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Document studio: PDFs, OCR, redaction, forms & contract reading

Paperwell

Your paperwork in one dossier: PDF tools, OCR, redaction, forms and contract reading.

Launch Paperwell → Tutorials

Paperwell is a document studio that keeps everything about one matter in a dossier: PDFs, scans, office files and pasted texts, every tool run and its result. Merge, split, compress, OCR, redact, fill and sign PDFs; read contracts, privacy policies and forms in plain language; compare offers and versions over time; turn notice periods into calendar reminders and print one consolidated report. Files are processed by the site’s tools and deleted there; the dossier itself stays in your browser.

Free · runs in your browser · no sign-up · Version 1.1.0

Screenshots

Features

  • One dossier per matter

    PDFs, scans, office files, images and pasted texts in one place, with roles, tags, notes and lineage: every tool output becomes a new version linked to its source — nothing is overwritten.

  • Page workbench

    Merge, split, reorder, remove and rotate pages with a live page plan that shows every resulting file before anything is uploaded.

  • Convert & compress to a size limit

    Office files and images to PDF, PDF pages to images, compression presets — and a size budget (e.g. 5 MB for an upload portal) that tells you whether the packet fits.

  • Searchable OCR and full text

    Give scans a text layer in up to eight languages and extract the full text of PDFs, DOCX and photos, so every document can be searched, compared and checked.

  • Redaction with verification

    Personal data found in the text (IBANs, e-mails, phones, card numbers) becomes redaction terms; the redactor’s before/after count proves nothing searchable is left.

  • Forms & signatures

    List the fields of a PDF form, keep your answers as a reusable profile, fill, sign and flatten — and get every field and jargon term of a foreign-language form explained.

  • Contract reading

    Clauses that need attention — lock-in, auto-renewal, notice, price changes, liability, arbitration — with the quoted wording and questions to ask before you sign.

  • Offers A/B and versions over time

    Two offers side by side clause category by clause category; old and new versions of a policy or law with the changed sections, numbers, deadlines and data practices.

  • Privacy policy scorecards

    Data collected, purposes, sharing and sale, rights, retention and transfers of every policy in the dossier — and what changed when the policy was updated.

  • Deadlines & calendar

    Terms, renewals and the last day to give notice from the contract’s own numbers, plus your own due dates — exported as an .ics calendar with reminders.

  • Recipes & batch runs

    Chain steps (office → PDF, OCR, text, redact, compress, contract and policy reading, file check) and run them over many documents in a queue that respects the tools’ rate limits and retries on its own.

  • File, accessibility & spec checks

    Find out what a file really is without uploading it, fix the accessibility of HTML letters, turn portal screenshots into step-by-step instructions and check charger, PC or version specs.

  • Identifiers & citations

    DOIs, ISBNs, ISSNs, ORCIDs, arXiv ids and PMIDs found in your texts with check-digit validation, resolved into formatted citations.

  • Evidence dossier

    Write down claims or findings and back each one with excerpts and page numbers from the dossier’s documents. A PDF citation opens at its page in the browser’s PDF viewer, and the evidence table goes into the report and a CSV export.

  • Consolidated report & exports

    One dashboard of findings over all documents, a printable report (PDF via print), CSV of findings and runs, JSON, Markdown notes with safe preview and an SVG/PNG chart.

  • Local-first and connected

    Autosave and recent dossiers in your browser, project files with or without the documents, share links, Google Drive, App Bridge hand-over to other apps and API/MCP access.

Templates

Start from a ready-made project and change it to fit.

Built-in tools

Paperwell uses these tools. Each one also has its own page and works on its own, in the browser, through the JSON API and through MCP.

