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Building Fast PDF Annotation Tools

Performance optimization techniques in LeedPDF

PDF annotation tools are notoriously slow. LeedPDF is different—it's fast, even with large documents. Here's how we did it.

Rendering Optimization

We use canvas-based rendering with intelligent caching. Pages are rendered on-demand and cached, so scrolling through a document feels instant. We also use web workers to handle PDF parsing without blocking the UI.

Memory Management

Large PDFs can consume a lot of memory. We implement smart memory management: pages are unloaded when not visible, and we use efficient data structures to store annotations.