Changelog

This page lists notable changes. BarePDF is continuously deployed, so entries are dated rather than versioned.

2026-05-30

• Load a BarePDF-exported PDF back into BarePDF and you can re-edit its annotations. After you export a PDF that contains pen / sticky-note / stamp annotations made in BarePDF, registering that PDF again brings those annotations back to a selectable / movable / deletable (and, for sticky notes, text-editable) state. It's a safety net for when the original card is gone — opened on another device, browser data cleared, and so on.
  • It happens automatically (nothing special to do — works both for drag-and-drop onto the Desk and the "Register PDF" button).
  • Only annotations BarePDF added are lifted back. Annotations added by other tools (Acrobat, etc.) or PDFs not made by BarePDF stay as-is (they are not made editable).
  • Note: if you edit a BarePDF-exported PDF in Acrobat and then re-import it, those external changes are reverted (BarePDF trusts the original data it embedded). When you can still open the original card, that path is more reliable.

2026-05-29

• Sticky note background can now be any colour. The 6 presets are still there, and a + button next to them opens a colour picker for an arbitrary hex colour (matching the existing ink / text-colour pickers).
• Sticky note "no background" mode, for when you just want a text overlay. Pick the "No background" swatch (red diagonal slash) at the end of the background row to drop the fill and shadow — only the text floats on the page. The exported PDF omits /IC (background colour) as well, so Acrobat and other viewers also render it as plain transparent text. You can flip an existing note to no-background by selecting it and clicking the same swatch.

2026-05-28

• Added keyboard shortcuts to the Desk (the same feel as Windows Explorer):
  • Delete / Backspace removes the selected cards. Unlike the right-click "Delete" command, no confirmation dialog is shown — use Ctrl+Z to restore them.
  • Ctrl+C copies the selected cards to an in-app clipboard; Ctrl+V pastes duplicates into the current view (root or the selected folder). Switch folders before pasting to copy between folders.
  • The clipboard is in-app only and does not reach the OS clipboard (cards cannot be moved to other apps or browser tabs).
  • Both batch delete and batch paste can be rolled back with a single Ctrl+Z.

2026-05-25

• Reorganized the Editor toolbar.

  • Added a new ⋮ overflow menu on the right edge and moved Properties into it. With fewer always-visible buttons on the main bar, it's easier to focus on the frequent actions (tool selection, page operations, zoom).
  • Split the Zoom dropdown (100%, Fit width, etc.) and the Display settings menu (single / two-page spread view, continuous scrolling) into two separate dropdowns. The display-settings button shows the icon of the current page view (single or spread), so you can see which one is active without opening the menu.
  • When zooming with − / + to a value that isn't in the preset list (e.g. 110%), the current zoom level now stays visible on the button (previously this could become unclear in some cases).
  • Removed the page count badge (formerly …17p) that appeared in the top-right of the toolbar. The same information is already shown in the sidebar tab ("Pages N") and in the central page navigator (1 / N).

• Annotations are now exported as individual PDF objects (previously they were rasterised and flattened into one image per page):

  • Sticky notes are exported as /FreeText annotations — their text can be edited in Acrobat and other PDF readers. Useful when sharing a marked-up PDF with someone who wants to reply.
  • Pen strokes are exported as /Ink annotations — selectable, movable, and deletable per stroke. Note: PDF /Ink has a single width per stroke, so the pen's pressure-based thickness variation is no longer preserved. To keep the in-app drawing consistent with what you'll see in the exported PDF, the pen now also draws at a uniform width inside BarePDF (the live preview matches the export).
  • Stamps are exported as /Stamp annotations with a baked-in vector appearance — selectable, movable, and deletable, but the placed text is not editable (this trade-off preserves the exact look across viewers, including CJK stamp text).
  • Round-trip editing in BarePDF (i.e. re-importing an Acrobat-edited PDF and seeing the changes in the Editor) is not yet supported — that is planned as a separate update.

• Page-internal and external PDF links now navigate from the Editor.

  • Clicking an internal link (e.g. a table-of-contents entry, or a "see page X" reference) scrolls the page viewer to that page.
  • External links (https://..., mailto:) open in a new tab. Unsafe schemes such as javascript: and data: are blocked.
  • Link areas highlight in a faint blue on hover, so you can tell where they are.
  • While an annotation tool (ink, sticky note, stamp, eraser) is active, link clicks are ignored — so they don't get in the way of drawing.
  • If you delete the page a link points to, that link becomes unclickable (the cursor turns into a "not allowed" mark).

• You can now resize and collapse the left sidebar (both the Editor's Pages/Bookmarks sidebar and the Desk's folder panel):

  • Drag the right edge to resize. Double-click the handle to reset to the default width.
  • The "‹" button next to the tab row (or next to the "Folders" label on the Desk) collapses the sidebar to a thin strip with a re-expand button, giving the main work area more room.
  • The thumbnail row heights now follow the sidebar width — widening no longer overlaps pages, and narrowing no longer leaves big gaps between them.
  • Width and collapsed state are remembered in the browser so they survive reloads (the Editor and Desk are remembered separately).

• The Desk now supports selecting multiple cards at once, just like Windows Explorer:

  • Ctrl+click (Cmd+click on Mac) toggles cards in and out of the selection.
  • Drag a rectangle across empty space to box-select. A card is selected when its center falls inside the rectangle.
  • Ctrl+A selects every card in the current view.

