About PDFTools.studio

PDFTools.studio is a set of 48 free PDF tools that run inside your web browser. You open a file, the page processes it with JavaScript on your own computer, and you download the result. Nothing is uploaded, and you do not need an account.

Why we built it

Most online PDF converters work by uploading your file to a server, processing it there, and sending the result back. That is fine for a flyer. It is less fine for a contract, a medical record or a tax return. We wanted tools that never see the file at all, so every tool on this site does its work with open-source libraries (pdf-lib, pdf.js, Tesseract and a few others) loaded into your browser. The comparisons with other PDF services show what that choice gains and what it gives up.

What that means for you

Your file is held in your browser's memory only while a tool works on it, and it is gone when you close the tab. Because there is no upload, the speed depends on your computer rather than on your connection or a server queue.

The trade-off is that a browser can do less than a desktop application. Office conversions are text-only, OCR downloads its language data once before it can run, and large files depend on how much memory your device has. Each tool page says what it does and does not handle, so you know before you start.

How the tools are built

There is no framework and no build step: each tool is one HTML page and one plain JavaScript file. Reading and writing PDFs is done by pdf-lib; rendering pages on screen and reading their text layer is done by pdf.js; ZIP downloads come from JSZip; the HTML to PDF tool paints pages with html2canvas; OCR uses Tesseract; QR codes come from qrcode-generator. Password protection and removal use the browser's own WebCrypto for AES and SHA-2. All of these libraries are open source and are loaded from public content delivery networks, so you can read exactly what runs on your file. The article how PDF tools work in a browser goes into the detail.

Because everything happens in the page, the site also works as a check on itself. Open your browser's network panel while a tool runs and you will see the libraries load and no request that carries your file (the guide on checking whether a site uploads your file shows how). The two documented exceptions are OCR, which downloads its language data on first use, and the "Webpage URL" mode of HTML to PDF, which sends the address you type to a proxy so the page can be fetched at all.

What we do not do

We do not ask you to create an account, we do not add a watermark, and we do not keep a copy of anything you process, because we never receive it. Google Analytics and advertising are optional. Advertising stays off until you accept it. Where your device's time zone is in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, Google Analytics also waits for your answer in the cookie banner; in other time zones it runs until you switch it off under Cookie settings in the footer. The cookie policy lists everything the site stores in your browser. We also do not claim more than a tool can do: the Office converters are text-only, redaction warns you if a word survived, and remove watermark tells you when it found nothing rather than returning the same file as a success.

Found a bug?

Email support@pdftools.studio or use the contact form. The most useful report names the tool, the browser and device, what you expected, what happened instead, and the size and origin of the file (a scan, an export from Word, a form). You do not need to send the file, and we would rather you did not; a description of it is usually enough to reproduce the problem with a similar document.