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A comment on Show HN: PDF API – Generate, convert, and modify PDF documents.

Re:Show HN: PDF API – Generate, convert, and modify PDF docu... by jfk13 on Thursday March 17, 2022 @09:00AM (#30710658)
Taking a quick look at https://pspdfkit.com/api/documentation/tools-and-api/, I'm puzzled.... what distinguishes a "PDF Generator" from a "PDF Creator" from a "PDF Writer"? How would I know which one I want?

Oh, looks like they're the exact same thing: a webpage-to-PDF service.

Then there are a whole bunch of "PDF Converter" options, including "HTML > PDF", which seems to be yet another name for the same thing.

For me, all this has a whiff of SEO spam that I find quite distasteful. Just tell me what the product does. Don't try to list it under a collection of different titles in the hope of catching more search terms, it just makes you sound like a snake-oil salesman.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: PDF API – Generate, convert, and modify PDF docu... by arkgil on Thursday March 17, 2022 @03:40PM (#30715097)
I'm sorry you find it distasteful - that was never our intention. What we found was that a user searching for a PDF generator, creator or writer are generally looking for the same solution - to create a PDF. So by repositioning our tool we were hoping to provide a better landing page experience for users that were searching for one of those specific keywords.

Of course the downside is as you've pointed out - it can be seen as distasteful and in some cases confusing to our users. We will review this on our side and see if it makes sense to remove some of those tools to reduce confusion.

[ Parent | on HN ]