ToolsTray

Star a tool to keep it here.

The ToolsTray blog

Guides, comparisons, and hands-on how-tos from ToolsTray — practical writing on the tools we build and the everyday jobs they solve.

Two kinds of writing end up here. The first is a walkthrough for a job people keep getting stuck on: getting a PDF under an email limit, pulling text out of a scan, splitting a restaurant bill that nobody can agree on. The second is a build log about making ToolsTray itself, which runs entirely in the browser on WebAssembly and has produced a decent pile of things I could not find written down anywhere else.

Both kinds follow the same rule. I do the job on a real file first, screenshot what I actually see, and publish the numbers I actually measured. Where an approach falls over, the post says so and points at what to use instead. There is no listicle here and nothing written from a keyword brief.

Ramsudharsan ManoharanOffice Workers

Scan documents to PDF free without installing an app

Scan documents to PDF free with your phone or laptop: auto edges, straightening, a clean-up eraser, searchable text. All in the browser, nothing installed or uploaded.

· 5 min read

ToolsTray's document scanner in Crop mode: a till receipt photographed on a wooden desk, with the four corner handles sitting on the paper's edges.

Ramsudharsan ManoharanDevelopers

How I made a static site installable and offline

A static tool site with no backend, turned into an installable app that works offline without breaking ads, analytics, or consent. The service worker, and the scars.

· 4 min read

A browser window with a download-to-tray install glyph and a struck-through wifi badge, illustrating a site that installs to your device and keeps working offline.

Ramsudharsan ManoharanContent Creators

Convert HEIC to JPG free on Windows, no app needed

Convert HEIC to JPG free in Chrome, Edge or Safari on Windows, Mac or your phone: drop the iPhone photos in, press JPEG, download. Nothing uploaded.

· 5 min read

ToolsTray's image converter after turning three .HEIC photos into JPGs in the browser, each row showing its new name and the size before and after.

Ramsudharsan ManoharanContent Creators

Convert video to GIF free, and keep the file small

Convert video to GIF free with two dropdowns, frame rate and width. What each one costs you, why long clips come out choppy, and where the 600-frame ceiling sits.

· 4 min read

ToolsTray's Video to GIF tool playing a finished 480 × 270 GIF loop of a short clip in its stage, all made in the browser.

Ramsudharsan ManoharanStudents

Transcribe audio to text free, on your device

Transcribe audio to text free in your browser: a lecture, a meeting, a voice memo. Timestamps, SRT and WebVTT export, and nothing leaves your device or asks for an account.

· 3 min read

The audio transcription tool showing a finished plain-text transcript of a short standup recording, with a Format selector, Copy, and Download.

Ramsudharsan ManoharanOffice Workers

Merge PDF files free without sending them to a server

Merge PDF files free in about a second. Each PDF becomes a row you drag into order, bookmarks and filled forms come across, and the result opens to check before you save it.

· 4 min read

A merged six-page PDF open in ToolsTray's Merge PDF page well, the first page of three source files joined into one 7.1 MB document.

Ramsudharsan ManoharanOffice Workers

Add page numbers to a PDF free, and skip the cover page

Add page numbers to a PDF for free, right in your browser: pick the format and position, start the count where you want, and leave the cover page unnumbered.

· 5 min read

ToolsTray's Add Page Numbers to PDF tool showing page 2 of a six-page report stamped '1 of 5' at bottom centre, with the cover left bare.

Ramsudharsan ManoharanDevelopers

Spotlight and tilt card hover effects (with the code)

How ToolsTray's tool cards get a spotlight glow and a subtle 3D tilt that follow your cursor, built with pointer events, CSS variables, and requestAnimationFrame.

· 3 min read

ToolsTray's persona cards in dark mode with the Office Workers card lit by the cursor-following spotlight glow, mid-tilt.

Ramsudharsan ManoharanContent Creators

Reduce image file size when the upload box says 2 MB

What I actually do to reduce image file size on a phone photo: Smart compression, a KB target when a form demands one, and the max width that beats both.

· 5 min read

ToolsTray's image compressor splitting a 3 MB phone photo down the middle: the original on one side of the divider, its 522.7 KB WebP copy on the other.