Hi HN, I'm the creator of LocalPDF (
https://localpdf.online).
The thing I'm sharing here is Studio: https://localpdf.online/app/studio
Most PDF apps are built around isolated tools — merge, split, rotate, delete pages, edit text, and so on. That works fine for one-off tasks, but a lot of real PDF work isn't one-off. Usually it's more like: open a few files, compare them, pull pages from one into another, remove junk, reorder things, make a couple of edits, then export the result.
That workflow always felt awkward to me in traditional PDF editors because you keep bouncing between separate tools and separate screens.
So I built Studio around a different model — a drag-and-drop workspace for PDFs. Instead of doing one tool at a time, you can:
- Drop multiple PDF files into one workspace
- Arrange documents on a canvas
- Drag pages between documents
- Copy, reorder, and delete pages
- Edit inside the same working area
- Export when you're done
Everything still runs locally in the browser on the user's machine — no file uploads, privacy by default, performance depends on the user's hardware, not a remote queue.
Under the hood: the UI is a canvas-style workspace, page operations are composed locally, and the output PDF is rebuilt on-device rather than sent to a backend for processing.
I've also been testing it on larger documents, because this kind of interface only matters if it still feels usable once the file stops being a tiny 3-page PDF.
What I was aiming for was something that feels less like filling out forms and more like actually working with documents.
I'd especially love feedback on:
1. Does this feel meaningfully different from existing PDF editors?
2. Is drag-and-drop organization actually a better mental model for PDF work?
3. If you work with large PDFs, what workflows would you stress test first?
Happy to answer technical questions too.
The thing I'm sharing here is Studio: https://localpdf.online/app/studio
Most PDF apps are built around isolated tools — merge, split, rotate, delete pages, edit text, and so on. That works fine for one-off tasks, but a lot of real PDF work isn't one-off. Usually it's more like: open a few files, compare them, pull pages from one into another, remove junk, reorder things, make a couple of edits, then export the result.
That workflow always felt awkward to me in traditional PDF editors because you keep bouncing between separate tools and separate screens.
So I built Studio around a different model — a drag-and-drop workspace for PDFs. Instead of doing one tool at a time, you can:
- Drop multiple PDF files into one workspace - Arrange documents on a canvas - Drag pages between documents - Copy, reorder, and delete pages - Edit inside the same working area - Export when you're done
Everything still runs locally in the browser on the user's machine — no file uploads, privacy by default, performance depends on the user's hardware, not a remote queue.
Under the hood: the UI is a canvas-style workspace, page operations are composed locally, and the output PDF is rebuilt on-device rather than sent to a backend for processing.
I've also been testing it on larger documents, because this kind of interface only matters if it still feels usable once the file stops being a tiny 3-page PDF.
What I was aiming for was something that feels less like filling out forms and more like actually working with documents.
I'd especially love feedback on: 1. Does this feel meaningfully different from existing PDF editors? 2. Is drag-and-drop organization actually a better mental model for PDF work? 3. If you work with large PDFs, what workflows would you stress test first?
Happy to answer technical questions too.