Privacy
PDF Tools Without Upload: Every Tool Runs in Your Browser
Merge, compress, redact, OCR, AI summaries — every PDF tool runs locally in your browser. No upload, no account. Verify it yourself in the Network tab.
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PDF guides & know-how
Blog
Guides, tutorials and comparisons on private PDF
Comparisons
Stirling PDF vs Document Flare: Privacy Without Self-Hosting
Same promise — your files never leave — but two models: Stirling PDF is self-hosted (Docker, server, maintenance), Document Flare makes the browser the server. An honest comparison.
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Tutorials
Clean a PDF before sharing: metadata, scripts and attachments
A shared PDF can reveal its author, dates, software and forgotten attachments. Learn to tell structural cleanup, content redaction and encryption apart — three different problems.
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Tutorials
Convert a PDF to Markdown locally: structure and limits
Extract structured text from a PDF as Markdown — headings, paragraphs, tables — directly in the browser, without sending the file.
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Tutorials
Search a PDF by meaning, locally
Discover local semantic PDF search: find passages by their meaning with embeddings running in your browser, without sending the document anywhere.
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Privacy
How Document Flare Processes a 200-Page PDF Without Leaving the Browser
A dive into the local architecture: file parsing, workers, PDF and OCR engines running in the browser. What actually happens when you drop a large document.
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Privacy
PDF Passwords: What Encryption Really Does (AES, RC4 and the Honest Limits)
AES-256, AES-128 or RC4? How to check a protected PDF's real algorithm, why password encryption doesn't do everything, and why Document Flare always produces AES-256.
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Tutorials
Extract a PDF table to Excel or CSV: what actually works
Convert a PDF to Excel without upload: how tables are detected locally, when to choose CSV or XLSX, and which limits to expect.
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Tutorials
Summarize PDF Without Uploading — Local AI, Private
Summarize a PDF without uploading it, using the AI built into Chrome or Edge 138+. The model runs on-device; Markdown output, limits explained.
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