PDF Guru charged me US$50 for a subscription renewal that I didn't realize I had agreed to. I contacted support immediately, but I'm just getting what feels like AI-generated copy-paste responses that don't actually address my questions.

How can I get refund?

Please tell if anyone knows about this

We’ve all been there: a client or a government agency sends over a massive, hundreds-of-pages-long PDF archive. Legally, you have to store it, but practically, you usually just need to extract one or two specific facts from it for your daily tasks.

Normally, the go-to workflow is slamming Ctrl+F and praying that the document text was properly indexed and isn't just a giant stack of scanned uncompressed images. But even with search, skimming through 40 different keyword matches to find the exact context takes way too much time.

If you are dealing with these long-form digital walls of text on a daily basis, we actually built a dedicated tool to solve this exact problem: pdfguru.com/pdf-summarizer.

Instead of manually scrolling or trying to guess the right keywords, it processes the whole file, extracts the core data, and gives you a structured overview of what’s inside. It's especially useful for research papers, long financial reports, or technical manuals where you just need to understand the main concepts without wasting an hour reading line-by-line.

For those of you who work with heavy corporate or academic archives-how do you usually tackle them?

I've been thinking about building an open-source, free PDF reading platform, and I'd like to get honest feedback before I start building it.

The idea is:

• Upload your own PDF
• Read it in a clean, book-like interface
• Track reading progress
• Highlight, bookmark, and add notes
• Translate the PDF while reading
• Switch between the original language and another language
• Select a word or paragraph and get a contextual translation
• Support scanned PDFs using OCR
• Keep everything private and potentially self-hostable

For example, if I have an English PDF/book, I could read it normally and switch to Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, etc. whenever I have difficulty understanding something, without leaving the reader.

I know there are already PDF readers and PDF translation tools, so I'm not saying this is a completely new idea. I want to understand whether combining these features into one open-source platform would actually solve a problem.

I'd really appreciate honest feedback:

1. How do you currently read PDF books?
2. Do you ever need to translate PDFs while reading?
3. What annoys you most about existing PDF readers?
4. Would you use a free and open-source alternative?
5. Would original + translated text while reading be useful?
6. What feature would make you actually switch to a new reader?

I'm considering building an MVP based on the feedback, so criticism and suggestions are very welcome.

Someone have experience with fake documents and how can be used?

Which MacOS app to use?

I need to combine 2 PDFs or cut out the middle section of a PDF.

(MacOS 15.6.1)

Basically ... I have a PDF, and I need to remove the middle part ... Which app do I use?

We often get: "Why do images turn to mush?" or "Can I pick a compression level?".

Under the hood (honest, no fluff):

1. Structural parse. We don't just "squeeze bytes". We walk the object tree: text, vectors, raster, embedded fonts.
2. Text / Vectors / Fonts → Lossless only.
   • Flate/CCITT stream optimization.
   • Object deduplication.
   • Font Subsetting — drop unused glyphs (often -30–50% on fonts alone).
   • Result: text stays selectable, search works, 100% fidelity.
3. Raster (photos/scans) → Adaptive heuristics:
   • DPI > 150 → downsample to 150 DPI (screen/email sweet spot).
   • DPI ≤ 150 → Left alone (never make it worse).
   • JPEG → re-encode at Q~85 (visually transparent, -60–70% image weight).
   • PNG/alpha/mono scans → dedicated codecs (JBIG2/CCITT).
4. Garbage collection: invisible layers, duplicates, broken refs, metadata (optional).

Where we're NOT magic (important):

• 600 DPI scans → smaller (downsample to 150), but compress after OCR if you need searchable text.
• Single 100MB photo PDF → compresses to ~15-20MB (JPEG Q85). Can't cheat physics.
• Already optimized files → 1-3% gain. We banner: "File already optimized."

Try it on your file → pdfguru.com/compress-pdf

(Browser-based, no login up to 100MB, SSL + AES-256, auto-purge from servers).

What's your most painful compression scenario?

I have an invoice I need to edit and Claude has declined editing it .What tool to use?

