Files

PDF and file tools

Compress, merge, convert, and strip EXIF without sending the file to a random server. Heavy work still runs in your tab — large decks can make the fan spin. That is the trade for not uploading a file that might contain a payslip, a passport scan, or a client contract to a service you've never heard of.

Pick the right tool

Shrink a deck before you email it: compressor. Combine scanned pages or pull a range out of a bigger file: merge & split. Need a PNG of page 3 for a slide: PDF to image. Stack a folder of receipt photos into one PDF for expense reports: image to PDF. Sharing a photo and don't want the embedded GPS coordinates and camera serial number riding along: EXIF remover. Passworded bank PDF: unlock (flattened) or parse rows with statement → Excel. Black boxes that actually destroy type: true redaction. Drop a file once and pipe it: chained workspace.

Methodology — what "local" means for a 40MB file

These tools use pdf-lib and the Canvas API in the browser's own memory space; nothing is chunked and uploaded to a backend for processing. The trade-off is real: a phone browser compressing a 200-page scanned PDF will be slower and hungrier than a server farm built for that job. Compression works by re-encoding embedded images at a lower quality/resolution and removing unused object streams — it will not shrink a PDF that is mostly vector text much further, because there is little redundant image data to strip. EXIF removal works by redrawing the image onto a blank canvas and re-exporting it, which drops all metadata by construction rather than editing the metadata block field-by-field.

Worked example

A 15MB PDF of scanned receipts, each page a 300dpi JPEG, typically compresses to 2–4MB after the compressor re-encodes each embedded image around 60–70% JPEG quality — visibly fine on screen, noticeably smaller for email attachment limits (most inboxes cap around 20–25MB). A photo straight off a phone often carries 20+ EXIF fields including precise GPS coordinates; running it through the EXIF remover before posting it publicly removes all of them in one pass, verifiable by re-checking the output file's metadata in your OS's file properties panel.

Limits worth knowing

Password-protected or heavily corrupted PDFs may fail to parse — that is a tool limitation, not a data leak, since nothing left your machine. Very large files (100MB+) can hit browser memory limits, especially on mobile; if a tab crashes, no partial file was uploaded anywhere to clean up.