Private PDF workspace

Edit PDFs without uploading them.

Name: CrabPDF
Author: Robert Turturica

Open a private PDF editor in your browser. Edit text, annotate, OCR scans, redact sensitive content, organize pages, and export locally.

Your file stays on your computer. CrabPDF runs client-side, with no account, no cloud library, and no server-side document processing.

Open CrabPDF Editor

3D render of the CrabPDF crab mascot beside a PDF editor interface

Open the editor first then choose the PDF to edit

It opens like an editor, works like a local app.

1 Open the workspace

Choose a PDF and CrabPDF switches into the full editor.

2 Work in one canvas

Text edits, OCR, annotations, page tools and redaction stay in one interface.

3 Export when ready

No account, no cloud handoff, no server-side document storage.

Inside the editor

The first screen should feel like a document app. These tools are ready once the PDF opens.

Edit existing PDF text Change detected text directly inside the PDF. OCR scanned PDFs Turn scanned pages into editable/searchable text. True redaction Flatten redacted areas instead of just drawing boxes over text. Find and replace Search detected PDF text and replace it quickly. Annotate and add text Add notes, labels, highlights, underlines and drawings. Organize pages Merge, reorder, rotate, delete and extract pages. Compress PDF Reduce PDF size directly in the browser. Protect PDF Add basic protection when exporting your document.

You can verify the local-first part yourself.

Open CrabPDF Editor, install it as a PWA if you want, load the app once, then disable Wi-Fi or block network access. You can still open and edit PDFs.

See how to test it

Built for focused PDF editing.

CrabPDF is a browser-based editor, not a giant desktop publishing suite. Some PDFs have strange fonts, broken encodings, scanned pages, or complex layouts. The goal is to make common PDF edits possible without uploading private documents to a random server.

It works best for quick text corrections, OCR fixes, annotations, page operations, compression, and redaction when you need control over where the file goes.