Stirling PDF

Stirling PDF is a web application that provides a broad set of tools to manipulate, convert, and optimize PDF documents in a single interface. It’s designed for personal, team, and organizational workflows where PDFs must be processed locally without relying on third‑party online converters.

Key Features

• Merge, split, reorder, rotate, extract pages, and combine multiple PDFs
• Convert between PDF and common formats (e.g., images, Office formats) depending on installed backends
• OCR to make scanned documents searchable/selectable
• Compress/optimize PDFs and images to reduce file size
• Add/remove passwords and set permissions; basic security-related PDF utilities
• Redaction and content removal utilities for sensitive documents
• Add watermarks, headers/footers, and page numbers
• Form and metadata utilities (view/edit metadata; PDF form-related tools depending on version)
• Digital signing features (where supported) and stamp-like operations
• Optional REST API endpoints for automation/integration
• Docker-focused distribution with configurable settings via environment variables

Use Cases

• Internal “PDF toolbox” for HR/finance/legal teams to process documents without external SaaS
• Automating routine conversions (e.g., images/Office → PDF, OCR → searchable PDFs) via API
• Preparing PDFs for sharing by compressing, watermarking, and applying passwords/permissions

Limitations and Considerations

• Some conversion features depend on external tools/binaries included in the container image; available operations can vary by deployment/image/version.

Stirling PDF is a practical all-in-one PDF utility suite with a browser UI and automation options. It fits best when you need a consistent, centrally managed set of PDF tools and want to keep document processing under your control.