From fd294b6608880b0ccb40fbabfb117159e6ceb361 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: nelsoduarte
Date: Sun, 10 May 2026 22:48:44 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] chore(readme): polish for Microsoft Store launch traffic
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Tightens the README ahead of HN / Reddit submissions:
Hero / badges
- Add a hero screenshot using the element so GitHub serves
the dark-theme viewer to dark-mode visitors and the light-theme
variant to light-mode visitors.
- Replace the bespoke "PDFApps PDF Editor" base64 badge (which still
linked to the legacy nelsonduarte.github.io URL) with a clean
Microsoft Store install badge linking to the Store listing.
- Drop the Hypercommit badge.
Features table accuracy (was significantly underselling the app)
- OCR: clarify that we bundle 5 language packs but any Tesseract
language can be installed separately (Tesseract supports 100+).
- Convert: list all eight current targets (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HTML,
EPUB, TXT, PNG, JPG) instead of just DOCX/TXT/images.
- Import: list all eight current source formats (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX,
HTML, EPUB, TXT, Markdown, images) instead of just TXT/Markdown/
images. Eight import formats landed in v1.12.0.
Download table
- Promote "Get from Microsoft Store" to the first row, with the
direct installer demoted to a second Windows row.
- Replace the broken `PDFApps-1.8.3-x86_64.AppImage` URL with a
version-agnostic "latest" instruction.
Build sizes
- Update PDFApps.exe (~82 → ~93 MB), PDFAppsUninstall.exe (~11 → ~13
MB) and PDFAppsSetup.exe (~104 → ~113 MB) to reflect actual v1.13.10
artefact sizes.
Project structure
- Replace the "Single-page site with JS-based i18n" line with the
current six-page docs/ layout, and list msix/, flatpak/, snap/,
aur/, rpm/, winget/ packaging directories that weren't documented.
Sponsors
- Simplify to a two-line ask + the two existing buttons. Drop the
empty Gold sponsors / Backers tiers, which felt presumptuous for
a solo-dev project.
Why dedupe
- The "Why PDFApps?" multi-language bullet now mentions the language
count instead of repeating the "auto-detects" wording that already
appears in "Other highlights".
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context)
---
README.md | 69 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------------
1 file changed, 36 insertions(+), 33 deletions(-)
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3f68c62..02df8e6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -6,7 +6,15 @@
+
+[](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P70QGR8BSMZ)
[](https://github.com/nelsonduarte/PDFApps/releases/latest)
[](https://github.com/nelsonduarte/PDFApps/releases)
@@ -17,7 +25,6 @@
[](#)
[](LICENSE)
[](https://github.com/sponsors/nelsonduarte)
-[](https://hypercommit.com/PDFapps)
---
@@ -30,7 +37,7 @@ Most PDF tools are either paid, browser-based, or require uploading your files t
- **All-in-one** — 15 tools: split, merge, compress, encrypt, OCR, convert, edit, page numbers, N-up and more
- **Cross-platform** — works on Windows, macOS and Linux
- **Fast** — lazy rendering opens large PDFs instantly
-- **Multi-language** — auto-detects your system language (EN, PT, ES, FR, DE, ZH, IT, NL)
+- **Multi-language** — 8 interface languages (EN, PT, ES, FR, DE, ZH, IT, NL)
---
@@ -46,12 +53,12 @@ Most PDF tools are either paid, browser-based, or require uploading your files t
| **Compress** | Reduce file size with three compression levels (extreme / recommended / low) |
| **Encrypt** | Protect the PDF with a password or remove existing protection |
| **Watermark** | Overlay a watermark/stamp PDF on pages with opacity and position control |
-| **OCR** | Recognise text in scanned PDFs — supports PT, EN, ES, FR and DE |
-| **Convert** | Convert PDF to images (PNG/JPG with DPI control), Word (DOCX) or plain text (TXT) |
+| **OCR** | Recognise text in scanned PDFs — 5 language packs bundled (PT, EN, ES, FR, DE), works with any of Tesseract's 100+ languages if installed separately |
+| **Convert** | Export PDF to DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HTML, EPUB, TXT, PNG or JPG (with DPI control) |
| **Page numbers** | Add page numbering (header/footer) with format, position and font control |
| **N-Up** | Arrange multiple pages per sheet (2, 4, 6, 9, 16-up) with custom layout |
| **Edit** | Inline visual editor: redact, insert text, image, signature, highlight, notes, forms and edit existing text |
-| **Import** | Convert text files (.txt), images (PNG/JPG/BMP) or Markdown (.md) to PDF — batch support |
