IT/Software/Command Line Applications/PDF Tools

Here is a short list of the many many pdf tools in the Linux toolbox

pdftk

This tool has been around forever and will not go away. Which is good.

Example: Rip out even or odd pages pages

pdftk name.pdf cat 1-endeven output even.pdf 

pdftk name.pdf cat 1-endodd output odd.pdf

Example: Join the odd and even documents into one.

pdftk odd-crop.pdf even-crop.pdf shuffle output nameMargins.pdf

pdfcrop

The most common use is just to remove white space from a document formatted for a different page size.

pdfcrop input.pdf output.pdf

You don't even have to specify the output name. It will make a new name with crop in it.

When you print form Okular you need to select Force Rasterization. Otherwise it "remembers" the cropped margins!

Example: Here we add a margin of 30 mm to the left

Order is left, bottom, right, top

pdfcrop --margins "30 0 0 0" odd.pdf 

The above works well if you have a scanned image that fills every page the same.

However if you don't you need to readjust the bbox

pdfcrop --verbose filename.pdf

Now you know the existing bbox.

Adjust with

pdfcrop --bbox '57 77 579 700' filename.pdf

Play with the numbers with the document open in Okular. You will see the results.

This will help printing with GUIs like Okular and Evince.

It messes up lp and lpr

pdfjam

Example: Create a pdf for printing with margins of 1 cm on left by pushing document to the right.

pdfjam --twoside 20.pdf --offset '1cm 0cm' --suffix 'offset'Example

pdfdetach

This can detach all attached files. Does not include annotations.

some MSG pdf files have audio attached as annotations

qpdf

this can decrypt files that are password protected with a blank password

Or just really old pdf files.

qpdf --decrypt chap01.pdf chap01_B.pdf