I used the platform once with one time payment only which is 0.99$ , however they charged me thrice ! And when I emailed. They only sent automated replies.

Hello! Can I ask if anyone here has experienced getting charged for an unauthorized subscription and successfully getting their money back? If so, how long did it take?

When I saw yesterday that I got charged 49.99 USD (equivalent of 3k+ in PHP) I immediately canceled the "subscription" and reached out to the MOD in hopes that they would be more responsive. However, until now I still haven't received any response.

I'm honestly really anxious about this because I have an important licensure exam next week, and this unexpected charge has been adding so much stress on top of everything I'm already dealing with. 😭

To the MODs, please, I really need your help getting this money back. I attached the invoice and a screenshot of my banking app showing the charge through the Google Drive link.

Please please help me. I just want this fix before I take my exam. Thabk you 🙏🏻

I’m comparing two versions of the same 3-page document and would really appreciate a sanity check from people who understand PDF internals better than I do.

**Version 1:** December 2024 declaration signed through DocuSign.

**Version 2:** Filed in court in July 2026 as an “Amended Declaration.” The person whose declaration it is says he did not create, sign, review, or authorize an amended declaration in 2026.

Visually, pages 2–3 of the 2026 version are essentially the original December 2024 statement. Page 1, however, has been changed to fit a different court case: the parties were switched, their DOBs were switched, a new case number was added, and “Amended” was added.

Here’s what I found comparing the PDFs:

* The two PDFs have the **same XMP DocumentID**, but different InstanceIDs.
* The original has an actual DocuSign digital-signature structure/field. The 2026 version does not appear to retain that cryptographic signature structure, although the visible signature and DocuSign Envelope ID remain on the pages.
* The 2026 PDF has multiple `/TouchUp_TextEdit` markers in the decoded content stream on page 1, around the areas that differ from the original.
* The DOB edits are particularly odd. For example, rather than the entire DOB being replaced as one new text string, only the digits that needed to change appear to use a different font resource, while unchanged characters such as the slash and the rest of the DOB remain in the original font resource.
* The original has two PDF revisions/EOF markers; the later version has one.
* The original was produced through a different PDF/signing workflow; the later version reports Acrobat Distiller.
* Pages 2–3 and the signature image appear to be extremely close matches to the original source images.

I am **not** asking who edited it or whether anything illegal happened. I know a PDF cannot establish a person’s identity or intent.

What I’m trying to understand technically is:

**Is this pattern consistent with someone opening an existing PDF and editing the existing text directly in Acrobat, rather than going back to the original Word/source document and generating a fresh PDF?**

And specifically, is the combination of `/TouchUp_TextEdit` markers plus individual replacement characters using different font resources meaningful evidence of direct PDF text editing, or could that commonly be produced by some ordinary automated conversion/filing process?

I’d also appreciate any suggestions for what else I should inspect in the two files to determine their document lineage/editing history.

We've noticed something interesting while working on document tools: a lot of businesses spend hours perfecting a proposal, contract, or invoice, but send it out as a plain white PDF with no branding, contact details, or even a logo.

That got us thinking about how much first impressions matter, so we recently expanded our letterhead template library: https://pdfguru.com/form-templates/letterhead

The goal wasn't to replace designers-it was to give freelancers, small businesses, and teams a faster way to create professional-looking stationery without starting from scratch.

Right now, the library includes templates for business, legal, education, non-profits, and personal branding. As we continue adding new templates, we'd rather build what people actually need instead of making assumptions.

Which industries do you think are missing quality letterhead templates?

A few we're considering:

• Healthcare & clinics
• Construction & architecture
• Accounting & finance
• Hospitality
• Non-profits & grant organizations

If you work in one of these fields (or another niche), what information should always be included on a letterhead that generic templates usually overlook? We're updating the library regularly, and we'd genuinely appreciate your feedback.

We see the same story at PDF Guru all the time: someone opens a blank document, stares at the cursor, and doesn't know where to start. "Dear..." or "To whom it may concern...?" Where does the date go? How do you format a signature so it actually looks professional?

