About Utilboxes

Why this exists

A surprising amount of everyday work consists of tasks too small to justify installing anything: removing two pages from a PDF, shrinking a photo that is a megabyte too large to attach, working out what a loan repayment would actually be, checking why a JSON file will not parse. Each one is a two-minute job that somehow takes fifteen.

The existing answer is a scattering of single-purpose sites, most of which want an email address, apply a watermark, cap you at three files a day, or upload your document to a server you know nothing about. Utilboxes collects 73 of those jobs into one place, with one consistent interface, and no such conditions.

How the tools work

72 of the 73 tools run entirely inside your browser. Your file is read into memory on your own machine, changed there, and handed straight back to you as a download. Nothing is uploaded.

That is a real architectural decision rather than a slogan, and it has consequences you can feel: there is no queue, because there is no server to queue for. There is no file size cap imposed from outside — the limit is your device's memory. There is nothing left on a disk somewhere after you close the tab. And you can verify all of it: open your browser's network inspector and watch that no request carries your document.

The one exception is the currency converter, which fetches published daily reference rates. Even there, the request carries only a three-letter currency code — the amount you typed is converted locally. Every tool page states plainly which category it falls into.

What we try to get right

• Show the working. Calculators display the formula they used and the substituted numbers. Converters name the exact factors. You should be able to check a result rather than trust it.
• Say what does not survive. Converting a PDF to Word gives you the text, not the layout. Compressing a PDF removes its text layer. Those trade-offs are stated on the page, not discovered afterwards.
• Use exact values. An inch is exactly 25.4 mm and a pound exactly 0.45359237 kg — the converters use the defined values, not rounded approximations, so conversions round-trip cleanly.
• Get the money arithmetic right. Amortisation schedules are built from whole cents, so a 30-year mortgage table still adds up to the loan at the end instead of drifting.
• Work without a mouse. Every control is reachable by keyboard, focus is always visible, and the site is built to WCAG 2.2 AA where practical.

What is here

• PDF Tools — 13 tools. Merge, split, rotate, compress and convert PDF files.
• Calculators — 15 tools. Everyday maths for money, study, health and time.
• Image Tools — 11 tools. Compress, resize, crop and convert images.
• Converters — 9 tools. Units, measurements and currency, converted instantly.
• Generators — 8 tools. QR codes, passwords, invoices, resumes and test data.
• Text Tools — 7 tools. Count, clean, sort and reshape blocks of text.
• Developer Tools — 10 tools. Format, validate and encode the data you work with.

How it is paid for

The site is free and has no paid tier. It is supported by advertising, placed between sections of a page rather than inside the tools themselves. Ads never sit beside a download button where they could be mistaken for one, and they have no access to anything you enter into a tool. If an advert fails to load, every tool still works exactly as before.

Built with

Next.js and TypeScript, with the heavy lifting done by open-source libraries: pdf.js for reading PDFs, pdf-lib for writing them, Tesseract for optical character recognition, and libheif for Apple's HEIC format. Each loads only on the tool page that needs it, so opening the word counter does not download a PDF engine.

Get in touch

Found a bug, or got a result you think is wrong? That is worth reporting — email hello@example.com or use the contact page. Suggestions for tools that should exist are welcome too.