Chapter 3
Pages

cpdf -scale-page "<scale x> <scale y>" [-fast] in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -scale-to-fit "<x size> <y size>" [-fast]
     [-scale-to-fit-scale <scale>]
     in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -scale-contents [<scale>] [<position>] [-fast]
     in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -shift "<shift x> <shift y>" [-fast] in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -rotate <angle> in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -rotateby <angle> in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -upright [-fast] in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -rotate-contents <angle> [-fast] in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -hflip [-fast] in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -vflip [-fast] in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -mediabox "<x> <y> <w> <h>" in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -cropbox "<x> <y> <w> <h>" in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -remove-cropbox in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

(Also bleed, art, and trim versions of these two commands, for example -artbox, -remove-trimbox)

cpdf -frombox <boxname> -tobox <boxname> [-mediabox-if-missing]
     in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -hard-box <boxname> [-fast] in.pdf [<range>]
     [-mediabox-if-missing] -o out.pdf

cpdf -show-boxes [-fast] in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

cpdf -trim-marks [-fast] in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

3.1 Page Sizes

Any time when a page size is required, instead of writing, for instance "210mm 197mm" one can instead write a4portrait. Here is a list of supported page sizes:

aa03ppoorrttrraaiitt        aa14ppoorrttrraaiitt          aa25ppoorrttrraaiitt
a6portrait        a7portrait          a8portrait
a9portrait        a10portrait

a0landscape       a1landscape         a2landscape
a3landscape       a4landscape         a5landscape
a6landscape       a7landscape         a8landscape
a9landscape       a10landscape

uusslleetgtaelrppoorrttrraaiitt  uusslleetgtaelrllaannddssccaappee

3.2 Scale Pages

The -scale-page operation scales each page in the range by the X and Y factors given. This scales both the page contents, and the page size itself. It also scales any Crop Box and other boxes (Art Box, Trim Box etc). As with several of these commands, remember to take into account any page rotation when considering what the X and Y axes relate to.

cpdf -scale-page "2 2" in.pdf -o out.pdf

Convert an A4 page to A3, for instance.

The -scale-to-fit operation scales each page in the range to fit a given page size, preserving aspect ratio and centering the result.

cpdf -scale-to-fit "297mm 210mm" in.pdf -o out.pdfcpdf -scale-to-fit a4portrait in.pdf -o out.pdf

Scale a file’s pages to fit A4 portrait.

The scale can optionally be set to a percentage of the available area, instead of filling it.

cpdf -scale-to-fit a4portrait -scale-to-fit-scale 0.9 in.pdf -o out.pdf

Scale a file’s pages to fit A4 portrait, scaling the page 90% of its possible size.

NB: -scale-to-fit operates with respect to the media box not the crop box. If necessary, set the media box to be equal to the crop box first. In addition, -scale-to-fit presently requires that the origin of the media box be (0, 0). This can be assured by preprocessing with -upright (described elsewhere in this chapter).

The -scale-contents operation scales the contents about the center of the crop box (or, if absent, the media box), leaving the page dimensions (boxes) unchanged.

cpdf -scale-contents 0.5 in.pdf -o out.pdf

Scale a file’s contents on all pages to 50% of its original dimensions.

To scale about a point other than the center, one can use the positioning commands described in Section 8.2.4. For example:

cpdf -scale-contents 0.5 -topright 20 in.pdf -o out.pdf

Scale a file’s contents on all pages to 50% of its original dimensions about a point 20pts from its top right corner.

3.3 Shift Page Contents

The -shift operation shifts the contents of each page in the range by X points horizontally and Y points vertically.

cpdf -shift "50 0" in.pdf even -o out.pdf

Shift pages to the right by 50 points (for instance, to increase the binding margin).

3.4 Rotating Pages

There are two ways of rotating pages: (1) setting a value in the PDF file which asks the viewer (e.g. Acrobat) to rotate the page on-the-fly when viewing it (use -rotate or -rotateby) and (2) actually rotating the page contents and/or the page dimensions (use -upright (described elsewhere in this chapter) afterwards or -rotate-contents to just rotate the page contents).

