Colora

Colora

Colora

Live

Overview

Colora is a calm, modern PDF annotation workspace built for students, researchers, designers, and professionals who want a distraction-free editing experience. It combines document management, rich annotation tools, and clean page controls into a polished editor that feels effortless to use.

What It Is

A pastel-inspired PDF annotation and document editing application for opening, annotating, organizing, and exporting multi-page documents.

Problem

Most PDF editors become visually heavy and cluttered, which makes simple annotation feel slower and more stressful than it should be.

How It Works

Colora lets users open a local PDF or image, create a blank document, pick an annotation tool from the sidebar, adjust settings from the toolbar, and export the finished document as a PDF.

Why It Stands Out

Colora keeps the interface calm and minimal while still supporting serious editing workflows. The design uses soft accents, rounded surfaces, and restrained spacing so the document remains the focus instead of the UI.

Repository Structure

Document management handles PDF, image, and blank-page creation

Annotation modules power drawing, text, notes, shapes, and signatures

Canvas controls manage selection, resizing, movement, and editing

Page navigation and export logic handle multi-page document flow

Installation

sh

Installation

git clone https://github.com/arnabjena007/colora
cd colora
npm install
npm run dev

Local Run

sh

Local Run

npm run dev
Open the local development URL shown in the terminal

Flags

Ctrl/Cmd + O: open a PDF or image

Ctrl/Cmd + S: export the document

Ctrl/Cmd + Z: undo

Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z: redo

H, T, P/D, S, E, R, O, M, L, A, N, I: tool shortcuts

Code Snippets

ts

Document flow

const file = await openDocument(input);
const pages = await buildCanvasPages(file);
setActivePage(pages[0]);
setActiveTool("highlighter");
ts

Export pipeline

const annotationState = collectAnnotations();
const pdfBytes = await exportDocument(annotationState, {
  includeImages: true,
  preservePageOrder: true,
});

saveAsPdf(pdfBytes);

Setup Notes

Designed for local document editing in the browser

Supports PDFs and common image formats such as PNG, JPG, JPEG, and WebP

Works best on a desktop screen for precise annotation

Key Features

Open PDFs, images, or blank pages
Freehand drawing and highlighter tools
Text, notes, shapes, and signatures
Multi-page editing and export
Keyboard shortcuts for fast editing
Rounded, calm, minimal interface

Stack used

Next.jsNext.js
TailwindCSSTailwindCSS
TypeScriptTypeScript
VercelVercel

For more cool projects, visit my GitHub.

Crafted by Devo

© 2026. Built by hand.