Veil – Dark mode PDFs without destroying images, runs in the browser
Hi HN! here's a tool I just deployed that renders PDFs in dark mode without destroying the images. Internal and external links stay intact, and I decided to implement export since I'm not a fan of platform lock-in: you can view your dark PDF in your preferred reader, on any device. It's a side project born from a personal need first and foremost. When I was reading in the factory the books that eventually helped me get out of it, I had the problem that many study materials and books contained images and charts that forced me, with the dark readers available at the time, to always keep the…
Veil – Dark mode PDFs without destroying images, runs in the browser launched on March 26, 2026 with 100 votes, #454 of 23,380 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches.
In plain words
Veil is a browser-based tool that converts PDFs to dark mode while preserving image quality and maintaining all internal and external links. Designed for students, researchers, and anyone who reads PDFs in low-light conditions, it solves the common problem of images becoming unreadable when dark mode is applied. The tool allows users to export converted PDFs for viewing in any PDF reader on any device, avoiding vendor lock-in.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Open source PDF dark mode reader that preserves images, charts, and diagrams. Built for night reading of scientific papers and color-critical figures. MIT licensed.
True dark mode that understands your document. Text inverted, images kept intact. The text in your document is selectable. The text trapped inside images isn't. Until now. veil scans images inside your document and makes their text selectable. Chart labels, axis numbers, figure captions. Copy them like any other text. Your dark PDF, everywhere. Download with dark mode baked in, open it on any device, send it to anyone. Built for the researcher reading papers at 2 AM, the medical student reviewing slides before rounds, and anyone who thinks a PDF reader should respect both their eyes and their images. If veil is useful in your reading sessions, feel free to buy me afrom veil.simoneamico.com
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi HN! here's a tool I just deployed that renders PDFs in dark mode without destroying the images. Internal and external links stay intact, and I decided to implement export since I'm not a fan of platform lock-in: you can view your dark PDF in your preferred reader, on any device. It's a side project born from a…
Does a similar job
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Dark Reader extension – Dark mode for every website2018 · darkreader.org · ▲369Enable dark mode (night mode) on all websites
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