42 tools for converting, editing, signing, securing and redacting PDFs — all running inside your browser tab. There is no upload step, because there is nowhere to upload to.
Works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera and Arc · No account · No file size limit
Most PDF sites make you hand over the document before they tell you what happens to it. Deckle works the other way round, and the file never travels.
Six tabs across the top — Convert, Organise, Edit, Security, Optimise, Advanced. Or search by name.
Drop it in or browse. It is read straight from your disk into the tab. Nothing is transmitted.
Choose where it lands on your machine. Save as PDF, Word, images, text, Markdown or HTML.
Everything below runs locally. No tool is held back behind a payment step or a sign-in wall.
Move between formats
6 toolsRearrange pages
6 toolsChange what is on the page
14 toolsControl who can open it
5 toolsChange size and shape
5 toolsThe heavier machinery
6 toolsMost tools draw a rectangle over sensitive text and call it done. The words are still in the file — anyone can select, copy or extract them. This is how documents leak.
When Deckle redacts, it rebuilds the affected pages from pixels at 220 DPI with the marks painted in. The original text stops existing in the file. Pages you did not touch keep their selectable text.
The trade-off is stated plainly in the editor: redacted pages are no longer searchable. That is the cost of the text actually being gone.
| Deckle | Typical online PDF site | |
|---|---|---|
| Your file is sent to a server | Never | Always |
| Works with the network off | Yes | No |
| Account or email required | No | Usually |
| Page or file size caps | None imposed | Common on free tiers |
| Files deleted afterwards | Nothing to delete | Depends on their policy |
| Redaction destroys the text | Yes | Often just a black box |
| Site access permissions | None requested | n/a |
| Server-side OCR for scans | Not included yet | Usually yes |
Online tools have real strengths — heavy OCR and high-fidelity Office conversion are easier on a server. Deckle trades those for never handing over the document.
Download the Deckle folder and unzip it somewhere you'll keep it.
Open chrome://extensions in your browser.
Turn on Developer mode using the switch in the top right.
Click Load unpacked, choose the folder, then pin Deckle to your toolbar.
Press Alt+Shift+P
any time to open the workbench.
Yes, and it is enforced rather than promised. The extension declares no host permissions and no content scripts, and Chrome's extension security policy blocks it from loading remote code. Every library it needs is bundled inside. Turn off your Wi-Fi and every tool still works — that is the simplest way to check for yourself.
Nothing, because nothing is stored. Files are read into the browser tab, worked on, and saved where you choose. Close the tab and the working copy is gone. There is no server, no history and no log.
Deckle imposes none. The real ceiling is your browser's memory. Page-by-page work such as exporting images releases each page as it goes, so long documents stay manageable, and saving streams directly to disk where your browser supports it.
Not yet. Text recognition needs a language pack of roughly 15 MB, which would dominate the download, so OCR is not switched on. If your PDF is a scan, the text tools will come back empty. Every other tool works normally.
Good for text-led documents. Headings, paragraphs and reading order carry across, and wrapped lines are rejoined so the text reflows properly in Word. Complex tables, multi-column layouts and embedded images are not reconstructed.
That is what it was built for. Because the document never leaves the machine, using Deckle on a contract or a medical record is the same as opening it in a local application. Check your own IT policy on installing extensions, and note that the permissions list is short enough to hand to a security reviewer.
Deckle does the same jobs, on your own machine, with nothing sent anywhere.
Add to Chrome — free