These examples demonstrate just a few of the facilities provided by the Coherent PDF Command Line Tools. See each chapter for more commands and full details.
cpdf in.pdf 1-3,6 -o out.pdf
Read in.pdf, select pages 1, 2, 3 and 6, and write those pages to out.pdf.
cpdf in.pdf even -o out.pdf
Select the even pages (2, 4, 6...) from in.pdf and write those pages to out.pdf.
cpdf -merge in.pdf in2.pdf AND -add-text "Copyright 2024"
-o out.pdf
Using AND to perform several operations in order, here merging two files together and adding a copyright stamp to every page.
cpdf -args args.txt
Read args.txt and use its contents as the command line arguments for cpdf.
cpdf -merge in.pdf in2.pdf -o out.pdf
Merge in.pdf and in2.pdf into one document, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -split in.pdf -o Chunk%%%.pdf -chunk 10
Split in.pdf into ten-page chunks, writing them to Chunk001.pdf, Chunk002.pdf etc.
cpdf -split-bookmarks 0 in.pdf -utf8 -o @B.pdf
Split in.pdf on bookmark boundaries, writing each to a file whose name is the bookmark label.
cpdf -split-max 1Mb in.pdf -o %%%.pdf
Split in.pdf into files of 1Mb or less
cpdf -spray in.pdf -o a.pdf -o b.pdf -o c.pdf
Split in.pdf, writing pages 1,4,7... to a.pdf, 2,5,8... to b.pdf and 3,6,9... to c.pdf.
cpdf -scale-page "2 2" in.pdf -o out.pdf
Scale both the dimensions and contents of in.pdf by a factor of two in x and y directions.
cpdf -scale-to-fit usletterportrait in.pdf -o out.pdf
Scale the pages in in.pdf to fit the US Letter page size, writing to out.pdf
cpdf -shift "26pt 18mm" in.pdf -o out.pdf
Shift the contents of the page by 26 pts in the x direction, and 18 millimetres in the y direction, writing to out.pdf
cpdf -rotate-contents 90 in.pdf -o out.pdf
Rotate the contents of the pages in in.pdf by ninety degrees and write to out.pdf.
cpdf -cropbox "0 0 600pt 400pt" in.pdf -o out.pdf
Crop the pages in in.pdf to a 600 pts by 400 pts rectangle.
cpdf -encrypt 128bit fred joe in.pdf -o out.pdf
Encrypt in.pdf using 128bit PDF encryption using the owner password fred and the user password joe and writing the encrypted file to out.pdf
cpdf -decrypt in.pdf owner=fred -o out.pdf
Decrypt in.pdf using the owner password, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -compress in.pdf -o out.pdf
Compress the data streams in in.pdf, writing the result to out.pdf.
cpdf -decompress in.pdf -o out.pdf
Decompress the data streams in in.pdf, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -squeeze in.pdf -o out.pdf
Squeeze in.pdf, writing to out.pdf. Squeezing rearranges the structure of the PDF file to save space.
cpdf -list-bookmarks -utf8 in.pdf
List the bookmarks in in.pdf.
cpdf -add-bookmarks bookmarks.txt in.pdf -o out.pdf
Add bookmarks in the same form from a prepared file bookmarks.txt to in.pdf, writing to out.pdf. JSON alternatives are also available.
cpdf -table-of-contents in.pdf -o out.pdf
Typeset a table of contents from existing bookmarks and prepend to the document.
cpdf -presentation in.pdf 2-end -trans Split -duration 10
-o out.pdf
Use the Split style to build a presentation from the PDF in.pdf, each slide staying 10 seconds on screen unless manually advanced. The first page, being a title does not move on automatically, and has no transition effect.
cpdf -stamp-on watermark.pdf in.pdf -o out.pdf
Stamp the file watermark.pdf on to each page of in.pdf, writing the result to out.pdf.
cpdf -topleft 10 -font Courier
-add-text "Page %Page\nDate %d-%m-%Y" in.pdf -o out.pdf
Add a page number and date to all the pages in in.pdf using the Courier font, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -impose-xy "2 1" in.pdf -o out.pdf
Two up impose the file in.pdf, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -pad-after in.pdf 1,3,4 -o out.pdf
Add extra blank pages after pages one, three and four of a document.
