might be someone I follow.
drops 2y ago
For those who read on mobile and are too lazy to convert all they have, a quick access shortcut to the 'inverted colors' display mode helps.
matznerd 2y ago
A better question is how do we not have a dark mode/system settings for HN?
- iamdan 2y ago
  v true
- vednig 2y ago
  i use https://hacked.stream https://hacked.stream
- imiric 2y ago
  HN is very easy to style with custom CSS, because the HTML never changes. I've been using this theme[1] for many years now. There are also alternative frontends[2] that support dark mode, like a sibling comment mentioned. Though it would be nice if the native theme at least respected the user's `prefers-color-scheme` setting. [1]: https://github.com/pyxelr/hacker-news-bluish-gray https://github.com/pyxelr/hacker-news-bluish-gray [2]: https://github.com/cheeaun/awesome-hacker-news#web https://github.com/cheeaun/awesome-hacker-news#web

22 points by iamdan 2y ago

jktzes 2y ago

[dead]

miles 2y ago

For those uncomfortable uploading documents, a number of other native apps also dark/inversion mode, including Skim for macOS: https://skim-app.sourceforge.io https://skim-app.sourceforge.io .

imiric 2y ago

Zathura can also do this. E.g. https://github.com/dracula/zathura https://github.com/dracula/zathura

iamdan 2y ago
that's sweet, love dracula theme

KTibow 2y ago

It's unfortunate that this isn't a default option. The only viewer I've seen that happens to be able to do this is Gnome's Document Viewer.

rudy6912 2y ago
Also PDF Tools for Emacs, where PDF can match your theme.
johnisgood 2y ago
You can invert colors in MuPDF, and someone added a way to save your settings (incl. width and height, position of window, inverted color, zoom) and whatnot upon quitting. This person added a search history too (per PDF). I forgot who though, which might make my comment not-so-helpful. If interested, I am willing to look for it, might be someone I follow.

drops 2y ago

For those who read on mobile and are too lazy to convert all they have, a quick access shortcut to the 'inverted colors' display mode helps.

matznerd 2y ago

A better question is how do we not have a dark mode/system settings for HN?

iamdan 2y ago
v true
vednig 2y ago
i use https://hacked.stream https://hacked.stream
imiric 2y ago
HN is very easy to style with custom CSS, because the HTML never changes. I've been using this theme[1] for many years now. There are also alternative frontends[2] that support dark mode, like a sibling comment mentioned. Though it would be nice if the native theme at least respected the user's `prefers-color-scheme` setting. [1]: https://github.com/pyxelr/hacker-news-bluish-gray https://github.com/pyxelr/hacker-news-bluish-gray [2]: https://github.com/cheeaun/awesome-hacker-news#web https://github.com/cheeaun/awesome-hacker-news#web