- Hey guys, we're building LuxPDF.com, an ongoing project to develop the most transparent PDF WebApp in the world. We just launched (so expect some bugs, UI problems etc.), and our site is currently in early-stage development. We offer over 15+ PDF Tools, all completely free, all open-sourced, all client-side, with no registration needed, no file size limits, and no batch processing limits.
We built this because we're students, so we constantly used these PDF WebApps to convert, and compress PDF Files, files that contained very sensitive information like names, financial information, etc. We were so frustrated with current WebApps because they required logins, had restrictions if you were on their free plan, were closed source etc. So we built LuxPDF to try and solve the problem of bad PDF WebApps in 2025.
The only source of funding we seek is just donations through BuyMeACoffee/Sponsors. All we're asking simply is, if you value what we do, we warmly welcome your support, whether it's just recommending our site to a friend or colleague, finding bugs, suggesting new features, or donating through BuyMeACoffee. Any donators/sponsors will have their names/banner and a custom message of their choice listed on the webapp, as a Thank You.
- This is really excellent work team. It's great to see more straight-forward but polished tools that solve a concrete problem simply.
- For sure, we're still very early in development but we didn't know how hard it was going to be to develop it, so we decided to open-source it. Worst case scenario, if we fail, someone could use our repo for motivation, clean it up and maybe launch something better.
- Is it a competitor to tools like Sedja?
- Here's the link to our Repo: https://github.com/VSRemoter/LuxPDF
- > You agree not to use LuxPDF to process any material that is unlawful, offensive, or otherwise objectionable.
So I can't take Hunie Pop images and convert them to PDF?
The site says the tool is open source but I can't find a link to said source. It also doesn't indicate which open source license is being used (presumably one is). Don't forget to put .DS_Store in your .gitignore.
And the site itself is like daggers in the eyes. Black text on white background. The dark mode hipsters will change their tune in their 30s.
What PDF revision do you support? I figure this is based on pre-existing open source libraries which typically means 1.6, max.
You should make a connector for Power Automate.
- Took me a while, but I found the repository: https://github.com/VSRemoter/LuxPDF
- Yeah, I had found it, hence my .DS_Store comment ;-)
- It's a student project with a ToS that's basically "don't use this for anything that could get us in trouble." I don't find that particularly unreasonable especially when honor codes at schools are usually stricter than "whatever is legal is allowed."
I know it's programmer-brain to naturally probe the edges of things but at the same time as adults we're expected to understand and navigate fuzzy concepts like inappropriate behavior without having to have it spelled out like you do with young kids.
- > offensive or..objectionable
Offence and objection are totally subjective. Even unlawful is very dependent on which particular country you are in.
- Heh. And if you look at the ToS, it ends with:
> These Terms of Service and your use of the website are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the applicable jurisdiction.
Which jurisdiction!? It doesn't even identify where the owners and operators reside which would be the 'default' jurisdiction.
I don't know where I am, man!
- Thank you for building this.
The biggest pain in my opinion though is PDF editing, for example, filling annoying image based forms with predefined square boxes/spaces
- How does that compare to https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF ?
- A cursory check reveals some answers:
* the one you linked is a browser-based thin client; this one runs right on the user's machine
* 100% less Docker and other devslop—drastically simpler deployment and development cycles
- It still seems to require a browser to use. But sure, I guess it's easier to start with.
- Is it just only me that is wondering why Microsoft does not provide a productivity tool to rival Adobe virtual monopoly on PDF viewing and editing?
Just include this PDF software in the 365 subscription and see how many are still subscribing to the bane of Adobe PDF software suites.
- Adobe threatened Microsoft with an antitrust lawsuit when Microsoft wanted to add PDF export functionality to Office 2007.
I can't imagine how Adobe would react if they built a whole PDF solution!
- Thanks for the info.
Nothing happened when Microsoft added the PDF export functionality to Office, it's an empty threat after all.
Last year apparently OnlyOffice 8.1 has added PDF native editing in their software suites.
- they complete somewhat in some niche cases. eg edge can handle encrypted and even classified pdf workloads
but run of the mill editing stuff? dream on lol
- In case your first instinct (like mine) was to browse through the implementation, the javascript is at https://github.com/VSRemoter/LuxPDF/blob/main/script.js
- Thanks. I'll add the answer to my own question too: pdfLib is the dependency at work to make it work in the browser runtime.
- Yes, I can't believe I didn't attach on the main site, will do this asap haha
- I don't want this to sound like an accusation, but did you vibe-code this? The site's style is looking very similar to what you might get from Claude.
- No it's a very valid question, yes we did use Kiro IDE running on Claude 4 for some of the more complicated tools like Sort Pages (getting the UI, image preview etc) and some other tools. Developing this PDF WebApp was a lot more complicated than we thought so we had to resort to vibe coding for some functionality. We used Claude mostly for the tools and the "initial generation"/layout of the site.
- The settings.json included in the GitHub repo has kiroAgent.configureMCP: false, so you may be correct that an AI addon was used.
In fact, that domain looks similar to luxpdf.
- Oh thank you so much. These are common and very annoying pain points.
- Alternative: Stirling PDF
- I desperately wish Stirling wasn't a webapp. Having to setup and launch a web server and browser to edit a PDF on my computer seems insane. We skipped the "foss, local app" stage, where Adobe dominates, and jumped straight to the web service model.
- I think the core audience for Stirling PDF is a lot different from ours. Stirling PDF looks like there built for enterprise users and big business. We built LuxPDF to be more for students, small business owners, freelancers, etc. To be honest we saw our site as an alternative to FreeConvert & PDFCandy, not for Stirling PDF.
- oh man, "Free, Open-Sourced, Private Alternative" and I win HN title bingo!
- Well done, hopefully gains traction. The alternative websites you talk about are an absolute nightmare to navigate only to find a suprise login or subscription.
- Yes, and we hope that at worst case, someone uses our Repo as motivation to build a better version of LuxPDF if it fails.
86 points by PseudoComputer 22 hours ago | 32 comments