FlexPDF is a free online tool that converts PDF files to responsive HTML, which can be downloaded, shared and embedded anywhere. Simply add your PDF file, click on elements to convert them, and share your results with the world.
Super excited to see the launch for this, congrats Nick & team. Curious if the team has trialed this, but is the HTML that comes from this also fully functional for setting up email templates?
Sites like MailChimp make it quite challenging to set up visually pleasing emails, if I can convert a Figma PDF into HTML it would save us loads of time! If not possible yet maybe an interesting use case to look into. 🚀
@nicolaas_spijker thanks so much for your nice comments. I'll let one of the tech guys give you a better answer later, but soon, the HTML content will be usable in more apps.
Would love to see and play around with one of your PDF files from figma to see what we can do with it.
@nicholasjohnmartin For sure, happy to provide more context on the use case if helpful!
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Went to try it, but stopped without trying.
First it seems to work only on Chrome. In Chrome it wanted permission to store files locally.
No idea what all it wanted to store. Maybe you should clarify what files it will store and where.
Just my two bits
@kkumarkg thanks so much for your feedback! We initially created FlexPDF to be as fast as possible and to work more like a desktop app. The browser needs to analyze and extract texts and images from your PDF and store it in browser storage so FlexPDF can reuse it to create HTML output.
Here is an article about the tech that we use to allow Chrome to store PDF data in your browser:
https://web.dev/persistent-storage/
We used the browser's local storage to create a folder that is isolated from the rest of the file system. Only FlexPDF can access that and not any other location on your computer.
We did create an extra dialog screen under the browser's permission notification where we explained a little more about why the browser is asking for this. Did that show up for you?
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@nicholasjohnmartin noticed the extra info now that you mentioned it, as I had to click to view it
Greetings Hunters!
We are proud to finally be able to share FlexPDF with you 🎉 🥳! We developed this tool to help publishers convert PDF files to responsive HTML with just a few clicks.
FlexPDF's main target audience will be PDF publishers (magazines, catalogs, brochures, books, guides, etc.) that need a solution to move away from static PDF files to responsive HTML as more than 60% of readers today consume content from their mobile devices.
The Challenge:
Existing free tools will convert PDF to HTML, but the results are usually pretty bad for a couple of very important reasons:
1. the HTML code generated is cluttered and not optimized for search engines
2. there is typically no good ways to navigate content in chapters or articles
3. content is still absolute and not responsive, which means it breaks on mobile devices
4. it's hard to edit or include interactive things like audio, video and animations
5. the results are typically littered with formatting errors, missing words and broken layouts
FlexPDF is Different!
Our focus is on generating responsive HTML results that look and read great on any device, size and orientation that delivers an excellent mobile experience.
1. the HTML code generated is clean and has the correct syntax
2. content is separated into chapters/articles and navigation is built into the output including an automatically generated table of contents.
3. content is responsive which means it looks and reads great on any device, size and orientation
4. the output can currently be shared in three main ways. You can download the HTML, use an embed code or share a link. All 100% branded to clients.
5. results are almost 100% error-free
FlexPDF is Version 1.0
We are launching here on ProductHunt in hopes of getting some feedback to improve the tool even more. We hope you will find a few minutes to try it out and let us know what you think in the comments.
Thanks for all your support. This is a fantastic community!
It’s been an AMAZING 2 weeks working together with the MagLoft team in Bali (in person) to launch FlexPDF.
Flex PDF is a free tool publishers can use to convert unlimited PDF pages into responsive HTML that can be published on their website or shared directly with their readers.
If you are a publisher, content creator or just use PDF files day to day, you would make me and the team very happy if you can:
1) Spare ~5 minutes to try our solution
2) Share your honest feedback with us in a comment
Thanks in advance ✌️
Quick Disclaimer: I'm part of the development team of MagLoft, and we've just completed our two-week Hackathon to launch FlexPDF.
I'm very excited about this launch, as we wanted to provide a completely free solution. We usually work on our commercial products and services, so it feels great to break that pattern once in a while.
There are still some bugs and various PDF formats that aren't yet fully supported (the PDF Format went through hundreds of changes and versions over the past decades...), but we've received quite positive reviews so far.
Would really appreciate if you give it a shot, and let us know how it goes, the good and the bad :-)
Cheers!
I genuinely believe that this is a simple and creative solution for turning pdf into HTML. As a marketing person, I was actually searching for a simple drag-and-drop solution that I can embed into my client's websites. Good job to the makers.
@danifeld thanks Ionut really appreciate your feedback! Followed and looking forward to your next launch!
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Indeed, it's been an exciting journey & great teamwork in developing FlexPDF!
And I hope we can get more feedback from the fantastic Product Hunt community here!
If you're a content creator or a publisher, please try FlexPDF ✍️
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts about FlexPDF, both good & bad ones.
We developed FlexPDF by aiming to solving one pain point exceptionally—converting PDF to a reliable, responsive HTML output.
There were various challenges in converting different PDF layouts and prioritizing export formats while maintaining output quality. However, through fast, intense, yet fun live user testing rounds during the 12 days of the Hackathon, we found out that we also had usability issues.
So far, we have redesigned FlexPDF by simplifying the user interfaces & improve the user experience while adding more power to FlexPDF 💪🏽 (pssst ... you'll get to try the PDF Toggle View feature :D). We'd like to improve this FlexPDF tool even further with your help 🙏🏼
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