Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to boxpdf · flow PDF layout for JS runtimes
Flexbox-style PDF layout for Workers, Node, Deno, browsers
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
- 1
For the last 5 years I've been working on a layout engine that targets CSS2 and some more modern properties. Live demo: https://chearon.github.io/dropflow/ It matches browsers in all cases I can find where they agree, and it's fast. It supports `position`, `inline-block`, `z-index`, and complex properties like `float` and `vertical-align`. It doesn't support high-level layout like flexbox or grid yet, but you can get intrinsics to easily divide space yourself and paint multiple layout trees. It has a great text layout implementation, and supporting non-Latin scripts is a…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 2PJ
Hi HN, Nick here. We're super excited to officially launch PDF.js Express [1]. PDF.js Express wraps a modern React UI around the PDF.js rendering engine to enable PDF annotation, form filling, and signing inside your web app. We've also made some improvements to PDF.js text search, and taken a different approach to how the viewer uses the PDF.js rendering API, resulting in sharp graphics at any zoom magnification [2]. Based on our research, more than 70% of those who try to implement these features on top of PDF.js find it too difficult or time-intensive [3]. For those who are successful,…
2020 · its alternatives →
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- 4
I needed to generate invoices in a Node.js app. jsPDF is 229KB. I only needed text, rectangles, lines, and JPEG images. So I wrote tinypdf: <400 lines of TypeScript, zero dependencies, 3.3KB minified+gzipped. What it does: - Text (Helvetica, colors, alignment) - Rectangles and lines - JPEG images - Multiple pages, custom sizes What it doesn't do: - Custom fonts, PNG/SVG, forms, encryption, HTML-to-PDF That's it. The 95% use case for invoices, receipts, reports, tickets, and labels. GitHub: https://github.com/Lulzx/tinypdf npm: npm install tinypdf
Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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I built EmbedPDF: an MIT-licensed, open-source PDF viewer that aims to match all of Adobe Acrobat’s paid features… for free. Already working: - Annotations (highlight, sticky notes, free text, ink) - True redaction (content actually removed) - Search, text selection, zoom, rotation - Runs fully in the browser, no server needed - Drop-in SDK for React, Vue, Preact, vanilla JS Why? Acrobat is heavy, closed, and pricey. I wanted something lightweight, hackable, and embeddable anywhere. Demo: https://app.embedpdf.com/ Website: https://www.embedpdf.com/ GitHub:…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 7
Hi, I've just finished a rebuild of this function and added a lot of new features: info, page index, minimap, inverted index,... I think it may be useful for inspection, debugging or just as a learning resource showcasing the PDF file format. This is a pet project and I would be happy to receive some feedback! Regards
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8
CraftMyPDF▲135Design and generate pixel-perfect PDF documents in minutes
2022 · craftmypdf.com · its alternatives →
- 9
- 10
Hi HN, creator of EmbedPDF here. I recently posted my open-source PDF viewer here, and one thing I really value is that it runs completely offline. I started wondering if we could push that further: could we do full ML layout analysis (detecting tables, headers, columns) directly in the browser? To my surprise, it actually works. The catch: It is far from production-ready. It crashes on most phones, and on older computers, it can be incredibly slow. The why: I believe the future of document processing is local. Many users work with sensitive documents (bank statements, legal contracts) and…
2025 · embedpdf.com · its alternatives →
- 11TA
Hello HN! It kept surprising me how much of a hassle it is to generate a PDF with decent HTML5 rendering from my SaaS apps. I tried several free libs and APIs but ended up with botched rendering a lot of times. So I set out to simplify this chore by creating an AWS hosted HTML to PDF conversion API that's based on Chrome. This API will allow a dev to just send the HTML to our API and get a PDF in response without having to worry about running and managing Chrome somewhere in their infra. I just finished the first version of my landing page and hosted pdf generation API…
2018 · its alternatives →
- 12
Generate pixel-perfect PDFs from HTML in any .NET app
Jun 2026 · cobaltpdf.com · its alternatives →
- 13
Hi HN! I've been working on SimplePDF to solve a problem I encounter weekly: filling out non-editable PDFs [1] --- # About SimplePDF - The documents you load, edit, fill never see the light of my server, everything is processed locally – no remote uploading anything. This includes the PDF generation. - There are no analytics / third party tracking your every move (I do collect usage data, but it's fully anonymous and processed and stored on my server): therefore no annoying cookie banner. You can read more on the Privacy Policy [2] - If someone before you has filled the same document,…
2022 · simplepdf.eu · its alternatives →
- 14
I created this tool to make it quick and easy to sign PDF contracts, without having to deal with installing additional software and without worrying that my PDFs will get uploaded to a third party. It supports the bare minimum for my most common usecases. It is not intended to be a full-featured PDF editor. Features include filling PDF forms, inserting images and text, and rotating PDFs. Check it out by either picking a PDF of your own - https://photown.github.io/private-pdf/, or with a preloaded sample PDF -…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 15
ToolPDFs▲2557 private document tools that run in your browser
Aug 2026 · toolpdfs.com · its alternatives →
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PodPDF▲7I'm a backend, infra dev for a IoT based European startup for few years. After years of ups and downs with distributed computing ideas and being amazed by it, I badly needed a side project to exercise them on my own. For one, this is more of a exploration in that direction, but I also want to see if PDF API SaaS business still has legs.
Jan 2026 · podpdf.com · its alternatives →
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GeneratePDFs ▲8Convert HTML to clean PDFs with one simple API call
Dec 2025 · generatepdfs.com · its alternatives →
- 20
Enable your website visitors to fill, annotate, merge and edit PDF files without leaving your website. Use the iframe, Javascript script or React component.
2023 · simplepdf.github.io · its alternatives →
- 21
Transform your HTML into a modern PDF file in seconds & fast
2024 · renderpdf.io · its alternatives →
- 22PP
PDFFiddler Playground is a free PDF playground for manipulating PDF, extracting data from PDF, form filling, archiving, merging grouping and many many more. It is powered through Domain-driven custom scripting language (equivalent to Javascript) which can be quickly written through powerful editor with intellisense support. It has dozens of ready made template to play with. Please check out below link https://playground.pdffiddler.com/?apps=true Few templates, quick links has been added below 1) Merging group of PDF -…
2020 · its alternatives →
- 23
This is a open source version of transactional.dev
2025 · designmypdf.vercel.app · its alternatives →
- 24
HookPDF▲3Turn HTML + JSON into professional PDFs via a simple API
Mar 2026 · hookpdf.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- Dropflow, a CSS layout engine for node or <canvas> alternatives
- Pdf.js Express – PDF annotation, e-signatures, and form filling alternatives
- FlexPDF alternatives
- TinyPDF – 3kb pdf library (70x smaller than jsPDF) alternatives
- WebPDF alternatives
- I built a free alternative to Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →