pdfsyntax
Dev tools
pdf debugging visualizer
SHOW HN2025
How HN took it
10 positive, 3 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 1 critical, out of 15 comments about the project. Thread score +0.60.
Idea: 5 for, 0 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful for debugging and security previewing of PDFs
From 3 comments
Well done. This is a very useful security previewing tool. PDFs are a menace.
nonrandomstring on HNThis is really cool! I've spent the last few years debugging lots of PDFs while working on DocSpring, so I'm always looking for new tools to make this easier. Thanks for working…
nathan_f77 on HNWow, I've been doing some PDF parsing at work and this is going to come in SO handy.
xeon06 on HN
Self-hosted and local processing appreciated
From 1 comment
Kudos to making this self-hosted. So very much appreciated!
acabajoe on HN
Objections
Missing endobj, xref, startxref and %%EOF in the byte view
From 2 comments
Looks nice. Would be better if all of the PDF's bytes where shown. Seems like `endobj` and `xref` are not shown.
tyilo on HNWhen opening the following hello world PDF, the trailer isn't shown correctly and both `startxref` and `%%EOF` are missing: https://ghostbin.site/bb7jb
tyilo on HN
Requests
Browser or JavaScript/WASM version with drag and drop
From 2 comments
This would be really nice as browser library. Could just dragn drop a file and see its insides. But impressive nonetheless.
tekkk on HNI meant JS or WASM
tekkk on HN
Show all bytes of the PDF
From 1 comment
Looks nice. Would be better if all of the PDF's bytes where shown. Seems like `endobj` and `xref` are not shown.
tyilo on HN
Questions
Why parse PDFs from scratch instead of using an existing library
From 1 comment
it does not have any dependency to a pdf parsing library, correct? That's a cool way to learn to file format and be able to work around weird pdf file. But what was the…
adelpozo on HN
Alternatives named
iText RUPS
From 1 comment
I've used the iText RUPS (free) for a while for debugging PDFs (as I have the "privilege" to work on code that extracts data from PDFs...). It looks like your introspection stuff…
swsieber on HN
qpdf
From 2 comments
If you're interested in manipulating PDFs, I've found QPDF [0] to be a useful tool. Its "QDF mode" lays out the objects in a form where you can directly edit them, and it can…
LegionMammal978 on HNWas mentioned in this thread, but I can also endorse qpdf as being a great library. It gives you a JSON representation of the PDF data structure. What's nice is that doesn't hide…
vendiddy on HN
Kaitai Struct
From 2 comments
https://kaitai.io/ maybe? It looks perfectly nice for its role, but I didn’t use it for my last project because I need serialization as well.
ddulaney on HNReally impressed this site is still running. They'll have what you want https://formats.kaitai.io/
moritonal on HN