this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
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My open source, selfhosted PDF manager, viewer and editor reached over 600 stars on github (github.com)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by mrmn to c/[email protected]
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Hi /c/opensource,

I am developing PdfDing - a selfhosted PDF manager, viewer and editor. You can find the repo here.

Today I reached a big milestone as PdfDing reached over 600 stars on github. A good portion of these stars probably comes from being included in the favorite selfhosted apps launched in 2024 on selfh.st.

Here is a quick overview over the project's features:

  • Seamless browser based PDF viewing on multiple devices. Remembers current position - continue where you stopped reading
  • Stay on top of your PDF collection with multi-level tagging, starring and archiving functionalities
  • Edit PDFs by adding annotations, highlighting and drawings
  • Clean, intuitive UI with dark mode, inverted color mode and custom theme colors
  • SSO support via OIDC
  • Share PDFs with an external audience via a link or a QR Code with optional access control
  • Markdown Notes
  • Progress bars show the reading progress of each PDF at a quick glance

As always I am happy if you star the repo or if someone wants to contribute.

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[–] x00z 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's pretty interesting but there's a few things that would make it a lot better:

  • I have absolutely no idea how to upload a PDF. I can only make lorem ipsum ones. It should have a lot more support for dropping files onto the webpage. Maybe even a quick upload box in your sidebar on the homepage.
  • The download button should not open a new tab or change the location or anything. Use the HTML5 'download' attribute instead.
  • Increase (top/bottom) margins between PDF entries, it's too condensed
  • The progress bar doesn't automatically update when you close a PDF. When reading a PDF, I scroll to the bottom, click the little X in top right, and have to press F5 before seeing the progress bar update on the page.
  • Make it tell the browser that it's already a darkmode website (for stuff like DarkReader)

These are my suggestions. Good luck with your project. It looks pretty nice!

[–] mrmn 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Thank you for your feedback!

  1. this is only for the demo mode. I don't want to have user files on the demo instance. On the log in screen of the demo instance, there is also note regarding this.
  2. this might be because of your browser. are you using a firefox based browser by any chance? I had the same issue and had to adjust this behavior in the settings.
  3. you are right. I already made the changes, so this is fixed.

I'll think about the other two suggestions.

[–] x00z 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)
  1. Ah ok. I reread the information on the github readme and it said that "files will be deleted after 60 minutes". So I thought I could try uploading.
  2. Yes. LibreWolf which is FireFox based. I do suggest using the download attribute though. People don't like changing settings for specific applications.
  3. Coolio. Glad you are happy with the feedback.
[–] mrmn 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I just tried using the download attribute out. I am also using librewolf and even with the download attribute it will open a new tab when the default behaviour (applications -> pdf -> open in librewolf) is enabled.

[–] x00z 1 points 2 days ago

Do you have "Content-Disposition: attachment" setup for the downloads on the backend?

Your issue might just be that it automatically opens it in LibreWolf again :P

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

I tried the demo version and it's looks great...

[–] qaz 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What is the intended use case?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Synced reading across multiple devices is what I use it for

[–] henchman2019 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm very new to docker. (Debian server) Have a few simple things running locally. Using tailscale outside of lan. How do I deploy this using Dockge? I've tried the compose files in Dockge. I tried the 'run' in docker... Keep getting "bad request". Something about adding my server address to the host file.. I got paperless ngx, Stirling PDF, and mealie going pretty easily by copy/paste from their installation pages.

[–] mrmn 1 points 3 days ago

Without more information I am kind of guessing. But probably you need to set the HOST_NAME env variable to the address (e.g. pdfding.homelab) you try to access the app in the browser.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

Tried the demo. Pretty spiffy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Happy to say I'm one of those starts :) glad to see you on the fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Why not stand alone app?

[–] mrmn 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I started to develop PdfDing because I wanted to continue reading where I left of regardless of the device I am on. That's not possible with a standalone app.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

This is amazing and I love this and you. Great job so far, and keep being amazing for the betterment of all mankind!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Makes sense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I love the idea, is there a way to do tap/click to turn the page instead of continuous though? I’ve been looking for something similar to host sheet music for myself but continuous mode is non-workable for my admittedly niche use case.

[–] mrmn 1 points 4 days ago

You can select Page Fit in the Zoom drop down menu and then use the left and right arrow keys to jump between pages. This should give you the wanted functionality. It's not possible to do this with the mouse however.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I know that you get this question a lot, but why would one use this over sterlingPDF?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It talks about taht in the README :)

Let me paste it here for you :

While Stirling PDF and PdfDing are both self-hosted web applications centered around PDF files, they still differ in their use case. Stirling PDF focuses on performing various operations like splitting, cropping and rotating on your PDFs. PdfDing however has a different focus, it is all about reading and organizing your PDFs. All features are added with the goal of improving the reading experience or making the management of your PDF collection simpler. PdfDing's editing functionalities were added with the same idea in mind. You can add annotations, highlighting and drawings to PDFs, so that you can highlight or add information that will be beneficial to your reading experience.

[–] mrmn 3 points 4 days ago

Did not see your reply, thanks :)

[–] mrmn 3 points 4 days ago

Allow me to quote myself:

While Stirling PDF and PdfDing are both self-hosted web applications centered around PDF files, they still differ in their use case. Stirling PDF focuses on performing various operations like splitting, ropping and rotating on your PDFs. PdfDing however has a different focus, it is all about reading and organizing your PDFs. All features are added with the goal of improving the reading experience or making the management of your PDF collection simpler. PdfDing's editing functionalities were added with the same idea in mind. You can add annotations, highlighting and drawings to PDFs, so that you can highlight or add information that will be beneficial to your reading experience.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Can you edit the PDF to add links to other parts of the PDF?

[–] mrmn 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

No this is not possible right now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Would there be any harm in using this in conjunction with something like Stirling to edit with one and read with the other?

[–] mrmn 1 points 3 days ago

Not really.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Damn, too bad. Looks really cool though!