About PDF Chroma

The story behind a free, self-hosted PDF toolkit - and exactly how your files are handled.

What PDF Chroma is

PDF Chroma is a free set of tools for merging, splitting, converting, compressing, and protecting PDF files. There are no accounts to create, no email required, no watermarks stamped on your results, and no upload limits designed to nudge you toward a paid plan. Every tool is free to use, as often as you need.

Why it exists

Most "free" PDF tools online come with strings attached: a cap on file size, a watermark on the output, a limit of two or three files a day, or a "premium" upsell the moment you try to do anything useful. PDF Chroma was built as a reaction to that - a place where the common PDF tasks just work, without the paywall dance.

Who's behind it

PDF Chroma is built and run by Faraz, an independent developer, as a solo project. It isn't a company or a venture-backed startup - it's one person who wanted a clean, honest set of PDF tools and decided to build them from scratch. The entire toolkit is self-hosted on its own server rather than relying on third-party processing services, which means your files are handled from start to finish on infrastructure that's fully under our control.

How your files are handled

This is the part that matters most, so here it is plainly:

Your files are processed only to perform the exact action you asked for - merging, converting, compressing, and so on.
They're processed on our own server, never sent off to any third-party service.
They're deleted automatically right after your download finishes, and a cleanup process sweeps the server every 30 minutes to remove anything left over.
We never read, inspect, sell, or share the contents of your documents.
No account, email address, or personal detail is required to use any tool.

If you use the Protect or Unlock tools, the password you enter is used only in that moment to encrypt or decrypt the file - it's never logged or stored anywhere. You can read the full details in our Privacy Policy.

Open source

PDF Chroma's code is open source. You can read exactly how it works, see how files are handled, and even run your own copy - the whole project is available on GitHub. Nothing about how your files are processed is hidden.

Get in touch

Found a bug, have an idea for a tool, or just want to say hello? The best place to reach us is the GitHub repository.