  • Paperwell Contract Notice Deadlines Paperwell engineLast day to cancel a contract: terms, renewals and notice deadlines, with a calendar file.
  • Paperwell PDF Page Planner Paperwell enginePlan a PDF merge, split, reorder, removal or rotation and see every resulting page first.
  • Paperwell Document Text & Data Scan Paperwell engineFull text of a PDF, DOCX or scan plus identifiers, personal data, dates and amounts in it.
  • Office to PDF ConverterConvert Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, RTF and CSV files to PDF with LibreOffice.
  • PDF ↔ Image ConverterTurn PDF pages into PNG or JPG images, or combine images into a PDF without quality loss.
  • PDF CompressorMake PDFs smaller with Ghostscript presets or custom image DPI and JPEG quality, with previews.
  • PDF Form & Signature StudioList and fill PDF form fields, and place a visible signature image or typed name on a page.
  • PDF Merge, Split & ReorderMerge PDFs, split by page count or ranges, and reorder, remove, rotate or duplicate pages.
  • Searchable PDF OCRMake scanned PDFs searchable and copyable with OCRmyPDF and Tesseract, optionally as PDF/A.
  • Secure PDF RedactorBlack out names, numbers or areas in a PDF for real: the text is removed, not just covered.
  • Form TranslatorPlain-language help for confusing forms: field-by-field hints and jargon explained.
  • Privacy Policy DecoderWhat a privacy policy says it collects, shares, sells and keeps — with quoted evidence.
  • Before You SignSpot risky contract clauses (renewal, notice, liability, non-compete…) before you sign.
  • What Changed in This Law?Compare two versions of a law or regulation section by section, with changed numbers and deadlines.
  • The Compatibility EngineWill this charger, cable, version or PC part work together? Rule-based checks with margins.
  • Accessibility FixerTurn WCAG 2.2 problems in your HTML into concrete code fixes, grouped by effort.
  • Screenshot to StepsTurn a screenshot of an app or website into numbered steps for what you want to do.
  • File Format DoctorFind out what a file really is from its bytes, why it will not open and how to convert it.
  • CiteShapePaste a DOI, ORCID iD, ISBN or arXiv ID: validated, resolved, and formatted as APA, BibTeX and RIS.
  • Safe Markdown PreviewRender Markdown with GFM tables and footnotes to sanitised HTML and see what was removed.

For AI agents

Paperwell runs on a deterministic engine. The same functions are available as tools with a JSON API and MCP, so scripts and AI agents get exactly the results the app shows.

  • Paperwell Contract Notice Deadlines – Last day to cancel a contract: terms, renewals and notice deadlines, with a calendar file.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/paperwell-notice-deadlines/calculate · MCP paperwell_notice_deadlines
  • Paperwell PDF Page Planner – Plan a PDF merge, split, reorder, removal or rotation and see every resulting page first.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/paperwell-page-plan/calculate · MCP paperwell_page_plan
  • Paperwell Document Text & Data Scan – Full text of a PDF, DOCX or scan plus identifiers, personal data, dates and amounts in it.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/paperwell-document-scan/calculate · MCP paperwell_document_scan
  • Office to PDF Converter – Convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, RTF and CSV files to PDF with LibreOffice.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/office-to-pdf-converter/calculate · MCP office_to_pdf_converter
  • PDF ↔ Image Converter – Turn PDF pages into PNG or JPG images, or combine images into a PDF without quality loss.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/pdf-image-converter/calculate · MCP pdf_image_converter
  • PDF Compressor – Make PDFs smaller with Ghostscript presets or custom image DPI and JPEG quality, with previews.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/pdf-compressor/calculate · MCP pdf_compressor
  • PDF Form & Signature Studio – List and fill PDF form fields, and place a visible signature image or typed name on a page.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/pdf-form-signature-studio/calculate · MCP pdf_form_signature_studio
  • PDF Merge, Split & Reorder – Merge PDFs, split by page count or ranges, and reorder, remove, rotate or duplicate pages.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/pdf-merge-split-reorder/calculate · MCP pdf_merge_split_reorder
  • Searchable PDF OCR – Make scanned PDFs searchable and copyable with OCRmyPDF and Tesseract, optionally as PDF/A.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/searchable-pdf-ocr/calculate · MCP searchable_pdf_ocr
  • Secure PDF Redactor – Black out names, numbers or areas in a PDF for real: the text is removed, not just covered.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/secure-pdf-redactor/calculate · MCP secure_pdf_redactor
  • Form Translator – Plain-language help for confusing forms: field-by-field hints and jargon explained.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/form-translator/calculate · MCP form_translator
  • Privacy Policy Decoder – What a privacy policy says it collects, shares, sells and keeps — with quoted evidence.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/privacy-policy-decoder/calculate · MCP privacy_policy_decoder
  • Before You Sign – Spot risky contract clauses (renewal, notice, liability, non-compete…) before you sign.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/before-you-sign/calculate · MCP before_you_sign
  • What Changed in This Law? – Compare two versions of a law or regulation section by section, with changed numbers and deadlines.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/what-changed-in-this-law/calculate · MCP what_changed_in_this_law
  • The Compatibility Engine – Will this charger, cable, version or PC part work together? Rule-based checks with margins.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/compatibility-engine/calculate · MCP compatibility_engine
  • Accessibility Fixer – Turn WCAG 2.2 problems in your HTML into concrete code fixes, grouped by effort.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/accessibility-fixer/calculate · MCP accessibility_fixer
  • Screenshot to Steps – Turn a screenshot of an app or website into numbered steps for what you want to do.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/screenshot-to-steps/calculate · MCP screenshot_to_steps
  • File Format Doctor – Find out what a file really is from its bytes, why it will not open and how to convert it.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/file-format-doctor/calculate · MCP file_format_doctor
  • CiteShape – Paste a DOI, ORCID iD, ISBN or arXiv ID: validated, resolved, and formatted as APA, BibTeX and RIS.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/citeshape/calculate · MCP citeshape
  • Safe Markdown Preview – Render Markdown with GFM tables and footnotes to sanitised HTML and see what was removed.
    Tool page · POST https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tools/safe-markdown-preview/calculate · MCP safe_markdown_preview