cpdf -chop "2 2" in.pdf -o out.pdf
Chop each page into four quarters, including each in the output.
cpdf -list-annotations-json in.pdf > out.json
List the annotations in a file in.pdf to standard output, redirecting to file out.json.
cpdf -set-annotations-json out.json in.pdf -o out.pdf
Add the annotations from a JSON annotations file to in.pdf, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -remove-annotations in.pdf -o out.pdf
Remove the annotations from in.pdf, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -info -utf8 in.pdf
List document metadata for in.pdf.
cpdf -set-title "The New Title" -also-set-xmp in.pdf -o out.pdf
Set the document title of in.pdf, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -hide-toolbar true in.pdf -o out.pdf
Set the document in.pdf to open with the PDF Viewer’s toolbar hidden, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -set-metadata metadata.xml in.pdf -o out.pdf
Set the metadata in a PDF in.pdf to the contents of the file metadata.xml, and write the output to out.pdf.
cpdf -set-page-layout TwoColumnRight in.pdf -o out.pdf
Set the document in.pdf to open in PDF Viewer showing two columns of pages, starting on the right, putting the result in out.pdf.
cpdf -set-page-mode FullScreen in.pdf -o out.pdf
Set the document in.pdf to open in PDF Viewer in full screen mode, putting the result in out.pdf.
cpdf -print-page-labels-json in.pdf
Show, in JSON format, the page labels in in.pdf.
cpdf -composition in.pdf
Show how much data in in.pdf is used for images, fonts etc.
cpdf -attach-file sheet.xls in.pdf -o out.pdf
Attach the file sheet.xls to in.pdf, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -remove-files in.pdf -o out.pdf
Remove any attachments from in.pdf, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -dump-attachments in.pdf -o /home/fred/attachments
Dump attachments to file, given the directory to put them in.
cpdf -image-resolution 600 in.pdf
Identify and list any image used at less than 600dpi.
cpdf -extract-images in.pdf -im /usr/bin/magick -o output/%%%
Extract images from in.pdf to directory output (with the help of imagemagick).
cpdf -process-images -jpeg-to-jpeg 65 in.pdf -o out.pdf
Process JPEG images in in.pdf to 65% quality, writing the output to out.pdf.
cpdf -list-fonts in.pdf
List the fonts in use, and what pages they are used on.
cpdf -missing-fonts in.pdf
List missing fonts.
cpdf in.pdf -output-json -utf8 -output-json-parse-content-streams
-o out.json
Write the PDF in JSON format to the given file, parsing its content streams into individual JSON objects too.
cpdf -j in.json -o out.pdf
Load a PDF in JSON format, writing to an output PDF.
cpdf -ocg-list in.pdf
List the optional content groups by name.
cpdf -ocg-coalesce-on-name in.pdf -o out.pdf
Coalesce optional content groups after merging or stamping two files with OCGs with like names.
cpdf -create-pdf -create-pdf-pages 20 -create-pdf-papersize usletterportrait -o out.pdf
Create a US Letter PDF of twenty pages.
cpdf -typeset file.txt -create-pdf-papersize a3portrait -font Courier -font-size 10 -o out.pdf
Typeset a text file as PDF on A3 paper with Courier 10 point font.
cpdf -jpeg pic.jpeg -png pic.png -o out.pdf
Make a two-page PDF, the first from a JPEG and the second from a PNG.
cpdf -create-pdf AND -draw -to "100 100" -line "400 400" -line "400 100" -close -fill -o out.pdf
Create a new PDF and draw a filled triangle on it.
cpdf -create-pdf AND -draw -mtrans "100 200" -font-size 50 -leading 55 -bt -text "This is" -nl -text "on multiple" -nl -text "lines" -et -o out.pdf
Create a new PDF and draw three lines of text on it.
cpdf -create-pdf AND -draw -bt -text "Page 1" -et -newpage -bt -text "Page 2" -et -o out.pdf
Create a new PDF and draw text on one page and then the next.
cpdf -blacktext in.pdf -o out.pdf
Blacken all the text in in.pdf, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -thinlines 2pt in.pdf -o out.pdf
Make sure all lines in in.pdf are at least 2pts wide, writing to out.pdf.
cpdf -print-dict-entry /URI in.pdf
List all URLs in annotation hyperlinks in in.pdf.