• Selected cards can be merged, moved to a folder, or deleted together from the right-click menu. You can now merge three or more PDFs in one step.

• Dragging any card in a multi-selection moves the whole group together, keeping its relative layout.

2026-05-21

• Input PDFs' document-level information is now preserved in the export (previously, BarePDF built a fresh PDF on export, which dropped document-level structures):
  • Editing a single PDF (reorder, delete pages, rotate, annotate) now fully preserves bookmarks/outlines, interactive form fields (AcroForm), metadata, XMP, tagged-PDF structure (accessibility), embedded file attachments, named destinations, and optional content (layers / OCG).
  • Merging multiple PDFs preserves the drop target's document information. The dragged source's pages keep their content, but its bookmarks/forms/metadata are lost (a single output PDF cannot hold two document catalogs at once — by PDF design).
  • Digital signatures, by PDF specification, are always invalidated by any edit (this is a general PDF constraint, not a BarePDF limitation).
  • Annotations continue to be rasterised and burned into the PDF (they cannot be selected as text in Acrobat).
• Merging cards is now non-destructive. Previously, dropping one card onto another fused them into a brand-new byte stream and discarded the originals. Now each source's bytes stay in the browser as separate sources of one logical entry, and are only combined at export time.
• Added a "Bookmarks" tab to the Editor's left sidebar. If the input PDF has bookmarks (a table of contents), you can now browse them as a tree and jump to any page with a single click. The sidebar is now split into two tabs: "Pages" (the thumbnail list) and "Bookmarks". For now this is view-and-navigate only — editing and reordering bookmarks is planned for a later update.

2026-05-19

• The stamp preset list now follows the app's display language: Japanese stamps (e.g. 承認, 社外秘) in Japanese, English stamps (e.g. APPROVED, CONFIDENTIAL) in English. Symbol stamps (✓, ✕, ★, !, ?) are shared across both languages. A stamp's text never changes once placed, even if you later switch languages.
• The stamp tool now stays active so you can place stamps continuously (it no longer drops back to Select after each placement).
• Stamp text now uses a uniform font size, with the box width adjusting to the text length. Fixes long words appearing tiny and text being top-aligned so it looked line-broken.
• Improved the selected-state of stamp preset buttons in the toolbar: instead of changing colour, the outer frame now appears recessed, so the button matches the colour of the stamp that will actually be placed.
• Like sticky notes, stamps can now be resized by dragging an edge or corner. The aspect ratio stays fixed and the text scales with the box (so it behaves like a real rubber stamp). To move a stamp, select it first, then drag its body.

2026-05-18

• New Arrange menu in the Desk header. It re-tiles the cards in the current view (the root, or the folder you are viewing) into a tidy grid. Three modes: Tidy to grid keeps the current order, Sort by name, and Sort by date added. Each folder keeps its own layout.

2026-05-16

• Desk cards now support single-click selection (blue highlight). Double-click still opens the Editor.
• You can now rename a file inline by pressing F2 or choosing Rename from the right-click menu.
• Dropped the "PDF" label that used to sit on each card. File names are now shown without their extension.
• The page-count badge moved to the bottom-left of each card.
• When exporting to PDF, the default filename no longer appends _edited. Since you can rename a file directly, the suffix was redundant; your save dialog will still warn before overwriting an existing file.
• Changed the stacking order of cards produced by Split: the first page now sits on top and the last page at the bottom (previously later pages were on top).
• Removed the confirmation dialog for Split — it now runs immediately, consistent with other actions such as delete.
• Split now carries over each page's annotations and rotation. Previously, splitting discarded ink, sticky notes, stamps, and rotation; they are now kept on each page's card. Reordered pages are also split in their current order.
• The right-click menu no longer closes just because you move the cursor. It stays open until you click outside it, press Escape, or pick an item (matching standard desktop behavior).
• Fixed the right-click menu width. It no longer stretches unnecessarily wide with empty space on the right — it now sizes exactly to its items, and submenus open flush with the menu's right edge.
• Made the Back to Desk button (top-left of the Editor) easier to spot. It was previously icon-only and hard to tell apart from the adjacent "Export as PDF" button; it now has a text label, is separated from the editing tools by a divider, and uses a neutral color that distinguishes it from editing tools and primary actions.
• Removed the "FREE" badge from the top of the Editor. The state is already conveyed by the adjacent "PREVIEW" badge, so it was redundant.
• Fixed wrapping of toolbar labels such as "Fit Width", "Single", and "Scroll" so they stay on one line.
• Tightened the spacing around the page-navigation buttons, which previously looked stretched out.
• Moved the Eraser button next to Ink (pen) so the paired tools sit together.
• The Select tool now shows a usage hint in the second row (same style as the eraser hint), making use of an area that was previously left blank.
• Redesigned the Rotate button icons. They no longer resemble undo/redo or look clipped at the top — they are now clear circular rotation icons.
• New app icon and logo: a charcoal tile with a red border and an abstract "split into three" mark. The logo now also appears in the Desk header, the Editor toolbar, the Settings panel, the browser tab (favicon), and across the website (navigation bar and landing page).

2026-05-14

• Public site launched at barepdf.ponkotools.com.
• BarePDF published at /app/.

Earlier

Internal development. See the GitLab repository for commit history.