+| **Import** | Convert DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HTML, EPUB, TXT, Markdown or images (PNG/JPG/BMP) to PDF — batch support |
| **Info** | Show metadata, page count, size and document properties |
### Integrated viewer
@@ -102,12 +109,13 @@ Most PDF tools are either paid, browser-based, or require uploading your files t
| Platform | How to get it |
|---|---|
-| **Windows** 10/11 64-bit | Download `PDFAppsSetup.exe` from [Releases](https://github.com/nelsonduarte/PDFApps/releases/latest), or `winget install nelsonduarte.PDFApps` (after winget review) |
+| **Windows** 10/11 (Store) | [Get it on the Microsoft Store](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P70QGR8BSMZ) — auto-updates handled by Windows |
+| **Windows** 10/11 (direct) | `winget install nelsonduarte.PDFApps`, or download `PDFAppsSetup.exe` from [Releases](https://github.com/nelsonduarte/PDFApps/releases/latest) |
+| **macOS** 10.14+ | Download `PDFApps-macOS.dmg` from [Releases](https://github.com/nelsonduarte/PDFApps/releases/latest), mount, and drag PDFApps.app to Applications — Tesseract via `brew install tesseract tesseract-lang` |
| **Ubuntu / Debian / Snap** | `sudo snap install pdfapps` |
| **Fedora** | `sudo dnf copr enable nelsonduarte2809/pdfapps && sudo dnf install pdfapps` |
| **Arch / Manjaro** | `yay -S pdfapps` (source) or `yay -S pdfapps-bin` (binary) |
-| **Any Linux** | Download `PDFApps-1.8.3-x86_64.AppImage` from [Releases](https://github.com/nelsonduarte/PDFApps/releases/latest), `chmod +x` and run |
-| **macOS** 10.14+ | Download `PDFApps-macOS.dmg` from [Releases](https://github.com/nelsonduarte/PDFApps/releases/latest), mount, and drag PDFApps.app to Applications — Tesseract via `brew install tesseract tesseract-lang` |
+| **Any Linux** | Download the latest `PDFApps-*-x86_64.AppImage` from [Releases](https://github.com/nelsonduarte/PDFApps/releases/latest), `chmod +x` and run |
### Run from source
@@ -155,9 +163,9 @@ python -m PyInstaller --clean installer.spec
| File | Description |
|---|---|
-| `dist/PDFApps.exe` | Main application (~82 MB) |
-| `dist/PDFAppsUninstall.exe` | Standalone uninstaller (~11 MB) |
-| `dist/PDFAppsSetup.exe` | **Installer for distribution** (~104 MB) |
+| `dist/PDFApps.exe` | Main application (~93 MB) |
+| `dist/PDFAppsUninstall.exe` | Standalone uninstaller (~13 MB) |
+| `dist/PDFAppsSetup.exe` | **Installer for distribution** (~113 MB) |
> PyInstaller does not cross-compile — the binary must be built on the target platform.
@@ -192,10 +200,22 @@ PDFApps/
├── icon_512.png # Source icon (512x512 PNG)
├── pdfapps.svg # Logo SVG (used in sidebar/viewer)
├── requirements.txt # Python dependencies
-├── docs/ # GitHub Pages website
-│ ├── index.html # Single-page site with JS-based i18n
+├── docs/ # Static site published at pdf-apps.com (Cloudflare Pages)
+│ ├── index.html # Landing page
+│ ├── features.html # Feature gallery
+│ ├── download.html # Per-platform install options
+│ ├── docs.html # User guide
+│ ├── changelog.html # Release notes
+│ ├── privacy.html # Privacy policy
+│ ├── styles.css # Shared theme (dark + light)
│ ├── icon.png # App icon for website
│ └── favicon.ico # Browser favicon
+├── msix/ # Microsoft Store packaging (manifest, assets, build.ps1)
+├── flatpak/ # Flatpak / AppStream metainfo + .desktop file
+├── snap/ # Snap Store package definition
+├── aur/ # AUR PKGBUILDs (pdfapps source build + pdfapps-bin binary)
+├── rpm/ # Fedora Copr .spec file
+├── winget/ # Microsoft winget manifest
├── app/ # Modular source code
│ ├── constants.py # Colours and design constants
│ ├── styles.py # Qt stylesheet (dark/light theme)
@@ -261,32 +281,15 @@ Contributions are welcome! See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for the full d
## Support the project
-PDFApps is free, open source and built by a solo developer. If you or your company find it useful, sponsoring helps keep it maintained and growing.
-
-**Why sponsor?**
-- Ensure long-term maintenance and new features
-- Get your logo in the README and website (Gold tier)
-- Support privacy-first, offline software
+PDFApps is free, open source, and built by a solo developer. If you or your company find it useful, [sponsoring on GitHub](https://github.com/sponsors/nelsonduarte) or [funding on Polar](https://polar.sh/nelsonduarte) helps keep it maintained.
-
+
-### Sponsors
-
-#### Gold sponsors
-
-
-
-_Your company here — [become a Gold sponsor](https://github.com/sponsors/nelsonduarte)_
-
-#### Backers
-
-_Be the first backer — [sponsor on GitHub](https://github.com/sponsors/nelsonduarte) or [fund on Polar](https://polar.sh/nelsonduarte)_
-
---
## License