A completely free, browser-based PDF editor that allows users to upload, edit, and download PDFs without any registration or authentication required.

This application does NOT save any customer data:

• ✅ Zero disk storage - All PDFs processed entirely in memory
• ✅ No database - No persistent data storage
• ✅ No file logging - No customer data in logs
• ✅ Memory-only processing - Files discarded immediately after response
• ✅ 100% stateless - No data retention whatsoever

See PRIVACY_STATUS.md for detailed privacy compliance information.

This project provides a modern, ad-supported PDF editing service that:

• Requires no user authentication or registration
• Shows a brief 5-second ad modal before editing begins
• Offers full PDF editing capabilities (text, drawings, highlights, signatures, text selection)
• Processes all files in memory - never saves to disk
• Is completely free to use
• 100% privacy compliant - no data storage or retention

• Text Annotations - Add custom text anywhere on the PDF
• Drawing Tool - Freehand drawing with customizable colors
• Highlights - Highlight important sections with color overlays
• Signatures - Add text-based signatures to documents
• Text Selection - Select and copy text directly from PDFs
• Annotation Selection - Click to select, move, resize annotations
• Multi-select - Select multiple annotations with Shift/Cmd+Click
• Undo/Redo - Full history support for all operations
• Zoom Controls - Zoom from 0.5x to 3x with accurate annotation positioning

• React + TypeScript - Modern, type-safe React application
• Tailwind CSS - Utility-first CSS framework for styling
• Material UI Icons - Professional icon set
• Framer Motion - Smooth animations and transitions
• Zustand - Lightweight state management
• i18next - Internationalization (English, Spanish, French)
• PDF.js - PDF rendering with text layer extraction for selection
• Vite - Fast build tool and dev server

• Node.js + Express - RESTful API server
• TypeScript - Type-safe backend code
• Multer (Memory Storage) - File upload handling (memory-only)
• pdf-lib - PDF manipulation and annotation rendering
• Helmet - Security middleware
• Rate Limiting - Prevent API abuse
• Winston - Console-only logging (no file logs)

1. Ad Modal - 5-second countdown with non-intrusive ad display
2. PDF Viewer - Interactive PDF rendering with page navigation and zoom controls
3. Text Layer - Invisible text layer for native browser text selection
4. Toolbar - Tools for text, drawing, highlighting, signatures, and selection
5. Annotation Overlay - Renders annotations on top of PDF canvas
6. Selection Overlay - Visual selection indicators with resize handles
7. Download - Export edited PDFs instantly with annotations burned in

• PDF Coordinate System - Accurate coordinate conversion between CSS pixels and PDF points using PDF.js transform matrices
• Zoom-Independent Annotations - Annotations remain accurate across all zoom levels (0.5x - 3x)
• Text Selection - Native browser text selection with proper text layer alignment
• Non-destructive Editing - Annotations stored in PDF coordinate space, properly converted during export
• Memory-Only Processing - All file operations happen in RAM, zero disk writes
• Coordinate Transformation - Handles PDF.js (top-left origin) to pdf-lib (bottom-left origin) conversion

• Node.js 20+
• npm or yarn
• Docker (optional, for containerized deployment)

1. Clone the repository:

git clone <repository-url>
cd Free_PDF_Editor

2. Install root dependencies:

npm install

3. Install frontend dependencies:

cd frontend
npm install
cd ..

4. Install backend dependencies:

cd backend
npm install
cd ..

1. Start the backend server:

npm run dev:backend

Server will run at http://localhost:3000

2. In a new terminal, start the frontend:

npm run dev:frontend

Frontend will run at http://localhost:5173

1. Build the application:

npm run build:frontend
npm run build:backend  # Or just use tsx watch in dev mode

