If LocalPDF Studio is useful to you, the best thing you can do is pass it on.
⭐ Leave a review on AlternativeTo
The only thing that keeps a project like this alive is people who believe in what it stands for.
Most online PDF tools are free. That's never been the problem.
The problem is why they're free.
Every time you upload a document to a random PDF website, your file is processed on servers you don't control — owned by companies whose privacy policies nobody reads. That legal contract you're compressing. That financial statement you're splitting. That medical report you're editing. Uploaded. Processed. Stored — sometimes indefinitely.
You're not paying with money. You're paying with your data.
LocalPDF Studio exists because your files should never have to leave your machine.
We're not a company. We're not monetizing anything. We're just building for the community because we believe this tool should exist — and that privacy shouldn't be a premium feature.
| Online PDF Tools | LocalPDF Studio |
|---|---|
| Files uploaded to third-party servers | Files never leave your machine |
| Privacy policies nobody reads | No policy needed — no data collected |
| Stored indefinitely | Nothing stored, ever |
| Free with hidden costs | Free. Full stop. |
| Telemetry and tracking | Zero telemetry |
A fully offline, fully open-source PDF toolkit that runs entirely on your machine.
- No server. No upload. No account.
- No tracking. No telemetry. No analytics.
- No catch. Free forever under AGPL-3.0.
Your files stay local — because they always should have.
- 📦 Compress PDFs — Reduce file size without cloud processing
- 🔀 Merge PDFs — Combine multiple files into one
- ✂️ Split PDFs — Extract pages or split by range
- ✂️ Split PDF (Vertical) — Split pages down the middle
- 🔢 Extract & Reorder Pages — Rearrange or pull specific pages
- ✂️ Crop Pages — Trim page margins or regions
- 📄 PDF to PDF/A — Convert to archival format
- 📝 PDF to Markdown — Extract content as structured text
- 🖼️ PDF Pages to Images — Export pages as high-quality images
- 🖼️ Images to PDF — Bundle images into a single PDF
- 🔍 OCR — Make scanned PDFs and images searchable
- ✏️ Add Comments, Highlights, Drawings, Text & Signatures (Powered by Mozilla PDF.js)
- 🖊️ Hand Signatures — Sign documents locally
- 🖼️ Basic Image Editor — Edit embedded images
- 🏗️ Basic Fillable PDF Builder — Create simple forms
- Build fillable PDFs with text fields, checkboxes, and dropdowns
- Flatten filled forms into a static, non-editable PDF
- Save and load form templates for reuse
- 🔒 Lock / Unlock PDFs — Password protect or remove protection
- ⬛ Redact PDF Content — Permanently remove sensitive text or regions
- 🏷️ Edit or Remove Metadata — Strip hidden document information
- 🖤 Grayscale Converter — Convert to black and white
- 🔢 Add Page Numbers — Auto-number pages
- 💧 Add Watermarks — Text or image watermarks
- 🖼️ Extract Images — Pull embedded images from PDFs
- 📊 Presentation Mode — View PDFs fullscreen
- 🌐 Multi-Language Support — Available in multiple languages
- ✅ Protects sensitive documents from third-party exposure
- ✅ Replaces tools you never fully trusted
- ✅ Works in air-gapped, offline, or restricted environments
- ✅ No account or registration wall stopping access
- ✅ Open source — audit every line, fork freely, contribute openly
If this tool protects your data, replaces something you never fully trusted, or just makes your day a little smoother — share it with someone who needs it. That matters more than anything else.
Supported on Windows, Linux, and macOS (x86_64).
| Component | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Node.js | v24 or later |
| Git | Any recent version |
| .NET SDK | 8 (recommended) |
| Python | 3.8.10+ (optional) |
| Architecture | x86_64 (Intel/AMD) |
ARM64 users: See the ARM64 build guide below.
LocalPDF Studio is built with modern web technologies and follows open-source principles. Contributions are welcome from developers who believe in privacy-focused, offline-first software.
- Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Alinur1/LocalPDF_Studio.git- Enter the project folder
cd LocalPDF_Studio- Install dependencies
npm install- Start the app
npm run startnpm run distLocalPDF Studio currently bundles x86_64 binaries only. ARM64 is unsupported but buildable by advanced users.
1. Update the build target in scripts/setup-backend.js:
| Platform | Change rid to |
|---|---|
| Windows ARM | win-arm64 |
| Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) | osx-arm64 |
| ARM Linux | linux-arm64 |
2. Update the Python engine URLs to Python 3.12.13 ARM64 standalone builds:
Or browse all builds: python-build-standalone releases
⚠️ Ensure .NET 8 SDK is installed before building.
See the docs/ folder for detailed build instructions.
- Fork the repository
- Clone your fork locally
- Make your changes
- Test thoroughly (required)
- Commit with clear messages
- Push and open a Pull Request
Licensed under AGPL-3.0. Free forever. No catch.