6 ms·
An extension of the traditional PDF standard
- gounisalex 3mo agoI'm the author of this project, someone else posted it on my behalf, let me explain my story: My bank requested 17 PDF documents for a mortgage application. I got tired of opening and closing files and keeping track of things. So I decided to merge all files into a single, long PDF and send it to my bank, but that caused even more confusion. To solve this issue, I came up with an idea: what if I could extend the standard PDF structure by embedding custom JSON metadata to indicate where files start and where they end? I called it `.pdfx`, but it's simply a backwards-compatible PDF file, that when opened with traditional PDF viewers (Chrome, Acrobat), it renders as a regular, continuous document. But when opened in the PDFx runtime, a react-based viewer I built, the app parses the metadata coordinates and reconstructs a 2D free floating canvas, where the pages of a file extend horizontally, while files themselves grow vertically. This view allows for a greater spatial understanding, batch processing, and a pleasant drag-n-drop user experience. Plus, additional support for SVGs, PNGs and technical drawings that are converted into PDFs when dropped onto the app. Your feedback would be highly appreciated.
- gettalong 3mo agoPDF already has the notion of portable collections (PDF 2.0 section 12.3.5). As far as I can determine this is very similar to what you do except that your pdfx format won't be supported by (major) PDF viewers/libraries.
- gounisalex 3mo ago[flagged]
- rexpsunny 3mo ago[dead]