Build a project through the API, then open it in the app with a link to https://paperwell.usefulweb.app/app#project=<base64url JSON>.

Import & export

Import

  • PDF
  • Images (PNG, JPG, TIFF, GIF, WebP)
  • Office documents (DOCX, DOC, ODT, RTF, XLSX, PPTX, CSV …)
  • Text, Markdown and HTML
  • Paperwell project (.paperwell.json, with or without embedded files)
  • Project link (#project=…)

Export

  • Every tool output (PDF, images, ZIP)
  • Paperwell project (.paperwell.json) and bundle with files
  • Printable report (PDF via print)
  • Findings and runs (CSV)
  • Deadlines (.ics calendar)
  • Notes and report (Markdown)
  • Findings chart (SVG/PNG)
  • Document text (TXT)

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts in Paperwell
KeysAction
Ctrl + OOpen project file
Ctrl + SSave project file
Ctrl + Shift + SSave project with documents (bundle)
Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + YUndo / redo
Ctrl + EnterRun the main action of the current view
Ctrl + PPrint report / PDF
AAdd documents
1 … 9, 0Switch view (overview, read, compare, deadlines, pages, redact, forms, checks, batch, report)
J / KNext / previous document
/Filter the document library
DeleteRemove the selected document (library focused)
?Keyboard shortcuts

Frequently asked questions

Is Paperwell free, and do I need an account?

Yes, it is free and needs no account. The dossier is saved in your browser (IndexedDB); you can also download it as a file or save it to Google Drive when you are signed in.

Are my documents uploaded?

Only when you run a tool on them: the file is sent to the usefulweb.site tool, processed and deleted; results can be downloaded for about two hours and Paperwell copies them into your browser right away. Local features — the page plan, text scan, deadlines, comparisons, the file check by its first bytes and the report — run entirely in your browser.

Is the contract reading legal advice?

No. The before-you-sign, privacy-policy-decoder and what-changed tools are rule-based text analyses that quote the wording they found. They can miss or misread clauses; for decisions with legal or financial consequences ask a qualified professional.

How does the redaction verification work?

The secure-pdf-redactor removes the text under every match, flattens the pages and searches the finished PDF again. Paperwell shows the before/after counts per term and marks the document as verified only when nothing searchable is left. Scanned pages need OCR first, otherwise their text cannot be found.