2. Start the server:

npm run start:backend

1. Build and run with Docker Compose:

docker-compose up --build

2. Access the application at http://localhost:3000

Free_PDF_Editor/
├── frontend/                 # React frontend application
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/       # React components
│   │   │   ├── PDFViewer.tsx      # Main PDF viewer with annotation overlay
│   │   │   ├── TextLayer.tsx      # Text selection layer
│   │   │   ├── SelectionOverlay.tsx # Selection indicators
│   │   │   ├── Toolbar.tsx        # Tool selection toolbar
│   │   │   └── AdModal.tsx        # Ad display modal
│   │   ├── pages/           # Page components
│   │   │   ├── HomePage.tsx       # Landing page
│   │   │   └── EditorPage.tsx     # Main editor interface
│   │   ├── store/           # Zustand state management
│   │   │   └── pdfStore.ts        # PDF state and annotations
│   │   ├── utils/           # Utility functions
│   │   │   ├── coordinateUtils.ts # PDF coordinate conversion
│   │   │   ├── annotationUtils.ts # Annotation hit testing
│   │   │   └── api.ts             # API client
│   │   ├── i18n/            # Internationalization (EN, ES, FR)
│   │   └── types/           # TypeScript type definitions
│   ├── public/              # Static assets
│   └── package.json
├── backend/                 # Node.js backend server
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── controllers/     # Route controllers
│   │   │   └── pdf.controller.ts  # PDF processing endpoints
│   │   ├── services/        # Business logic
│   │   │   └── pdf.service.ts     # PDF manipulation with pdf-lib
│   │   ├── routes/          # API routes
│   │   │   └── pdf.routes.ts      # PDF API routes
│   │   └── utils/           # Helper functions
│   │       ├── logger.ts          # Console-only logging
│   │       └── fileUtils.ts       # File validation utilities
│   ├── dist/                # Compiled TypeScript
│   └── package.json
├── Dockerfile               # Docker container config
├── docker-compose.yml      # Docker Compose configuration
├── setup.sh                # Setup script for dependencies
├── QUICKSTART.md           # Quick start guide
├── PRIVACY_STATUS.md       # Privacy compliance documentation
├── DELETE_TEXT_PLAN.md     # Plan for text deletion feature
└── package.json            # Root package.json

Process a PDF with annotations and return the edited version.

Request:

• file: PDF file (multipart/form-data)
• annotations: JSON array of annotations (with PDF coordinate points)

Response: Edited PDF file with annotations burned in

Annotation Format:

{
  id: string;
  type: 'text' | 'drawing' | 'highlight' | 'signature';
  x: number;              // PDF points (not pixels)
  y: number;              // PDF points (not pixels)
  width?: number;        // PDF points
  height?: number;        // PDF points
  content?: string;       // For text annotations
  data?: string;          // For drawing paths or signature images
  color?: string;         // Hex color string
  pageNumber: number;     // 1-indexed page number
}

Compress a PDF to reduce file size.

Request:

• file: PDF file (multipart/form-data)

Response: Compressed PDF file

Merge multiple PDFs into a single file.

Request:

• files: Array of PDF files (multipart/form-data)

Response: Merged PDF file

Health check endpoint.

Response: { status: 'ok', timestamp: ... }

Create a .env file in the backend directory:

PORT=3000
NODE_ENV=development
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5173
LOG_LEVEL=info

Create a .env file in the frontend directory:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:3000/api

• Helmet.js - Sets various HTTP headers for security
• Rate Limiting - Prevents API abuse (100 requests per 15 minutes per IP)
• File Type Validation - Only accepts PDF files
• File Size Limits - 50MB maximum file size
• HTTPS Ready - Configured for secure connections
• CORS Protection - Controlled cross-origin requests

• Memory-Only Storage - All files processed in RAM, never written to disk
• No Database - Zero persistent data storage
• No File Logging - Console logging only, no customer data logged
• No Temp Files - Temporary file operations disabled
• Stateless Architecture - No data retention between requests
• Immediate Cleanup - Files discarded from memory after processing

See PRIVACY_STATUS.md for complete privacy compliance details.

• Chrome (latest)
• Firefox (latest)
• Safari (latest)
• Edge (latest)

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

• Basic PDF annotation tools (text, drawing, highlight, signature)
• Proper PDF coordinate system with zoom support
• Undo/redo history
• Text selection and copying from PDFs
• Annotation selection and visual feedback
• Multi-select annotations (Shift/Cmd+Click)
• Privacy-compliant architecture (memory-only processing)
• Text layer rendering for native text selection

• Delete existing PDF text (white-out overlay)
• Advanced PDF annotation tools (sticky notes, arrows)
• Drag-and-drop page reordering
• OCR text extraction
• PDF encryption/decryption
• Batch processing
• Mobile responsive optimization
• Font embedding for custom text fonts
• Collaborative editing features

• Text deletion implementation (see DELETE_TEXT_PLAN.md)

For issues, questions, or suggestions, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.

• PRIVACY_STATUS.md - Detailed privacy compliance information
• DELETE_TEXT_PLAN.md - Implementation plan for text deletion feature
• QUICKSTART.md - Quick start guide for developers

• PDF.js team - Browser-based PDF rendering and text extraction
• pdf-lib - PDF manipulation and annotation rendering
• React team - Amazing framework for building UIs
• All contributors and users - Thank you for using and improving this project

MIT License - feel free to use this project for personal or commercial purposes.