PdfCraft: the ArtCraft PDF workbench
PdfCraft covers the least glamorous and most-used part of the Adobe suite: PDFs. The official site puts it at early alpha with desktop installers and a web build, alongside tools to read, organize, combine, split and secure documents.
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Why this app matters more than it looks
Nobody describes themselves as a PDF power user, but almost every business workflow runs through one: contracts, invoices, scans, forms, signed copies.
That makes PDF a good place for a free tool. The jobs are narrow and well defined, the output is checkable, and there is no creative judgement to argue about.
It also makes a bad PDF tool more dangerous than a bad image editor. A flattened form or a broken signature is not a cosmetic problem.
What the official page claims
Read, organize, combine, split and secure, at early alpha, with macOS, Windows and Linux installers and a browser build.
That is a workable feature list for the everyday jobs. What it does not say is how each operation treats the things that make PDFs hard: form fields, digital signatures, embedded fonts, attachments and accessibility tags.
Those are the details that decide whether output is usable, and they are exactly what you should test rather than assume.
A cautious test sequence
1. Open a real document with form fields and comments. Check that fields remain fillable and comments remain visible after saving.
2. Split and recombine a file, then open the result in a different viewer. A PDF that only opens in the tool that made it is not a finished PDF.
3. Apply a password and confirm the protection is actually enforced by another reader.
4. Check file size and searchable text. A scan that loses its text layer is a different document.
5. Never run a signed contract through an alpha tool. Verify signatures with the reader that issued them.
Tested on 0.18.2
We ran the headless CLI build of PdfCraft 0.18.2 on macOS arm64, with the download checked against the release SHA256SUMS.txt.
Combining a three-page and a two-page file produced five pages. Splitting wrote one file per page. Extracting pages 2-3 and 5 produced three pages. Rendering page one to PNG took 3 ms. Text extraction returned the text from a text PDF and nothing from an image-only PDF, which is the correct behaviour.
We did not test encryption, form filling, or the desktop interface. The method and full results are on the how we test page.
Who should install it now
People who regularly merge, split or compress documents and want a local tool rather than an upload-to-a-server website.
Anyone handling contracts, signatures or regulated documents should keep a mature PDF tool and use PdfCraft on copies.
Questions
Is PdfCraft free?
Yes, like the other ArtCraft apps it is published as open source.
What can it do?
The official site lists reading, organizing, combining, splitting and securing PDFs.
Does it work in the browser?
Yes, a web build is listed alongside the macOS, Windows and Linux installers.
Is it safe for signed contracts?
Do not risk it. Test on copies and verify signatures in the reader that issued them.