![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
PDF Command Line Tools Usage ExamplesHere 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 1. Basic Usagecpdf 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 control.txt Read control.txt and use its contents as the command line arguments for cpdf. 2. Merging and Splittingcpdf -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 -o @B.pdf Split in.pdf on bookmark boundaries, writing each to a file whose name is the bookmark label. 3. Pagescpdf -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 Decryptioncpdf -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. 5. Compressioncpdf -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. Bookmarkscpdf -list-bookmarks in.pdf List the bookmarks in in.pdf. This would produce:
0 "Part 1" 1 open 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.7. Presentationscpdf -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 Stampscpdf -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 Facilitiescpdf -twoup-stack 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. 10. Annotationscpdf -list-annotations in.pdf List the annotations in a file in.pdf to standard output. This might produce:
-------------------------------- cpdf -copy-annotations from.pdf in.pdf -o out.pdf Copy the annotations from from.pdf to in.pdf, writing to out.pdf. 11. Document Information and Metadatacpdf -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. 12. File Attachmentscpdf -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. 13. Working with Imagescpdf -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). 14. Fontscpdf -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 Ghostscript). 15. PDF and JSONcpdf 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 Groupscpdf -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 PDFscpdf -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. 18. Miscellaneouscpdf -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. |