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

  • electric_nan@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    Thanks for this! I saw this post yesterday, and decided to check it out. I installed it locally on my laptop, and am evaluating it for work. If I recommend it for use, we’ll get a license :).

    Since the idea would be to replace Adobe for non-Pro (and maybe some Pro accounts), ease of use for low-tech users is at the front of my mind. Not being able to “set as default” for PDFs is not ideal, but I understand the limitation comes from running in the browser. Is there some way to open the PDF, and then choose which tool to use? Rather than how it seems now: choose the tool/function, then upload the PDF.

    • alam@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      In next week we are going to be releasing Desktop apps, so you can download it and then set as default viewer

  • tburkhol@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    4 days ago

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

  • Lemminary@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    4 days ago

    I’ve used it before for a job application! I needed to send them sensitive data. Tysm!

    Great intuitive UI, does what it says, and it’s fast. 5/5

  • rotkehlchen@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    11·
    4 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
      101·
      4 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 😂

  • Lowlands@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    4 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
      2·
      4 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
        5·
        4 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

  • Codename_goose@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    a small question, if I may.

    When I worked in technical support for a popular phone brand a lifetime ago, I had to make clickable “navigatable” pdfs. Create empty objects around apps and settings so that technicians could help clients without having access to their phone or device with current OS update. I would update mine and take screen shots then convert those with clickable objects to switch to the correct page to act as a sudo phone/tablet. Is this something that BentoPDF can do?

  • Konraddo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 days 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
      2·
      3 days 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
        1·
        3 days 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
      5·
      4 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
      2·
      4 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·
      3 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.

  • fubarx@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    4 days ago

    This looks great!

    Can you use it to overlay text fields and fill them?

    Most of my uses are basic. Like filling out a PDF form that doesn’t have proper form entry fields. These are usually older government or bureaucratic/healthcare/school forms.

    I end up adding text boxes and entering values, or adding an X on top of a checkbox, adding a signature PNG file and scaling it to fit the size. Sometimes I have to add a highlight overlay. Then I save it all as a single flattened PDF file.

    Amazingly, this is hard to do in Acrobat and a lot of apps. I end up using a janky, 10-yo desktop app that is no longer supported.

  • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 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!

  • carrylex@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    8k Stars in 2 months. Wild…

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