Book of Topaz /

Small PDF

Jan 19 2017
Service
draganddrop

Extra lean pdf tools that makes you feel good for using it

Ahhh so clean

Ya I just took a screenshot of the entire website

Just loooook at it. It’s bright and simple and scales beautifully on tablets and mobile devices. The rainbow-coloured tiles are an impressive mix of the Google materials design and Microsoft tile design. It makes this site look silky smooth and snappy while still retaining its professional vibe. I have used smallpdf since 2014 and while the design has changed it is still clean and to the point, which is the perfect for something that should be quick and painless.

Drop files from the cloud into smallpdf, compress the result, and then save it all in one seamless step

The beautiful design also extends into the tools themselves. One of the newer feature added recently is the ability to upload your file from Dropbox/Google Drive, split or merge or do whatever operation you wanted, then drop it back into Dropbox/Google Drive. Drag and drop was somewhat novel back then and the smallpdf integration was perfect. Switching between document and page previews for uploaded documents makes it easy to rearrange items. Every time I use smallpdf the experience has been pleasant and that is why I recommend it.

Some foxy competition

This archived view of the foxyutils website shows a past relic of internet design

Smallpdf, as nice and functional as it is has a weird layout problem. The three features I use the most (splitting, merging, and conversion to word) are located in the lower half of the page which is awkward. I would have believed this was derived from site traffic, but looking at similar websites isn’t the case. I used Foxyutils in 2013 and the re-haul has Merge, Split, PDF to Word all on the top-right. IlovePDF has these span the top bar. Amusingly, they seem to have all taking inspiration from smallpdf’s tile-based design. These websites do look nice but and less colourful and responsive. Back then they also looked hideous so smallpdf really won out.

A cup of coffee

It was only 2 years ago could you donate coffee to support them

One feature that was depreciated was the API. The company has now gone on to partner with pdf-tools and have pro features and limits like all the other website these days. While this does not have any bearing with their service, their blog is hosted on medium (ugh I despite medium). But these are quite childish complaints. The team was very ambitious and had many directions it could take, but chose to stay simple and wholesome. You see that coffee donation button there? I remember back then, every time I go to merged a file a small little cup appeared thanking me for just using it. It didn’t strike me as an ad, less of a being in your face and more like a wave and smile. And hopefully so will you when you feel the need to use it.