Overview

Folio72 brings the speed and simplicity of macOS Preview to Linux and Windows. It opens PDFs and images in under half a second, and handles everyday tasks like merging, signing, cropping and redacting entirely on your own machine. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and there is no subscription: Linux is free and Windows is a one-time purchase.

The name comes from typography: there are 72 points in an inch, and Folio72 is built to get every page right down to the point.

Status

Folio72 is in its validation phase. The website runs the waitlist, a short user survey and founding-supporter pre-sales, while the application is built in a separate repository.

Key Features

  • Instant Opening: Startup speed is a core requirement, so there is no bundled browser engine.
  • Local Editing: Merge, sign, crop and redact PDFs and images with no uploads.
  • Native Feel: A thin native interface on each platform.

Security & Hardening

  • Privacy by design: documents never leave your machine. There are no uploads, no accounts and no cloud processing.
  • Memory-safe core: PDFs and images are untrusted input, so all parsing happens in a memory-safe core with a narrow interface to the user interface.
  • Robustness testing: the core is designed to handle malformed and edge-case files without crashing.
  • Supply-chain hygiene: dependencies are pinned to exact versions, install scripts run only for an approved list of packages, and every component’s license is reviewed before it is adopted.
  • Bot protection and minimal data: signups pass a bot check, and the site keeps only what it needs to email you.

How It’s Built

  • Lean validation: demand is tested with a waitlist, a survey and pre-sales before the product is fully built.
  • Separation by lifecycle: the website and the application live in separate repositories with their own release cycles and licenses.
  • Gated deployments: the site deploys through staged pipeline gates.
  • Architecture Decision Records: every significant decision is written down and reviewed.