Launching PDFAnnotations: A local-first way to liberate your PDF highlights
Hi Indie Hackers! 👋
I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on: PDFAnnotations.com.
The Problem:
As someone who reads a lot of academic papers and books, I was constantly frustrated by how "trapped" my notes were inside PDF files. Manual copy-pasting into Notion or Obsidian was a huge time-sink. I tried existing online tools, but most required uploading my sensitive documents to a cloud server, which I wasn't comfortable with.
The Solution:
I built PDFAnnotations to be a local-first, privacy-focused solution.
Key Highlights:
100% Private: Files never leave your browser. All processing happens locally via WebAssembly (PDFium).
Built for PKM: Export directly to Obsidian (with Callouts and backlinks), Notion, Markdown, and CSV.
No Friction: No signups, no logins, no limits.
Multi-language: Supports 10 languages including ZH, JA, KO, ES, FR, etc.
I’d love to get your feedback! Are there any specific export formats or workflows you'd like to see added?
Check it out here: https://pdfannotations.com/
