
Show HN: Fill Paper and PDF Forms Online - samadmin
https://form.ac/
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wodenokoto
It's amazing that osx/macOS preview is still leaps and bounds ahead of
standard viewers on other systems.

I can fill out forms, draw signatures and print to paper or PDF without
installing new software or go looking for a web service. I just open the file
and if it looks like it should be filled out, I fill it out.

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telesilla
Agreed. And I use HelloSign when I need someone else to sign it. The combo of
both works perfectly for me. I cannot remember the last time I printed a PDF
and scanned it back it.

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samadmin
Thanks for the feedback. Preview is a great option for mac users but I still
find it awkward for text in boxes - account numbers, for example. I'm
surprised Apple hasn't added a check mark annotate option. Not everyone knows
the option-v trick.

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telesilla
I tried yours out and it's definitely superior - I'll be using this in the
future for non-secure PDFs. If there is any way to do this offline I'd
probably pay for an application bundle version.

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samadmin
Thanks, glad to hear we've added something. I'm working on a full client-side
version which will run completely offline (including generation). It will be a
while away though. Send an email to support@form.ac if you'd like a
notification if and when it's ready.

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samadmin
Hi HN, I built form.ac because I hate filling in paper forms (especially if
I'm expected to scan and email them somewhere) also it is the basis of a
service we provide concrete companies.

The key differences between form.ac and all the other pdf filling solutions
out there are: You can photo and fill a paper form; I've focused on speed of
filling - no frills just the tools to get the job done; It works well on
tablets (not so good on phones); You can add photos, draw on forms and sign
forms with your own signature.

I'm really looking forward to your comments - good and bad. Thanks!

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ukulele
The idea is nice. For feedback I'd say the domain name and the design of the
site both don't feel secure, so I would have a tough time wanting to use the
service. Things that would make it seem more serious / secure:

\- Use .com domain

\- Better site design

\- Paid tiers with free trial

\- Intercom or equivalent for support

~~~
samadmin
Thanks for checking it out and the feedback. I really appreciate it. The site
design is a bit rubbish. It's really just a placeholder so I could get
something launched.

I'm not familiar with intercom but I'll take a look - thanks for the tip.

The paid service will be a B2B service which is more about process management
thank just form filling. That's a while away yet though.

I'm really interested in your comment around the .com domain. Perhaps being
from NZ we're more relaxed about domain names but I thought with all the new
gtlds it wasn't so important any more. Good to know that a .com domain is
still important to some.

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pkaye
My main concern with this kind of service is that most of the times I fill out
a form it has personal information which I don't want to risk leaking
somewhere which is why I prefer local apps that don't transmit over the
internet.

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samadmin
It's a valid concern which is why form.ac data is stored locally and is only
transferred to generate the form and is then erased from the server. I think
it should be possible to do it all client side with a modern browser but I
haven't had a chance to do a proof of concept of that yet.

It's also worth considering what you do after you've filled the form locally.
Do you then email it somewhere? What does the receiving organisation do with
it? Unfortunately there are potential security pitfalls in many parts of the
process.

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ldenoue
Do you think PDFjs could be extended to write new text inside the PDF, all
client side? At the moment I’m only aware of PDFBox from Apache to do this,
but that’s server side JAVA...

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samadmin
Yes PDFjs is what we are looking at for a full client side version. However
we've had issues with larger pdf's/images and localstorage limits.

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NKCSS
Demo does not work for me (Chrome W10); the move/resize doesn't work at all.

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samadmin
Thanks again for spotting this one. All sorted now - move and resize both
working correctly on Chrome W10.

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ezl
Really love this.

How can I pay you to use this? I want this to be around for the long haul!

~~~
samadmin
I'm really pleased you like it - thanks for the nice comment. And generally
I'm not one to turn down money but we're not looking at a B2C business model
at this stage so hoping to keep the form filling side of it always free.

Feel free to drop us an email at support@form.ac and if we ever have to turn
off the service I'd be happy to show you how you can set up your own for free
on Heroku (or on a local machine if you're familiar with rails).