The possible values for -rotate and -rotate-by are 0, 90, 180 and 270, all interpreted as being clockwise. Any value may be used for -rotate-contents.

The -rotate operation sets the viewing rotation of the selected pages to the absolute value given.

cpdf -rotate 90 in.pdf -o out.pdf

Set the rotation of all the pages in the input file to ninety degrees clockwise.

The -rotateby operation changes the viewing rotation of all the given pages by the relative value given.

cpdf -rotateby 90 in.pdf -o out.pdf

Rotate all the pages in the input file by ninety degrees clockwise.

The -rotate-contents operation rotates the contents and dimensions of the page by the given relative value.

cpdf -rotate-contents 90 in.pdf -o out.pdf

Rotate all the page contents in the input file by ninety degrees clockwise. Does not change the page dimensions.

The -upright operation does whatever combination of -rotate and -rotate-contents is required to change the rotation of the document to zero without altering its appearance. In addition, it makes sure the media box has its origin at (0,0), changing other boxes to compensate. This is important because some operations in CPDF (such as scale-to-fit), and in other PDF-processing programs, work properly only when the origin is (0, 0).

cpdf -upright in.pdf -o out.pdf

Make pages upright.

3.5 Flipping Pages

The -hflip and -vflip operations flip the contents of the chosen pages horizontally or vertically. No account is taken of the current page rotation when considering what ”horizontally” and ”vertically” mean, so you may like to use -upright (see above) first.

cpdf -hflip in.pdf even -o out.pdf

Flip the even pages in in.pdf horizontally.

cpdf -vflip in.pdf -o out.pdf

Flip all the pages in in.pdf vertically.

3.6 Boxes and Cropping

All PDF files contain a media box for each page, giving the dimensions of the paper. To change these dimensions (without altering the page contents in any way), use the -mediabox operation.

cpdf -mediabox "0pt 0pt 500pt 500pt" in.pdf -o out.pdf

Set the media box to 500 points square.

The four numbers are minimum x, minimum y, width, height. x coordinates increase to the right, y coordinates increase upwards. PDF file can also optionally contain a crop box for each page, defining to what extent the page is cropped before being displayed or printed. A crop box can be set, changed and removed, without affecting the underlying media box. To set or change the crop box use -cropbox. To remove any existing crop box, use -remove-cropbox.

cpdf -cropbox "0pt 0pt 200mm 200mm" in.pdf -o out.pdf

Crop pages to the bottom left 200-millimeter square of the page.

cpdf -remove-cropbox in.pdf -o out.pdf

Remove cropping.

Note that the crop box is only obeyed in some viewers. Similar operations are available for the bleed, art, and trim boxes (-art, -remove-bleed etc.)

cpdf -frombox <boxname> -tobox <boxname> [-mediabox-if-missing]
     in.pdf [<range>] -o out.pdf

Copy the contents of one box to another.

This operation copies the contents of one box (Media box, Crop box, Trim box etc.) to another. If -mediabox-if-missing is added, the media box will be substituted when the ’from’ box is not set for a given page. For example

cpdf -frombox /TrimBox -tobox /CropBox in.pdf -o out.pdf

copies the Trim Box of each page to the Crop Box of each page. The possible boxes are /MediaBox, /CropBox, /BleedBox, /TrimBox, /ArtBox.

A hard box (one which clips its contents by inserting a clipping rectangle) may be created with the -hard-box operation:

cpdf -hard-box /TrimBox in.pdf -o out.pdf

This means the resultant file may be used as a stamp without contents outside the given box reappearing. The -mediabox-if-missing option may also be used here.

3.7 Showing Boxes and Printer’s Marks

The -show-boxes operation displays the boxes present on each page as method of debugging. Since boxes may be coincident, they are shown in differing colours and dash patterns so they may be identified even where they overlap. The colours are:

M ed ia box  Red
Cropb ox   Green
Artbox     Blue
Trim box    Orange
Bleed box   Pink

The -trim-marks operation adds trim marks to a PDF file. The trim box must be present.

