PDF Combiner

A fast, lightweight desktop application for combining multiple PDF files into one or splitting them apart. Built with Tauri (Rust) and Svelte.

Features

• Select multiple PDF files via native file picker
• Drag-and-drop reordering of files
• View page count for each PDF
• Combine into a single PDF with one click
• Dark theme UI
• Small binary size (~10-20MB)

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18+)
• Rust (via rustup)
• Tauri CLI: cargo install tauri-cli

Linux/WSL additional dependencies:

sudo apt-get install -y libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file libxdo-dev libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run in development mode (hot reload)
npm run tauri dev

First run will compile the Rust backend which takes a few minutes. Subsequent runs are fast.

Build for Production

npm run tauri build

Output binary location: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

• Linux: .deb and .AppImage in bundle/deb/ and bundle/appimage/
• Windows: .msi and .exe in bundle/msi/ and bundle/nsis/
• macOS: .dmg and .app in bundle/dmg/ and bundle/macos/

Project Structure

pdf-combiner/
├── src/                      # Frontend (Svelte)
│   ├── routes/
│   │   └── +page.svelte      # Main UI component
│   └── app.css               # Tailwind CSS
├── src-tauri/                # Backend (Rust)
│   ├── src/
│   │   └── lib.rs            # PDF combining logic
│   ├── Cargo.toml            # Rust dependencies
│   └── tauri.conf.json       # Tauri configuration
├── package.json
└── vite.config.js

Tech Stack

How It Works

1. File Selection: Uses Tauri's native dialog plugin for OS file pickers
2. PDF Parsing: Rust backend uses lopdf to read PDF structure and page counts
3. Combining: Objects from each PDF are remapped to new IDs and merged into a single document
4. Output: Combined PDF is compressed and saved to user-selected location

Commands

Configuration

Window Settings

Edit src-tauri/tauri.conf.json:

{
  "app": {
    "windows": [{
      "title": "PDF Combiner",
      "width": 700,
      "height": 600,
      "minWidth": 500,
      "minHeight": 400
    }]
  }
}

App Metadata

Edit src-tauri/Cargo.toml for Rust package info and src-tauri/tauri.conf.json for app identity.

WSL Notes

If running on WSL, you need a display server:

• Windows 11: WSLg is built-in, should work automatically
• Windows 10: Install VcXsrv or similar X server

Recommended IDE Setup

VS Code with extensions:

• Svelte
• Tauri
• rust-analyzer
• Tailwind CSS IntelliSense

License

MIT