Case study · 2026 · Creator & Developer

TandaAir

A privacy-first watermarking studio for images and PDFs. Everything runs in your browser, nothing is ever uploaded.

Client
Personal product
Role
Creator & Developer
Timeline
2025–2026
Year
2026
0
files uploaded
100%
client-side
Offline
installable PWA
Next.js 15React 19TypeScriptTailwind CSSZustandpdf-libPDF.jsWeb WorkersPWA

Overview

A watermarking tool that treats privacy as the feature. You can batch-watermark images and PDFs, tune every parameter, and export, and not a single byte of your files ever leaves the device. It installs as a PWA and works offline.

The problem

Most online watermarking tools upload your documents to a server you have to trust. For IDs, contracts, and personal photos, that trade is unacceptable.

Goals

  • Never transmit user files, process entirely on-device.
  • Handle both images and multi-page PDFs.
  • Stay responsive on large batches.
  • Work offline, installable like an app.

Privacy-first architecture

There is no backend for files. Images are composited on a canvas; PDFs are parsed with PDF.js and rewritten with pdf-lib. Heavy work is offloaded to Web Workers so the UI never blocks, and Zustand holds a predictable state tree. Because processing is local, the app ships as an offline-capable PWA.

What it does

Batch watermarking

Drop in many files; apply one watermark configuration across all of them.

Image + PDF engines

Canvas compositing for images; PDF.js + pdf-lib for true multi-page PDFs.

Web Worker offloading

Rendering runs off the main thread, so the interface stays smooth on big jobs.

Installable & offline

A PWA you can install and use with no connection at all.

Why it matters

TandaAir proves a privacy claim you can verify: turn off your network and it still works. It's a small product with an opinion, your files are yours.

Lessons

Pushing real work to the client changes the engineering: memory, worker messaging, and file APIs become the design. The constraint, never upload, made the product clearer, not weaker.

Next project

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