Why do batch runs sometimes wait?

File-processing tools are limited to a few runs per minute per visitor. Paperwell’s queue spaces the jobs out, waits the time the server asks for when the limit is reached and continues on its own; you can keep working meanwhile.

How are the notice deadlines calculated?

From the start date, the initial term, the renewal period and the notice period you confirm (Paperwell suggests them from the contract reading). Notice must arrive by the last day of the term minus the notice period; open-ended contracts can end on any day, at month, quarter or year end. Public holidays are not considered.

Can AI agents use Paperwell?

Yes. All seventeen site tools plus three Paperwell engine tools (paperwell-notice-deadlines, paperwell-page-plan, paperwell-document-scan) are available through the JSON API and MCP on this host, and the dossier format is documented as a JSON schema, so an agent can prepare a dossier and hand it over with an #project= link.

Does it work offline?

Partly. Opening dossiers, reading and editing texts, the page plan, text scan, deadlines, comparisons and exports work offline once the page is loaded. Tool runs need a connection; jobs queued while offline start when you are back online.

How does the evidence dossier work?

On the Overview, add a claim, then add evidence to it: choose a document, optionally a page, and paste or type the excerpt. Paperwell does not extract or check citations — you enter them and should verify them against the source. Open PDF page opens a stored PDF at that page in a new tab (allow pop-ups); if you remove a document, its name and the excerpt stay with the claim.

Limitations

What Paperwell does not do (yet):

  • PDF pages are not rendered in the browser: page previews come from the tools (the first page of a result) and page counts are read from the PDF structure, which can fail for unusual files.
  • Tool output (summaries, clause labels, warnings) is written by the site tools in English and is translated only where a translation exists.
  • The contract, policy, form and law readers are rule-based pattern matchers for English and German texts; they quote what they found but cannot guarantee completeness.
  • Text extraction reads the text layer of PDFs; scanned PDFs need OCR first, and OCR quality depends on the scan.
  • Uploads per tool run are limited (most PDF tools 100 MB, text readers 5 MB, document scan 10 MB) and file tools allow only a few runs per minute.
  • Project files embed documents only when you choose “Save with documents”; share links and Drive saves contain texts and results but not the binary files.
  • Deadlines ignore public holidays and the way notice must be delivered; reminders work only in the calendar you import the .ics file into.
  • Signatures are images or handwriting-style text stamps, not qualified electronic signatures.
  • Evidence excerpts and page numbers are typed by you and not verified; jumping to a PDF page needs a browser PDF viewer that supports page links (#page=) and allowed pop-ups.

Tutorials

Learn Paperwell step by step.

  1. Your first dossier — read a contract and find the last day to cancelOpen the SaaS contract example, run the contract reading, turn its notice period into a deadline and export it to your calendar.Beginner 6 min
  2. Compare two offers and two versions of a policyPut two gym contracts side by side clause by clause, then see what changed between the old and new privacy policy of an app.Intermediate 8 min
  3. Merge PDFs, redact personal data and compress to a size limitCombine two PDFs with a live page plan, black out an IBAN, e-mail and phone number with verified redaction and fit the result under an upload limit.Intermediate 10 min
  4. Understand a foreign-language form, then fill and sign a PDFGet every field and jargon term of a German form explained, keep your answers as a reusable profile and add a signature stamp to a PDF form.Intermediate 8 min
  5. Batch recipes, the job queue and file checksChain OCR, redaction and compression into a recipe, run it over many documents without hitting rate limits, and check files, HTML letters and specs.Advanced 9 min
  6. The report, exports, project files and sharingPrint one consolidated report, export findings and runs as CSV, save the dossier with or without its files, share it as a link and hand documents to other apps.Beginner 6 min
  7. Build an evidence dossier with page citationsRecord claims on the Overview, back each one with excerpts and page numbers from your documents, jump to the cited PDF page and put the evidence into the report.Intermediate 6 min

Ready to try it?

Launch Paperwell →

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