PDF Command Line Tools Usage Examples

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Here are some examples of the PDF command line tools in action. This is just a small selection—for more examples, see the Full PDF Manual.

When using Microsoft Windows, replace cpdf with cpdf.exe.

Index

1. Basic Usage
2. Merging and Splitting
3. Pages
4. Encryption and Decryption
5. Compression
6. Bookmarks
7. Presentations
8. Logos, Watermarks and Stamps
9. Multipage Facilities
10. Annotations
11. Document Information and Metadata
12. File Attachments
13. Working with Images
14. Fonts
15. PDF and JSON
16. Optional Content Groups
17. Creating New PDFs
18. Drawing on PDFs
19. Accessible PDFs with PDF/UA
20. Miscellaneous

1. Basic Usage

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 2023" -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.

2. Merging and Splitting

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 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.

3. Pages

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.

4. Encryption and Decryption

cpdf -encrypt AES fred joe in.pdf -o out.pdf

Encrypt in.pdf using 128 bit AES encryption with 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.

5. Compression

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 PDF file to take less space.

6. Bookmarks

cpdf -list-bookmarks in.pdf

List the bookmarks in in.pdf. This would produce:

0 "Part 1" 1 open
1 "Part 1A" 2
2 "Part 1B" 3
0 "Part 2" 4
1 "Part 2a" 5

cpdf -add-bookmarks bookmarks.txt in.pdf -o out.pdf

7. Presentations

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.

8. Logos, Watermarks and Stamps

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

9. Multipage Facilities

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.

10. Annotations

cpdf -list-annotations-json in.pdf

List the annotations in a file in.pdf to standard output.

cpdf -set-annotations-json out.json in.pdf -o out.pdf

Set annotations from a file.

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

Remove the annotations from in.pdf, writing to out.pdf

11. Document Information and Metadata

cpdf -info -utf8 in.pdf

List document metadata for in.pdf.

cpdf -set-title "The New Title" 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 Acrobat 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 Acrobat 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 Acrobat 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.

12. File Attachments

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.

13. Working with Images

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 -gs gs -rasterize in.pdf -o out.pdf

Rasterize PDF page content, creating new PDF.

cpdf -gs gs -output-image in.pdf 10-end -o image.png

Rasterize PDF pages to PNG files.

14. Fonts

cpdf -list-fonts in.pdf

List the fonts in use, and what pages they are used on.

cpdf -gs /usr/bin/gs -embed-missing-fonts in.pdf -o out.pdf

Embed missing fonts (with the help of gs).

15. PDF and JSON

cpdf in.pdf -output-json -output-json-parse-content-streams -o out.pdf

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.

16. Optional Content Groups

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.

17. Creating New PDFs

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.

18. Drawing on PDFs

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.

cpdf -create-pdf AND -draw -mtrans "100 100" -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.

19. Accessible PDFs with PDF/UA

cpdf -verify 'PDF/UA-1(matterhorn)' -json in.pdf

Verify in.pdf for conformance to PDF/UA-1 using the Matterhorn protocol, returning results in JSON format.

20. Miscellaneous

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 2 pts wide, writing to out.pdf.

cpdf -print-dict-entry /URI in.pdf

List all URLs in annotation hyperlinks in in.pdf.