Show HN: Stop sending files to sketchy servers and convert any file offline | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Stop sending files to sketchy servers and convert any file offline

howtoconvert.co

17 pointsjakemanger13 comments

Hey HN! I made How to Convert. Here's the problem I had and the solution I thought of:

Problem

When you search "How to convert PNG to ICO" on Google, you get a bunch of shady looking "free" results that send your data to unknown servers. The same is true for almost any conversion you are trying to do.

So what do I want? I want something I can trust completely. AKA locally running, doesn't send my files or data anywhere and built by an independent developer building in public.

Solution

How to Convert

Privacy-first: Files stay on your device and it works offline.

Wide compatibility: Works with nearly any file type in an all-in-one app. If your file type is not yet supported, submit an issue to get it added!

Unlimited use: One purchase, infinite access.

Runs anywhere: Runs on Mac, Windows, Linux or the Web.

Open articleView on HN

Why would I spend $30 (after the beta) for a software that already have a free and open source alternative ?

[0] https://file-converter.io/

One reason would be support for far more file formats. Currently 2077 conversions are supported in How to Convert (many more to come), while 412 are supported in FileConverter. How to Convert also runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, while FileConverter is only on Windows.

It looks like a great project, but I can imagine it is hard for the maintainer to have time to add these features without any financial compensation. I'm not in a good financial place to make How to Convert open source yet, so am hoping users paying the current $7.5 will help support it's development.

It's a one time fee that gives you the project forever.

Sounds good, also I see that FileConverter needs "Microsoft Office installed and activated" and you seem to use LibreOffice, +1 really.

On another note it would be great if you could change how you display those 2077 conversions in your website, I find it really awkward to look at them by scrolling and if my mouse get out of the popup it disappear.

If you can do something "similar" to FileConverter where you can see all of them (at least a lot) on one screen, it helps with doing CTRL + F and searching your file format. :)

GL with the startup man

Thanks for the great and useful feedback. Yes, I love LibreOffice and agree that area is a little awkward so needs an update

Also I totally understand not making opensource but marketing your apps as privacy focused but it's closed source is hard to give you trust. I'm not an expert in analyzing apps, I guess people could use wireshark and see that nothing is coming out of your apps.

The privacy aspect of the app is there are no servers converting the file for you. Everything happens in the browser (in the demo) or using local tools. The demo in the browser's privacy can be confirmed with for example Chrome Developer Tools. For the app, people can confirm no sending of files with tools like wireshark or little snitch, and if people have ideas on how I can improve that transparency, then I'd invite it.

I'm just throwing ideas:

Wouldn't it be a good idea that you make a normal website to convert file format like any others, but the online service serve as an ad for your offline conversion app ?

I'm actually partially implementing that with the demo at the top being able to use WASM tech to run the conversion software in the browser. That way, you can still use a website and convert entirely on your own machine.

Working on improving it at the moment

Let me be the first to say I really love this if it is how it looks. I haven't tried it so can't say I have any experience with your program but I would like to comment about what I like.

First I read your terms of service. It takes a minute to read. There is not hard to understand lawyer speak it is clear and straight forward no hidden "if you use our program you shall owe us your first born child" language.

Second I love that it is just a one time purchase. The reason I like this is because I screwed up a couple years back. I was needing to do something and found a site that could do it and it had a limited free to try but the free didn't do exactly what I needed so it offered a very cheap like $3 use of the program and at no point informed me of the terms of the website or suggest anything other then the $3 payment for a month access. Well I used it to help a girlfriend of the time out and then forgot I even used it. I have hundreds of purchases a month on my credit card and don't always scrutinize my statement and at the time had a lot on my plate and did not notice the site was charging me something like $50 a month. I did not realize for about 3 months that it was charging me. I used the site literally one time. I felt like I was robbed. So you offering a 1 time payment makes this program very appealing.

I hope you do well. I hope you don't ever get greedy and try and milk the users who initially supported you. Good luck.

Thank you very much!

I'm glad you picked up on those - I don't like reading long terms of service (hey apple!) and I think those kinds of subscriptions are downright predatory. I've cancelled my bank card twice now because I'm scared theres a subscription that'll take out a chunk of my next pay check.

PNG to SVG is missing.

That one is a bit difficult as PNG is a raster format - has pixels, while SVG is a vector format - has lines and shapes drawn with mathematical formulas. SVG can be scaled to any resolution and look the same. SVG to PNG is easy, while PNG to SVG is very difficult.

Most online converters will only work with black and white images where you can use the change from black to white to detect the outlines. I have seen some new AI models that can trace over the pixel image too.

> ChatGPT

Please give me the Image Magick command to convert a PNG to ICO

``` convert input.png -define icon:auto-resize=256,128,64,48,32,16 output.ico ```

...

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