Java Interface

 
/* CHAPTER 3. Pages */ 
 
/** Scales the page dimensions 
and content by the given scale, about (0, 0). Other boxes (crop etc. are 
altered as appropriate). 
@param pdf PDF document 
@param range page range 
@param sx X scale 
@param sy Y scale*/ 
public native void scalePages(Pdf pdf, Range range, double sx, double sy) 
    throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Scales the content to fit new page dimensions (width x height) 
multiplied by scale (typically 1.0). Other boxes (crop etc. are altered as 
appropriate). 
@param pdf PDF document 
@param range page range 
@param w width in points 
@param h height in points 
@param scale scale (typically 1.0) 
*/ 
public native void scaleToFit(Pdf pdf, Range range, double w, double h, 
                              double scale) 
    throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Scales the page content to fit the given page size, possibly multiplied 
by scale (typically 1.0). 
@param pdf PDF document 
@param range page range 
@param papersize paper size, such as {@link #a4portrait a0portrait} 
@param scale scale (typically 1.0) 
*/ 
public native void scaleToFitPaper(Pdf pdf, Range range, int papersize, 
                                   double scale) 
    throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Scales the contents of the pages in the range about the point given by 
the <code>anchor</code>, <code>p1</code> and <code>p2</code> by the scale 
given. See the documentation for the chosen anchor. 
@param pdf PDF document 
@param range page range 
@param anchor position anchor, such as {@link #posCentre posCentre} 
@param p1 position parameter 1 
@param p2 position parameter 2 
@param scale scale 
*/ 
public native void scaleContents(Pdf pdf, Range range, int anchor, 
                                 double p1, double p2, double scale) 
    throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Shifts the content of the pages in the range. 
@param pdf PDF document 
@param range page range 
@param dx X shift 
@param dy Y shift 
*/ 
public native void shiftContents(Pdf pdf, Range range, double dx, 
                                 double dy) 
    throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Changes the viewing rotation to an absolute value. Appropriate 
rotations are 0, 90, 180, 270. 
@param pdf PDF document 
@param range page range 
@param angle viewing rotation 
*/ 
public native void rotate(Pdf pdf, Range range, int angle) 
    throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Changes the viewing rotation by a relative value. Appropriate 
rotations are 0, 90, 180, 270. 
@param pdf PDF document 
@param range page range 
@param angle viewing rotation 
*/ 
public native void rotateBy(Pdf pdf, Range range, int angle) 
    throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Rotates the content about the centre of the page by the given number of 
degrees, in a clockwise direction. 
@param pdf PDF document 
@param range page range 
@param angle angle in degrees 
*/ 
public native void rotateContents(Pdf pdf, Range range, double angle) 
    throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Changes the viewing rotation of the pages in the range, 
counter-rotating the dimensions and content such that there is no visual 
change. */ 
public native void upright(Pdf pdf, Range range) throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Flips horizontally the pages in the range. */ 
public native void hFlip(Pdf pdf, Range range) throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Flips vertically the pages in the range. */ 
public native void vFlip(Pdf pdf, Range range) throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Crops a page, replacing any existing crop box. The dimensions are in 
points. 
@param pdf PDF document 
@param range page range 
@param x minimum X 
@param y minimum Y 
@param w width 
@param h height */ 
public native void crop(Pdf pdf, Range range, double x, double y, double w, 
                        double h) 
    throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Removes any crop box from pages in the range. */ 
public native void removeCrop(Pdf pdf, Range range) throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Removes any trim box from pages in the range. */ 
public native void removeTrim(Pdf pdf, Range range) throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Removes any art box from pages in the range. */ 
public native void removeArt(Pdf pdf, Range range) throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Removes any bleed box from pages in the range. */ 
public native void removeBleed(Pdf pdf, Range range) throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Adds trim marks to the given pages, if the trimbox exists. */ 
public native void trimMarks(Pdf pdf, Range range) throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Shows the boxes on the given pages, for debug. */ 
public native void showBoxes(Pdf pdf, Range range) throws CpdfError; 
 
/** Makes a given box a hard box i.e clips it explicitly. 
@param pdf PDF document 
@param range page range 
@param box box name e.g "/CropBox" */ 
public native void hardBox(Pdf pdf, Range range, String box) 
    throws CpdfError;