PDF Labs

Assembles ("catenates") pages from input PDFs to create a new PDF. Use cat to merge PDF pages or to split PDF pages from documents. You can also use it to rotate PDF pages. Page order in the new PDF is specified by the order of the given page ranges. Page ranges are described like this:

[ < input PDF handle > ] [ < begin page number > [ -< end page number > [ < qualifier > ] ] ] [ < page rotation > ]

For example:

pdftk A=in1.pdf B=in2.pdf cat A1 B2-20even output out.pdf

The handle identifies one of the input PDF files, and the beginning and ending page numbers are one-based references to pages in the PDF file. The qualifier can be even or odd, and the page rotation can be north, south, east, west, left, right, or down.

If a PDF handle is given but no pages are specified, then the entire PDF is used. If no pages are specified for any of the input PDFs, then the input PDFs' bookmarks are also merged and included in the output.

If the handle is omitted from the page range, then the pages are taken from the first input PDF.

The even qualifier causes pdftk to use only the even-numbered PDF pages, so 1-6even yields pages 2, 4 and 6 in that order. 6-1even yields pages 6, 4 and 2 in that order.

The odd qualifier works similarly to the even.

The page rotation setting can cause pdftk to rotate pages and documents. Each option sets the page rotation as follows (in degrees): north: 0, east: 90, south: 180, west: 270, left: -90, right: +90, down: +180. left, right, and down make relative adjustments to a page’s rotation.

If no arguments are passed to cat, then pdftk merges all input PDFs in the order they were given to create the output.

NOTES:

• < end page number > can be less than < begin page number >.
• The keyword end can be used to reference the final page of a document instead of a page number.
• Reference a single page by omitting the ending page number in the page range.
• The handle can be used alone to represent the entire PDF document, e.g., B1-end is the same as B.
• You can reference page numbers in reverse order by prefixing them with the letter r. For example, page r1 is the last page of the document, r2 is the next-to-last page of the document, and rend is the first page of the document. You can use this prefix in ranges, too, for example r3-r1 is the last three pages of a PDF.

Page range examples without handles:

• 1-endeast - rotate entire document 90 degrees
• 5 11 20
• 5-25oddwest - take odd pages in range, rotate 90 degrees
• 6-1

Page Range Examples Using Handles:

Say A=in1.pdf B=in2.pdf, then:

• A1-21 - take range from in1.pdf
• Bend-1odd - take all odd pages from in2.pdf in reverse order
• A72 - take a single page from in1.pdf
• A1-21 Beven A72 - assemble pages from both in1.pdf and in2.pdf
• Awest - rotate entire document 90 degrees
• B - use all of in2.pdf
• A2-30evenleft - take the even pages from the range, remove 90 degrees from each page’s rotation
• A A - catenate in1.pdf with in1.pdf
• Aevenwest Aoddeast - apply rotations to even pages, odd pages from in1.pdf
• Awest Bwest Bdown - catenate rotated documents

Collates pages from input PDFs to create a new PDF. Works like the cat operation except that it takes one page at a time from each page range to assemble the output PDF. If one range runs out of pages, it continues with the remaining ranges. Ranges can use all of the features described above for cat, like reverse page ranges, multiple ranges from a single PDF, and page rotation. This feature was designed to help collate PDF pages after scanning paper documents.

Splits a single input PDF document into individual pages. Also creates a report named doc_data.txt which is the same as the output from dump_data. If the output section is omitted, then PDF pages arenamed: pg_%04d.pdf, e.g.: pg_0001.pdf, pg_0002.pdf, etc. To name these pages yourself, supply a printf-styled format string in the output section. For example, if you want pages named: page_01.pdf, page_02.pdf, etc.,pass output page_%02d.pdf to pdftk.

Encryption can be applied to the output by appending output options such as owner_pw, e.g.:

pdftk in.pdf burst owner_pw foopass

Takes a single input PDF and rotates just the specified pages. All other pages remain unchanged. The page order remains unchaged. Specify the pages to rotate using the same notation as you would with cat, except you omit the pages that you aren't rotating:

[ < begin page number > [ -< end page number > [ < qualifier > ] ] ] [ < page rotation > ]

The qualifier can be even or odd, and the page rotation can be north, south, east, west, left, right, or down.

