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Engineering, product updates, comparisons, and the occasional rant about file formats.
3 min read
Proving a browser preview matches the server, to four decimal places
Our form-field detector runs in Python on the server. Its preview runs in your browser. They agree to 0.004pt — and we can show it, because both are the same engine underneath.
engineeringpdftestingRead post2 min read
LibreOffice will hand you an empty PowerPoint and exit 0
Our PDF-to-PPTX converter returned a valid, openable, completely slide-less deck as a success. The exit code was zero and the file existed, which is exactly why nobody noticed.
engineeringlibreofficeofficeRead post3 min read
Our PDF inverter never inverted anything
Ghostscript wrote the transfer function into the file as a hint instead of applying it. Half the world's PDF readers ignore that hint — including the one we render previews with.
engineeringpdfghostscriptRead post2 min read
Why we built Axiomatic Tools
There are dozens of online PDF tools. Here's why we still felt the need to build another one — and why most of it runs in your browser.
companyRead post2 min read
How we made PDF tools fast — and private — with WebAssembly
A look at how Axiomatic Tools merges, splits, rotates, and watermarks PDFs entirely in your browser using pdf-lib and Web Workers.
engineeringwasmRead post2 min read
A paid file-processing API, and why we're building one
The Axiomatic Tools API exposes every tool on the site as a metered HTTP endpoint. Here's how it's priced, what's in v1, and what's coming.
productapiRead post