Linux And Free Software Tips, Tricks And Tutorials, fun with Free Software Options

[hildebrand]

I am starting this thread with a long term perspective to put together lots of useful information for our programs.
Request all to participate in this thread to spread the word about all the lovely things that can be done on Linux.

The distribution I use is Debian (from www.debian.org) but most tricks shall be generic in nature (program based). Many of the softwares are available on windows also so some tips maybe applicable for their windows versions also.

This post has been edited by hildebrand: Oct 10 2009, 07:19 PM

[hildebrand]

Tip #17 - Stapler for pdf

Often one has lots of pdf's and one wishes it was possible to have an "software" stapler with which one could add delete pages at will and do other things with it.

pdftk is what you've been looking for.

To quote from the manual:-

If PDF is electronic paper, then pdftk is an electronic stapler-remover,
hole-punch, binder, secret-decoder-ring, and X-Ray-glasses. Pdftk is a
simple tool for doing everyday things with PDF documents. Keep one in the
top drawer of your desktop and use it to:
- Merge PDF documents
- Split PDF pages into a new document
- Decrypt input as necessary (password required)
- Encrypt output as desired
- Fill PDF Forms with FDF Data and/or Flatten Forms
- Apply a Background Watermark
- Report PDF on metrics, including metadata and bookmarks
- Update PDF Metadata
- Attach Files to PDF Pages or the PDF Document
- Unpack PDF Attachments
- Burst a PDF document into single pages
- Uncompress and re-compress page streams
- Repair corrupted PDF (where possible)

That gives an idea about what all the software can do.

What more can one ask of a software which is just a little over 3 MB in installed size!

Here are some examples on how to use the lovely software:-

Decrypt a PDF
pdftk secured.pdf input_pw foopass output unsecured.pdf

Encrypt a PDF using 128-bit strength (the default), withhold all permissions (the default)
pdftk 1.pdf output 1.128.pdf owner_pw foopass

Same as above, except password ’baz’ must also be used to open output PDF
pdftk 1.pdf output 1.128.pdf owner_pw foo user_pw baz

Same as above, except printing is allowed (once the PDF is open)
pdftk 1.pdf output 1.128.pdf owner_pw foo user_pw baz allow printing

Join in1.pdf and in2.pdf into a new PDF, out1.pdf
pdftk in1.pdf in2.pdf cat output out1.pdf
or (using handles):
pdftk A=in1.pdf B=in2.pdf cat A B output out1.pdf
or (using wildcards):
pdftk *.pdf cat output combined.pdf

Remove ’page 13’ from in1.pdf to create out1.pdf
pdftk in.pdf cat 1-12 14-end output out1.pdf
or:
pdftk A=in1.pdf cat A1-12 A14-end output out1.pdf

Apply 40-bit encryption to output, revoking all permissions (the default). Set the owner PW to ’foopass’.
pdftk 1.pdf 2.pdf cat output 3.pdf encrypt_40bit owner_pw foopass

Join two files, one of which requires the password ’foopass’. The output is not encrypted.
pdftk A=secured.pdf 2.pdf input_pw A=foopass cat output 3.pdf

Uncompress PDF page streams for editing the PDF in a text editor (e.g., vim, emacs)
pdftk doc.pdf output doc.unc.pdf uncompress

Uncompress PDF page streams for editing the PDF in a text editor (e.g., vim, emacs)
pdftk doc.pdf output doc.unc.pdf uncompress

Repair a PDF’s corrupted XREF table and stream lengths, if possible
pdftk broken.pdf output fixed.pdf

Burst a single PDF document into pages and dump its data to doc_data.txt
pdftk in.pdf burst

Burst a single PDF document into encrypted pages. Allow low-quality printing
pdftk in.pdf burst owner_pw foopass allow DegradedPrinting

Write a report on PDF document metadata and bookmarks to report.txt
pdftk in.pdf dump_data output report.txt

Rotate the first PDF page to 90 degrees clockwise
pdftk in.pdf cat 1E 2-end output out.pdf

Rotate an entire PDF document to 180 degrees
pdftk in.pdf cat 1-endS output out.pdf