Client build
ReamPDF
A one time purchase PDF toolkit for Windows and macOS that does its work offline. The site had to sell a desktop app to people who are tired of subscriptions.
About the Client
ReamPDF is a one time purchase PDF toolkit for Windows and macOS, built by a solo founder. It merges, organises, compresses and converts, and it does every one of those on your own machine. It sells against Adobe Acrobat, which rents.
The Challenge
The two things worth paying for are both absences. Your file never leaves your computer, and you never pay again. Neither photographs. A screenshot of a PDF tool looks like every other PDF tool, and a desktop app cannot be tried in a browser, so there was nothing to show and nothing to demo. The page had to sell not being watched, to somebody who is tired of renting Adobe.
The Solution
So the marketing page became the demo. Merge, organise, compress and convert each open and answer when you click them, in the browser, before anything is installed. Eight themes repaint the preview live, so somebody who will live in this app all day sees it in their own taste first. The privacy argument got the quietest section on the site, because a near empty field is the only honest way to draw an absence.
01 The product
Four tools, and the page runs them
A desktop app cannot be tried in a browser, so the marketing page became the demo. Each tool opens and answers when you click it.
- 01Merge
- 02Organize and split
- 03Compress
- 04Convert
Home · Themes · Comparison
02 The craft
Eight themes, before you download anything
Four light and four dark, and the preview repaints in whichever you pick. Somebody who will live in this app all day gets to see it in their own taste first.
- Light
- Catppuccin Latte
- Sakura
- Evergreen
- Dark
- Dracula
- Nord
- Midnight
03 The hard part
The best thing about it is what it never does
Your file does not leave your machine, and you pay once. Privacy is an absence, and nothing on a screen looks like a file staying still. The page had to make that absence read as the reason to buy.
The Results
ReamPDF sells on two app stores with no subscription and no account. The founder redrew the app's own interface after the site, and the logo came from us. Eight build days, spread across four months of calendar, and the site has run itself since.
What It Runs On
Short, and that is the point. The product's promise is that nothing leaves your machine, so the site selling it needs almost no back end: three Cloudflare Functions, a CMS for the blog, and the rest is interface. No accounts, no database, no session store. AltSpeak's build wired in twenty services. This one wired in eleven, and the restraint is the argument rather than a shortcut.
Interface
- React 19The whole site, including the four tools that run inside the page.
- React RouterEvery route, including the comparison landers that do the SEO work.
- Tailwind CSSThe design system, with the eight themes layered over it.
- Framer MotionEvery transition, and the scroll work down the long page.
- OGLThe WebGL dot grid and the click spark behind the hero.
- dnd-kitDrag to reorder, in the organise demo that runs in the browser.
- LucideThe icon set, one weight throughout.
Content
- SanityThe blog, so the client publishes without calling us.
Delivery
- Cloudflare PagesHosted at the edge, deployed on every push to master.
- Cloudflare FunctionsThree: the blog read, the contact form and the subscribe form.
- ViteThe build, and the dev server the whole thing was drawn against.
Key Stats
- Brief to launch8 build days, spread over four months of calendar
- App stores2, and no subscription on either
- Themes8, four light and four dark, repainting the preview live
- Tools demoed in the browser4: merge, organise, compress, convert
- Site back end3 Cloudflare Functions, no database
- Accounts needed to buy0
Counted in the ReamPDF codebase, August 2026
“I struggled hard with building a nice website that just works and stands out from the competition, then Casper and his team just made it work. From the website I got inspired to do my app UI, and he came up with the logo too. They are wizards at the design work, and the website is pretty nice and secure too. Highly recommended.”
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