About Foolscap
Foolscap does to PDFs what the big PDF sites do — merge, compress, sign, unlock, convert — except the work happens inside your browser, and your file never leaves your device.
Why it exists
Most PDF sites upload your file to their server, do the work there and send it back. That is why they cap the free tier and charge for the second task: every file costs them something. It also means a stranger’s computer holds your salary slip, your lease or your bank statement for a while.
Browsers are now strong enough to do the work themselves. So Foolscap is a folder of files — pages, scripts and fonts — that your browser downloads once and runs. There is no server to send anything to, which is also why there is no file-size limit, no daily limit and no account.
Who makes it
Foolscap is made by Layerbit, in India. It is the web version of Sheaf, our Android PDF app, and follows the same rules.
What it can do
There are 45 tools, in five groups. Pages joins, splits, reorders and trims. Convert and print makes PDFs smaller, turns them into Word, Excel, PowerPoint or e-books, and turns photos and Word or Excel files into PDFs. Mark up signs, writes, highlights, numbers and stamps pages, and fills in or creates forms. Protect adds and removes passwords, removes private details for good, cleans hidden data and signs with a certificate. Read and capture opens documents, scans paper with a phone camera, makes scans searchable and compares two versions.
Every tool makes a new file and leaves the one you picked untouched. Once a tool page has loaded, it keeps working with no internet connection, and the site can be installed on a phone or computer like an app.
Honest about limits
Doing the work on your device has costs as well as benefits. A very large file needs a device with enough memory, and an old phone is slower than a server would be. Some jobs that need a server or a paid licence — opening a password you do not know, signing with a USB token — are not offered at all, rather than offered badly. Where a tool cannot do something well, it says so in plain words instead of handing back a poor result.
How it stays free
The home page and the guides show adverts from Google. The tool pages never do: their security policy makes it impossible for any outside script to run where your documents are. If Foolscap saves you time, you can also buy us a coffee.
The promises
- Free, with no paid tier.
- No sign-up, no account, no login.
- No watermark or branding on your documents.
- Nothing you open is uploaded, logged or kept.
- No limits on file size or number of files beyond what your device can do.