Five open-source PDF tools. AGPL-3.0+. Self-host or use the hosted API.
All five tools are AGPL-3.0+ on GitHub. Run them on your own infra, use the hosted API, or integrate the engines directly into your AE or Cloudflow workflows. No per-seat license. No vendor lock-in.
PDF preflight engine with 500+ checks across image resolution, color, fonts, packaging barcodes, regulatory fields, and conformance standards (PDF/X, Ghent Workgroup). OSS engine lint-pdf v0.1.0b20 on PyPI. Hosted SaaS tier available at lintpdf.com.
- 500+ preflight checks across image, color, fonts, packaging, barcodes, regulatory, conformance
- AGPL-3.0+ engine on PyPI: install lint-pdf, run it yourself
- Hosted API: send PDF, get structured report back
- Self-hostable: run the engine on your own infra
- Integrates with AE and Cloudflow via REST or hot folder
PDF build and assembly layer — producing print-ready PDF from structured input. Beta; public roadmap available on GitHub. Email for early access.
Beta — features and pricing are not yet published. See the GitHub repo for current state. Email [email protected] for early access.
Authoritative, read-only PDF extraction and rendering reference — structured facts, color resolution, geometry, and separations via Python package, CLI, HTTP API, and TypeScript client.
- CLI: extract, probe, render (page, separations, heatmap, layer), color resolve, Pantone match
- HTTP API with TypeScript client mirroring the Python surface; SSE streaming for probe and extract
- Cloudflare Worker cache layer (codex-edge) and Redis-Streams speculator for pre-warming
- Versioned schemas (document, color, geom) in schemas/v1/
- AGPL-3.0+ — self-host, fork, integrate
Plugin-driven canvas PDF viewer built around React 19 — multi-DPI tile cache, CMYK + spot separations, TAC heatmap, per-ink densitometer, OCG layer toggles, annotation canvas, and mobile-first layout.
- Page raster with multi-DPI tile cache — zoom never degrades the image
- Color picker: RGB readout + per-ink breakdown (CMYK + any declared spot inks)
- TAC heatmap and per-ink separation toggles (process + spot plates)
- Annotation canvas: pen, arrow, rect, ellipse, text, highlight, sticky note — all in-memory
- Mobile: tools collapse to slide-in drawer; readouts swap to bottom sheets
Open-source GWG 2022 conformance assay for PDF preflight engines. Beta; public on GitHub. Email for early access.
Beta — features and pricing are not yet published. See the GitHub repo for current state. Email [email protected] for early access.
Need these integrated into your workflow?
PWS builds custom AE and Cloudflow integrations on top of the same AGPL-3.0+ stack. Fixed-fee scope. Full source code delivered.
Why a consulting practice ships open-source PDF tools.
The PDF tool suite follows the 37signals / Pieter Levels pattern: production code shipped under real constraints, in public, where people who know the domain can evaluate the actual engineering — not a sales deck.
LintPDF started as tooling built for PWS client work. When it became mature enough to be genuinely useful to others, it went AGPL-3.0+ on GitHub and PyPI. The other four tools are in beta for the same reason: they're real tools built for real prepress problems, not vaporware.
The AGPL license is deliberate. It prevents anyone — including Quincy — from taking the code closed-source later. That's a structural commitment the customer can verify on GitHub today, not a promise in a contract.
If you're evaluating PWS for a custom dev engagement and want to know whether the engineering bench is real: these tools are the receipt.