Hi folks!

I’m the creator of BentoPDF. It is an open source PDF toolkit that runs entirely in your browser. Your documents stay private, by design.

BentoPDF started as a small side project, but over time it has grown into something much bigger. With our latest major update, BentoPDF now includes 100+ tools, all running fully client-side.

You can do the basics like merge PDFs(while preserving bookmarks), split documents, extract or delete pages, reorder files, rotate pages, and compress PDFs. Thee are also some advanced tools.

You can edit and annotate PDFs directly in the browser: highlight text, add comments, draw shapes, insert images, fill(including XFA) and create forms, manage bookmarks, generate tables of contents, redact, add headers, footers, watermarks, and page numbers.

BentoPDF also supports an extensive range of file conversions. You can convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Pages, CSV, RTF, EPUB, MOBI, comic book formats, and many more into PDFs, and also convert PDFs back into Word, Excel, images, Markdown, CSV, JSON, and plain text.

For images, BentoPDF supports a massive variety of formats, including HEIC, WebP, SVG, PSD, JP2, and and aalso other formats such as EPUB, CBR/CBZ. You can convert images to PDFs, extract images from PDFs in their original format, or rasterize PDFs with full DPI control.

There are also organization and optimization tools: OCR, PDF/A conversion, booklet creation, N-up layouts, page division, attachment management, layer (OCG) editing, metadata inspection and editing, repair tools, and advanced compression algorithms that rival commercial solutions.

The latest update also includes AI ready extraction tools to export PDFs to structured JSON, extract tables as CSV/Markdown/JSON, and prepare PDFs for RAG and LLM workflows.

All of this works entirely in the browser, without accounts, uploads, or tracking.

This is my first post here and I hope you like it. Any feedback or feature requests are appreciated. Thank you.

Github Link: https://github.com/alam00000/bentopdf

  • ChocolateFrostedSugarBombs@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    I don’t suppose you’re able to sign PDFs with something like a CAC card right? Is that still wholly in the realm of acrobat?

    Literally the only thing I need another software to do so I can finally uninstall the last Adobe product from my VM. I’m running Linux so getting this functionality in Linux would be ideal. But since no one else has done it, I assume Adobe has some kind of stranglehold on that process?

    • alam@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      sorry but this is the first time I am hearing of a CAC card. Can you give me more details. I can check it out then

      • ChocolateFrostedSugarBombs@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        No problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Access_Card

        Essentially it’s a physical token containing a certificate. I can then put that card into a CAC card reader and authenticate with it and a PIN that I setup on my card.

        I can then also sign PDF signature blocks with the cert on the card. I have only found this ability in Adobe Acrobat. The signature block in Adobe is different from just their regular sign location for digital ink. I’ve never made a PDF with one of those blocks, I’ve only just signed them so I’m not sure what exactly that kind of signing block is called.

        So bottom line, it’s a physical card with a certificate loaded on it. Adobe can read that cert and use it to sign signature blocks inside a PDF.

  • Konraddo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    Some features seem to limit the working area to only the middle part of the browser. For example, the Multi Tool use 100% width but the Editor uses 33% only. Would love to see all features making full use of the screen size.

    • alam@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      There is a use full width toggle which you can find under preferences in setting button in the search bar. I will make this the defult in next release

      • Konraddo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        24 hours ago

        Perfect! Honestly though, I would expect the gears icon to appear in the top right corner, not in the search bar😅

    • alam@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      9·
      2 days ago

      Not sure, as I haven’t used Stirling and at the same time I didn’t make it to compete with other tools. Hence I never mention its better than xyz tool either on our github or website. Users would have to do their own due diligence in this case. However it does have the best bookmark tool in the market(yes, better than adobe acrobat) and also a form creator tool, among others, which you can’t find in other OS tools.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      2 days ago

      Honestly, I think this is just one where you try it for yourself. The compose file is about 4 lines long, I had the whole thing up and running in about 30 seconds (OK, 45; I forgot a port was already in use and had to redeploy).

      So far my one big complaint would be that the self-hosted version replicates the entire website, including all of the “Why choose Bento PDF” and “Try now” and so on. It’d be nice to just have the tools right there when I load it up. Other than that, well, it looks cool, I’ll know more once I actually try out the available options.

    • krash@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      As someone who have been using both, you don’t need an account to use bentopdf. All the data is processed locally, making it excellent for a single user scenario. I drink Sterling has a very handy omni-tool, but I dare say it’s a matter of preference.

      I go with bento where I can, and use sterling as a fallback.

  • water1309@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    I could really use this, so I will definitely set this up. I saw there is an issue open for adding hyperlinks. Any word on how that is progressing (or not)?

  • BoxOfFeet@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    This would be fantastic for at work. I saw in another comment that it’s a one time fee commercial use license. That’s fantastic. How it with merging PDFs with different page sizes and orientations? I would use it for merging drawing packages together, and there’s a mix of like, A0, A1, and A3.

    • alam@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      It can merge any type of pages. Also, if there is bookmarks in your PDFs, then it also preserves it. There’s also an alternate merge feature in case you want (:

  • rotkehlchen@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    29·
    2 days ago

    Thank you so much. Why did you start this project, which certainly involves a lot of work? ( aka why are you so cool?)

    • alam@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      351·
      2 days ago

      Thank you! It started off as a simple tool as I wanted to merge PDFs visually by applying page ranges and I couldn’t find any offline tool for that. I happened to then post it on reddit, and people asked me to open source it. After which I kept adding features on request and here we are 😂

  • tburkhol@lemmy.worldEnglish
    64·
    2 days ago

    Great project. I like the 1-star reviews complaining about the lack of advertising and tracking.

  • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    I’m stoked to give it a try. I left my last PDF application because they injected AI into it. So I’ve been shopping around a little. I’ve been using Okular, but it’s really limited, even as a viewer. This looks awesome. Nicely done! I hope you keep at it!

  • Lowlands@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    2 days ago

    Been using this for a while now, wife and kids are also very pleased with it. Easy to use and great layout, thank you so much!

    • Luckyfriend222@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      Does each user have their own account? Or can anyone and everyone see all the pdfs? Or are the pdfs only stored for the duration of the browser session?

      • alam@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        20·
        2 days ago

        There are no accounts or signup. All the processing happens locally in your browser. In fact, you can even use it offline once the page is loaded, and only you have access to the PDFs

        • psycotica0@lemmy.caEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          Everything local, I assume, means no upload? My dad does house inspections and so there’s like 4 or 5 pdf forms he fills out all the time. If he were using this, would he upload the template every time, or could he upload it once and then fill it out multiple times?

          I assume also that it wouldn’t keep a history of each finished file, and it’s all ephemeral?

          • alam@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
            9·
            2 days ago

            It never keeps any history, the TTL for the document is only as long as you are not done with the processing. There is no template system now. However I am planning to include a JSON based templating system which you can upload once and save and can be reused to auto fill forms

  • dhtseany@lemmy.mlEnglish
    51·
    2 days ago

    How about email conversion functionality? I get lots of law offices in the USA looking to push an outlook data file in and receive an organized lot PDF back out. On the roadmap?

      • dhtseany@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Heck yeah, appreciate your efforts, you’re creating a product to compete with software suites that are incredibly expensive to buy per user per year, you’re doing the needful

  • carrylex@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago

    8k Stars in 2 months. Wild…

    PS: Your git is misconfigured and doesn’t line up with your GH account…