🔒 100% Private & Client-Side: No login required. Your files never leave your device. All processing happens locally in your browser. We never save your files.
100% Client-Side

About PDFLocal

A free, privacy-first document utility suite built and operated by CATIF.

Our Mission

PDFLocal was built with a single, unwavering mission: give everyone access to powerful document tools without sacrificing their privacy.

Every day, millions of people upload sensitive documents — tax returns, legal contracts, medical records, business proposals — to cloud-based tools that process those files on remote servers owned by companies they have never met. These files may be stored, scanned for advertising data, accessed by employees, or exposed in data breaches. Users rarely read the privacy policies that govern what happens to their documents.

We built PDFLocal to eliminate this problem entirely. By running all document processing directly in your web browser using modern JavaScript and WebAssembly APIs, we ensure that your files never travel over the network to any server. Your documents are processed using your own device's CPU and memory, and disappear from memory the moment you close the tab.

What Is CATIF?

CATIF is a technology organization based in India focused on developing free, accessible digital tools for individuals, small businesses, and professionals. PDFLocal is one of our flagship public-facing tools, and it is offered completely free of charge to any user with a modern web browser.

We believe that essential productivity tools should not be locked behind expensive subscription fees or used as vehicles for data harvesting. CATIF's tools are funded through non-intrusive display advertising (Google AdSense) that never compromises user experience or privacy.

The Technology Behind PDFLocal

PDFLocal is built on a foundation of modern, open-source browser technologies:

  • pdf-lib.js — Open-source PDF creation and modification library for JavaScript.
  • pdf.js — Mozilla's open-source PDF rendering engine for browsers.
  • Tesseract.js — Google's Tesseract OCR engine compiled to WebAssembly for in-browser optical character recognition.
  • html2pdf.js — Client-side PDF generation from HTML content, used in the invoice generator.
  • JSZip — In-browser ZIP file creation for batch downloads.
  • HTML5 Canvas API — Used for image editing, background removal, and visual document preview.

All of these libraries run locally in your browser. PDFLocal's servers only host the static files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) that your browser downloads when you visit the site. After that initial download, all computation happens on your own device.

Our Privacy Promise

🔒 Zero File Uploads

Your files are never sent to any server. Processing is 100% local.

🚫 No Account Required

No signup, no email address, no personal information collected.

💾 No Cloud Storage

We have no database that stores your documents or file data.

🆓 Completely Free

All tools are free, unlimited, with no watermarks or export restrictions.

Contact Us

We love hearing from our users — whether it is feedback on an existing tool, a bug report, or a request for a new feature. Since PDFLocal has no in-app accounts or messaging system (to maintain our zero-data-collection philosophy), the best way to reach us is by email.

For general feedback, feature requests, and bug reports, use the Feedback form on our main dashboard, which opens your local email client with a pre-filled message.