Hi HN! I just created a super simple, free tool for downloading thumbnails from YouTube videos and Shorts. Paste a link, pick the size, and instantly grab any thumbnail—no sign-up, no hassle.
Would love any feedback or suggestions on how to make it better!
This is a side project I started nearly 2 months ago: an online PDF converter at https://quicklypdf.com. Over time, I’ve made various improvements, but I’m still looking for feedback and new users.
I’m aware there are many similar tools (e.g., smallpdf, ilovepdf) and competition is tough, but here’s what makes https://quicklypdf.com stand out:
1. Simplicity: No email sign-up, no user account needed. Just upload and convert.
2. Unlimited and Free: Unlike some services that require subscriptions or have daily limits, https://quicklypdf.com allows unlimited conversions, 100% free of charge.
3. High-Quality Output: Despite being free and straightforward, the conversion quality is intended to match or exceed that of paid alternatives.
4. Privacy-Focused: Uploaded files are deleted from the server within one hour for privacy. Additionally, certain features (like PDF merging or converting images to PDF) run locally in your browser—no upload needed—so you can even use them offline once the page is loaded.
I’d love any suggestions or feedback you might have. If you need an online PDF converter, please give https://quicklypdf.com a try. Thank you!
Or doing it in a native, offline app, even an Electron app if you're stuck with JavaScript for libraries?
PDFsam has been my go-to for years, it's a GPL v3 open-source offline (JavaFX) app to split, merge, extract, mix, and rotate pages from PDF files.
WASM apps can accomplish the same tasks without uploading, but fundamentally the user experience is indistinguishable: browse to a webpage, click some buttons, open/drag the file into the website, get converted file back. And even for the one or two highly-technical users that will audit the WASM and network requests to ensure no uploads happen, there's nothing preventing a page that serves the privacy-honoring suite today to swapping for one that surreptitiously uploads the documents tomorrow.
Yes, if you (foolishly/naively) trust OP, there's no leakage between uploading over SSL to his webserver, downloading, and letting his server delete it versus doing it entirely offline. But there's no way to audit that server, and again, even if there were, no way to trust that next week he doesn't get acquired by someone who wants to "unlock the value in his user data" or get a knock on the door from some persuasive men in suits.
This looks very good but I would like some more features.
1. Extract bitmaps from PDF (without conversion of any sort)
2. Extract typefaces from PDF
3. Convert to SVG
4. Extract and/or Remove Adobe Illustrator part from PDF
5. Convert all text to vector paths
Also, embedded png's and even jpg's can many times be compressed using lossless techniques see what Imageoptim can do for example.
Thanks for the great suggestions! I’ll keep those advanced extraction and vector features in mind, and I’m also looking into enhanced image compression. Really appreciate the support—stay tuned!
Haha, I totally get it! My website is still under heavy development, but I’m actively working on improving things. Expect some awesome updates in the next few days—stay tuned! Thanks for the feedback!
I’m racing to roll out those features in the next few days—promise! And don’t worry, I’ll keep the Terms of Use far from any “Lorem ipsum” nonsense. Wouldn’t want to lose you as an investor!
Thanks for the kind words! Right now I’m focusing on building a solid user base and refining the service. I don’t have direct monetization in place yet, but I’m exploring options like optional premium features or light, non-intrusive ads later on. The main goal is to keep it genuinely free and sustainable long-term.
Pandoc is awesome for converting text-based formats and markup files, but from my knowledge it doesn’t cover some of the more specialized PDF operations (like merging, splitting, rotating pages, etc.) or handling complex office formats with embedded elements. My tool aims to provide a quick, browser-based way to handle all those PDF tasks—no installation or command-line usage required.
Thanks for asking! I don’t reimplement those formats myself—LibreOffice does the heavy lifting for parsing and converting office documents with embedded elements. That way, I just leverage an existing engine instead of reinventing the wheel, and it helps preserve formatting as accurately as it can.
I’m not actually loading LO into the browser—those parts run on the server side, so you still need an internet connection for complex document conversions. The offline functionality mostly covers simpler features like merging PDFs or converting images to PDF with WebAssembly libraries in the browser. For MS Office files or other advanced formats, I rely on LO’s server-side engine to handle parsing and conversion
What's the business model here? I'm assuming there's at least a marginal cost. As somebody who enjoys providing the world with free tools, I'm always curious how others handle the situation. Enshittification is real and comes for us all.
Right now, it’s all covered out of pocket. Long-term, I’m considering optional premium features or very minimal ads, but I’m determined to avoid the usual “enshittification” pitfalls. My goal is to keep the core service free and transparent while staying sustainable in the long run.
I’ve been working on a little side project that I’d love to get some feedback on. It’s a web-based YouTube to MP4 converter that’s ad-free, easy to use, and doesn’t require any installations or popups. The idea came from seeing how many converters are filled with ads, or worse, viruses, so I wanted to build something that’s clean and safe.
I’m currently covering server costs through small donations, which allows me to keep it free for everyone. I'd really appreciate any feedback or suggestions for improvement—whether it's about the design, features, or overall user experience.
Has anyone else worked on similar projects? How do you gather feedback and improve over time?