Each option sets the page rotation as follows (in degrees): north: 0, east: 90, south: 180, west: 270, left: -90, right: +90, down: +180. left, right, and down make relative adjustments to a page's rotation.

The given order of the pages doesn't change the page order in the output.

Reads a single input PDF file and generates an FDF file suitable for fill_form. It saves this FDF file using the output filename. If no output filename is give, it outputs the FDF to stdout. Does not create a new PDF.

Fills the single input PDF’s form fields with the data from an FDF file, XFDF file or stdin. Enter the data filename after fill_form, or use - to pass the data via stdin, like so:

pdftk form.pdf fill_form data.fdf output form.filled.pdf

If the input FDF file includes Rich Text formatted data in addition to plain text, then the RichText data is packed into the form fields as well as the plain text. Pdftk also sets a flag that cues Reader/Acrobat to generate new field appearances based on the Rich Text data. So when the user opens the PDF, the viewer will create the Rich Text fields on the spot. If the user’s PDF viewer does not support Rich Text, then the user will see the plain text data instead. If you flatten this form before Acrobat has a chance to create (and save) new field appearances, then the plain text field data is what you’ll see in the flattened PDF.

Also see the flatten and need_appearances options.

Applies a PDF watermark to the background of a single input PDF. Pass the background PDF’s filename after background like so:

pdftk in.pdf background back.pdf output out.pdf

Pdftk uses only the first page from the background PDF and applies it to every page of the input PDF. This page is scaled and rotated as needed to fit the input page. You can use - to pass a background PDF into pdftk via stdin.

If the input PDF does not have a transparent background (such as a PDF created from page scans) then the resulting background won’t be visible — use the stamp operation instead.

Same as the background operation, but applies each page of the background PDF to the corresponding page of the input PDF. If the input PDF has more pages than the stamp PDF, then the final stamp page is repeated across these remaining pages in the input PDF.

This behaves just like the background operation except it overlays the stamp PDF page on top of the input PDF document’s pages. This works best if the stamp PDF page has a transparent background.

Same as the stamp operation, but applies each page of the stamp PDF to the corresponding page of the input PDF. If the input PDF has more pages than the stamp PDF, then the final stamp page is repeated across these remaining pages in the input PDF.

Reads a single input PDF file and reports its metadata, bookmarks (a/k/a outlines), page metrics (media, rotation and labels) and other data to the given output filename or (if no output is given) to stdout. Non-ASCII characters are encoded as XML numerical entities. Does not create a new PDF.

Same as dump_data excepct that the output is encoded as UTF-8.

Reads a single input PDF file and reports form field statistics to the given output filename or (if no output is given) to stdout. Non-ASCII characters are encoded as XML numerical entities. Does not create a new PDF.

Same as dump_data_fields excepct that the output is encoded as UTF-8.

This operation currently reports only link annotations. Reads a single input PDF file and reports annotation information to the given output filename or (if no output is given) to stdout. Non-ASCII characters are encoded as XML numerical entities. Does not create a new PDF.

Changes the bookmarks and metadata in a single PDF’s Info dictionary to match the input data file. The input data file uses the same syntax as the output from dump_data. Non-ASCII characters should be encoded as XML numerical entities. This does not change the metadata stored in the PDF’s XMP stream, if it has one. For example:

pdftk in.pdf update_info in.info output out.pdf

Same as update_info except that the input is encoded as UTF-8.

Packs arbitrary files into a PDF using PDF’s file attachment features. More than one attachment can be listed after attach_files. Attachments are added at the document level unless the optional to_page option is given, in which case the files are attached to the given page number (the first page is 1, the final page is end). For example:

pdftk in.pdf attach_files table1.html table2.html to_page 6 output out.pdf

Copies all of the attachments from the input PDF into the current folder or to an output directory given after output. For example:

pdftk report.pdf unpack_files output ~/atts/

or, interactively:

pdftk report.pdf unpack_files output PROMPT