What is PdfCraft used for?

PdfCraft is a native PDF workbench written in Rust that allows users to read, organize, combine, split and secure PDFs. It is a good fit for reading and annotating PDFs, organizing and reordering pages, and combining or splitting PDF documents.

Is PdfCraft open source?

Yes. PdfCraft is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at storytold/pdfcraft and is written mainly in Rust.

Yes. PdfCraft is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host PdfCraft?

Yes. PdfCraft can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is PdfCraft an alternative to?

PdfCraft is an open-source alternative to Adobe Acrobat. Other open-source alternatives to Adobe Acrobat include Stirling PDF, OCRmyPDF and BentoPDF.

Is PdfCraft actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to PdfCraft was on 14 October 2026, and the latest release is v0.7.1, published on 12 October 2026. The project has 13k stars on GitHub.

PdfCraft: open-source alternative to Adobe Acrobat

About PdfCraft

PdfCraft is an open-source PDF workbench built in Rust from the ground up. It provides a fast, native application for reading, organizing, combining, splitting and securing PDF files. The app does not require an account, telemetry or cloud services.

The software is available for macOS, Windows, Linux and the web, and is free and open source. It includes features such as faithful rendering of world scripts and color emoji, instant search, page organization with undo, document assembly and splitting, incremental saves with crash recovery, and support for encryption from RC4 to AES-256.

Key features

Faithful rendering of world scripts, vertical Japanese, color emoji and transparency
Instant search as you type with text selection following reading order
Organize pages like cards with rotate, delete, insert and reorder, with deep undo
Combine, extract and split documents while preserving links, form fields, layers and bookmarks
Incremental, atomic saves with autosave and crash recovery
Built-in security supporting RC4 to AES-256 encryption and honoring author permissions

Good fit for

Reading and annotating PDFs
Organizing and reordering pages
Combining or splitting PDF documents

Built with: Rust tools
Tags: pdf; workbench; rust; open-source; document-management

PdfCraft: questions and answers

What is PdfCraft used for?: PdfCraft is a native PDF workbench written in Rust that allows users to read, organize, combine, split and secure PDFs. It is a good fit for reading and annotating PDFs, organizing and reordering pages, and combining or splitting PDF documents.
Is PdfCraft open source?: Yes. PdfCraft is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at storytold/pdfcraft and is written mainly in Rust.
Is PdfCraft free?: Yes. PdfCraft is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host PdfCraft?: Yes. PdfCraft can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is PdfCraft an alternative to?: PdfCraft is an open-source alternative to Adobe Acrobat. Other open-source alternatives to Adobe Acrobat include Stirling PDF, OCRmyPDF and BentoPDF.
Is PdfCraft actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to PdfCraft was on 14 October 2026, and the latest release is v0.7.1, published on 12 October 2026. The project has 13k stars on GitHub.