DemoReset every hour on the hour – please don’t upload personal files.Sample articles: IJPSC (ijpsc.org), CC BY 4.0Download for free

Upload PDFs

Connect Nextcloud

PDFs you put in the chosen Nextcloud folder appear automatically in PDF-Stift – even from your PC. Subfolders become courses.

Connect OneDrive

You sign in directly with Microsoft – PDF-Stift never sees your password. You need your own “app registration” once (free, about 5 minutes, instructions in the README):

  1. entra.microsoft.com → App registrations → New registration, name “PDF-Stift”, account types: Any organizational directory and personal Microsoft accounts.
  2. Authentication → Advanced settings → Allow public client flows: Yes → Save.
  3. API permissions → Microsoft Graph → Delegated: Files.ReadWrite, Notes.Read (for OneNote), offline_access, User.Read.
  4. Under “Overview”, copy the Application (client) ID and paste it here.

iPad: “Share → Send to PDF-Stift”

With a shortcut you can send PDFs from any app – including iCloud Drive in the Files app – straight to the “Eingang” folder. Set it up once:

  1. Open the Shortcuts app → + → at the top, change the name to “Send to PDF-Stift”.
  2. Using the ⓘ icon, turn “Show in Share Sheet” on; allow only PDFs or files as input.
  3. Add the action “Repeat with Each” and choose Shortcut Input as its input.
  4. Inside it, add the action “Get Contents of URL” with the URL:
  5. Expand it there: Method POST; under Headers add an entry X-PDFStift-Token with the key below; Request Body Form, field files[] of type file = Repeat Item, field folder (Text) = Eingang.
  6. Done. In any app: Share → “Send to PDF-Stift”.

The key only allows uploading. If it falls into the wrong hands: generate a new one – the old one will then stop working.

Device, storage & backup

On this device

…

Each PDF is downloaded once when you first open it and then stays on the device. If it changes on the server (another tablet, nightly shrinking), the app fetches the new version in the background. Notes are synced immediately anyway.

Backup to Nextcloud

Every night, everything that exists only here on the server is copied to the Nextcloud folder PDF-Stift-Sicherung: your own uploaded PDFs, all notes, notebooks, images, signature. Only new and changed items are transferred; deleted items are kept in the backup.

Secure sign-in

After 5 wrong passwords, PDF-Stift blocks further attempts from this internet address for 5 minutes, then longer each time (up to 1 hour). With the second factor every new sign-in also requires a 6-digit code from an authenticator app (e.g. Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, 2FAS). Devices already signed in stay signed in.

Back up notes

Downloads all notes from all PDFs as one file. When restored, they are added to the existing ones – nothing gets lost.

Nightly cron job

Every night the server syncs with Nextcloud, shrinks large PDFs and builds the search index for full-text search.

Shrinking: all PDFs of 10 MB or more. Pages, text and notes stay exactly the same; images keep at least 300 dpi (sharp even at high zoom). A file is only replaced if it gets significantly smaller and looks identical; the original is kept for 7 days in storage/backup/verkleinert.

Combine PDFs

Tap the PDFs in the order you want.

Dropdown

    Header/footer, page numbers, watermark

    Placeholders: {n} page, {N} total pages, {datum}, {datei}. Written permanently into the PDF (the previous version stays backed up on the server).

    Bookmarks

    Tap to jump to the page. Changes are written into the PDF – other PDF programs will show the bookmarks too.

    Convert

    Notes are included. Everything happens on this device.

    Your signature

    Sign once with pen or finger – it is saved and then available on all devices.

    Stamp

    New form field

    Compare

    What should the open PDF be compared with?

    Name

    Are you sure?

    Import from OneNote

    Each OneNote page becomes a note page with text, images, tables and your handwriting – everything stays editable. Notebooks and sections keep their order. Pages already imported are skipped.