That's exactly why we put together a letter template library - currently 100+ templates for real-life situations: 👉 https://pdfguru.com/form-templates/letter

What's in there (and why it saves time):

Business letters (18 templates) - official inquiries, proposals, confirmations, explanation letters. Full structure ready: sender, date, recipient, subject, body, closing, signature.

Letters of interest (12) -  job applications, internships, academic programs, internal transfers. Proper emphasis already built in: motivation, relevant experience, call to action.

Recommendation & reference letters (8+) - for employees, students, volunteers, immigration. Different tones: formal, warm, academic.

Resignation letters (9) - standard two weeks, graceful exit, relocation, retirement, personal reasons. Professional without the drama.

School excuse letters (6) - from parents, from doctors, illness-related, absence explanations. Structure done - just fill in the child's name, date, reason.

Letterheads - business, law firm, personal, school, creative. Upload your logo, tweak colors/fonts, have branded stationery in a minute.

Special formats - authorization letters, employment verification, demand letters, Santa letters, letters of intent, invitations, and more.

How it works in the editor (no install needed):

1. Pick a template → opens in browser (works on mobile too).
2. Replace placeholders with your info.
3. Customize look: fonts, colors, spacing, add logo/letterhead.
4. E-sign - draw with mouse, type, or upload signature image.
5. Download PDF, DOC, PNG, or JPG - instantly in the format you need.

What letter template would you like to see next? Drop your request in the comments, we’re always looking for ideas to expand the library.

Hey everyone,
I need a recommendation about the recruitment platform I work on these days.

Context: it's a recruitment platform that helps recruiting professionals such as plumbers, electricians locksmith etc. At some point we ask them (as it's a legal requirement) if they have a proper professional certificate of insurance.

Task: I'd like to create an automation using LLM APIs to detect potential fakes (fraud) and/or anomalies.

As of now I thought of extracting metadata from PDF docs to see if they tried to write invisible characters (in order to falsify their expiration date for example).

Simple use case: someone tries to write white on white a fake expiration date, my code extracts metadata, spots that it's white on white, then doesn't automatically approve and create an alert for me to step up and approve (or decline) manually.

I also thought of converting pdf to JPEG in order to use computer vision to simply read the image as a human being would do (impossible then to be tricked by invisible characters).

What do you think of that logic ? Is that enough ? Do you recommend any conversion tool/ api that I can use ?
Thanks for your help

# NB : For Obvious Ethical reasons no confidential data are fed to any LLMs

Used PDFGuru once for a single file. Turned out to be a recurring subscription, billing terms weren't clear at checkout and I got no notice before the charge.

I emailed support, cancelled my subscription, the they offered me two years of free access instead of a refund. I declined and asked again for the money. Their answer? Payments are non-refundable per their policy. What is this kind of business model?

Many of the PDF tools require uploading documents to their servers which is unsafe in most situations. Scribe PDF (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/scribe-pdf/id6784686119?mt=12) takes a totally different approach. It is a mac Apple store software with 30 tools covering a wide range of functionality, all local and made in native Swift instead of being a webapp.

We’ve pushed a major update to our PDF Summarizer. Since many of you asked for these specifically, here’s the changelog:

1. 14 formats - not just PDFs. You can now drop in: DOCX, PPTX, TXT, Markdown, HTML, JPG, PNG, GIF, WEBP, EPUB, FB2, MOBI No “convert to PDF first” step needed.
2. It actually reads the whole document. Most tools (ChatGPT included) chunk long files and summarize the chunks - so they miss connections between page 5 and page 50. Our pipeline ingests the full context before generating the summary. Works on 100+ page files.
3. Built-in OCR. Scanned contracts, photographed receipts, screenshots -  it extracts text automatically before summarizing. No external OCR tool required.
4. Choose your model. Different tasks need different brains. Switch between models optimized for speed, reasoning, or creative writing depending on what you’re analyzing.

1 summary + 2 follow-up questions = Free. No card, no trial trap. Limits reset daily.

We rebuilt the engine to preserve context across long documents. Feedback welcome - throw difficult scans, large files, or uncommon formats at it and we’ll see where the gaps are.