.. NOTES See "HOW TO ADD A COMMAND-LINE ARGUMENT" in README-maintainer. This file contains text that is used for help file generation. Lines that start with the magic comment ".. help topic x: y" introduce a help topic called "x" with short text "y". The contents of the comment are the long text. The ".. qpdf:option:: option" directive introduces a command-line option. The next ".. help: short_text" comment's contents are the long text of the help. Search for ".. help-topic" and "qpdf:option" for additional help. Command line arguments can be referenced using :qpdf:ref:`--option`. They also appear in an index. Note: 2022-01-22: because short help text is used in the "schema" JSON object for QPDFJob JSON, we can't end short text with a ``)`` character since doing so would cause ``)"`` to appear in the string literal. We use the R"(...)" syntax for these literals, and that looks like an end delimiter. While the C++ spec allows R"anything(...)anything" specifically for this purpose, the MSVC in CI at the time of this writing did not support that construct. STYLE NOTES In this text, :samp:`...` and ``...`` are used somewhat interchangeably. :samp: should be used when there is replaceable text enclosed in curly braces. Otherwise, either is fine. Ideally there should be a stricter editorial convention, but they render the same, so I have not gone to the trouble of making it consistent. USE :qpdf:ref:`--option` to refer to an option whenever it is specified without parameters in any place other than its own help. This creates a link. When referring to command-line options, use the following terminology: argument: any command-line argument whether option or positional option: any argument starting with -- including its parameter, if any flag: the --flag part of the option; only use to disambiguate parameter: the parameter part of the option Example: qpdf in.pdf --object-stream=generalized out.pdf Each word is an argument. The "--object-stream=generalized" option consists of the "--object-stream" flag with the "generalized" parameter. It would be okay to talk about "the --object-stream option" in the text if there's no ambiguity. .. _using: Running qpdf ============ This chapter describes how to run the qpdf program from the command line. .. _invocation: Basic Invocation ---------------- .. help-topic usage: basic invocation Read a PDF file, apply transformations or modifications, and write a new PDF file. Usage: qpdf [infile] [options] [outfile] OR qpdf --help[={topic|--option}] - infile, options, and outfile may be in any order as long as infile precedes outfile. - Use --empty in place of an input file for a zero-page, empty input - Use --replace-input in place of an output file to overwrite the input file with the output - outfile may be - to write to stdout; reading from stdin is not supported - @filename is an argument file; each line is treated as a separate command-line argument - @- may be used to read arguments from stdin - Later options may override earlier options if contradictory :: Usage: qpdf [infile] [options] [outfile] The :command:`qpdf` command reads the PDF file :samp:`{infile}`, applies various transformations or modifications to the file in memory, and writes the result to :samp:`{outfile}`. When run with no options, the output file is functionally identical to the input file but may be structurally reorganized, and orphaned objects are removed from the file. Many options are available for applying transformations or modifications to the file. :samp:`{infile}` can be a regular file, or it can be :qpdf:ref:`--empty` to start with an empty PDF file. There is no way to use standard input since the input file has to be seekable. :samp:`{outfile}` can be a regular file, ``-`` to represent standard output, or :qpdf:ref:`--replace-input` to indicate that the input file should be overwritten. The output file does not have to be seekable, even when generating linearized files. You can also use :qpdf:ref:`--split-pages` to create separate output files for each page (or group of pages) instead of a single output file. Password-protected files may be opened by specifying a password with :qpdf:ref:`--password`. All options other than help options (see :ref:`help-options`) require an input file. If inspection or JSON options (see :ref:`inspection-options` and :ref:`json-options`) or help options are given, an output file must not be given. Otherwise, an output file is required. If :samp:`@filename` appears as a word anywhere in the command-line, it will be read line by line, and each line will be treated as a command-line argument. Leading and trailing whitespace is intentionally not removed from lines, which makes it possible to handle arguments that start or end with spaces. The :samp:`@-` option allows arguments to be read from standard input. This allows qpdf to be invoked with an arbitrary number of arbitrarily long arguments. It is also very useful for avoiding having to pass passwords on the command line, though see also :qpdf:ref:`--password-file`. Note that the :samp:`@filename` can't appear in the middle of an argument, so constructs such as :samp:`--arg=@filename` will not work. Instead, you would have to include the option and its parameter (e.g., :samp:`--option=parameter`) as a line in the :file:`filename` file and just pass :samp:`@filename` on the command line. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --empty .. help: use empty file as input Use in place of infile for an empty input. Especially useful with --pages. This option may be given in place of :samp:`{infile}`. This causes qpdf to use a dummy input file that contains zero pages. This option is useful in conjunction with :qpdf:ref:`--pages`. See :ref:`page-selection` for details. .. qpdf:option:: --replace-input .. help: overwrite input with output Use in place of outfile to overwrite the input file with the output. This option may be given in place of :samp:`{outfile}`. This causes qpdf to replace the input file with the output. It does this by writing to :file:`{infilename}.~qpdf-temp#` and, when done, overwriting the input file with the temporary file. If there were any warnings, the original input is saved as :file:`{infilename}.~qpdf-orig`. If there are errors, the input file is left untouched. .. qpdf:option:: --job-json-file=file .. help: job JSON file Specify the name of a file whose contents are expected to contain a QPDFJob JSON file. Run qpdf --job-json-help for a description of the JSON input file format. Specify the name of a file whose contents are expected to contain a QPDFJob JSON file. This file is read and treated as if the equivalent command-line arguments were supplied. It can be repeated and mixed freely with other options. Run ``qpdf`` with :qpdf:ref:`--job-json-help` for a description of the job JSON input file format. For more information, see :ref:`qpdf-job`. Note that this is unrelated to :qpdf:ref:`--json` but may be combined with it. .. _exit-status: Exit Status ----------- .. help-topic exit-status: meanings of qpdf's exit codes Meaning of exit codes: - 0: no errors or warnings - 1: not used by qpdf but may be used by the shell if unable to invoke qpdf - 2: errors detected - 3: warnings detected, unless --warning-exit-0 is given The exit status of :command:`qpdf` may be interpreted as follows: .. list-table:: Exit Codes :widths: 5 80 :header-rows: 0 - - 0 - no errors or warnings were found - - 1 - not used - - 2 - errors were found; the file was not processed - - 3 - warnings were found without errors Notes: - A PDF file may have problems that qpdf can't detect. - With the :qpdf:ref:`--warning-exit-0` option, exit status ``0`` is used even if there are warnings. - :command:`qpdf` does not exit with status ``1`` since the shell uses this exit code if it is unable to invoke the command. - If both errors and warnings were found, exit status ``2`` is used. - The :qpdf:ref:`--is-encrypted` and :qpdf:ref:`--requires-password` options use different exit codes. See their help for details. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --warning-exit-0 .. help: exit 0 even with warnings Use exit status 0 instead of 3 when warnings are present. When combined with --no-warn, warnings are completely ignored. If there were warnings only and no errors, exit with exit code ``0`` instead of ``3``. When combined with :qpdf:ref:`--no-warn`, the effect is for :command:`qpdf` to completely ignore warnings. .. _shell-completion: Shell Completion ---------------- .. help-topic completion: shell completion Shell completion is supported with bash and zsh. Use eval $(qpdf --completion-bash) or eval $(qpdf --completion-zsh) to enable. The QPDF_EXECUTABLE environment variable overrides the path to qpdf that these commands output. :command:`qpdf` provides its own completion support for zsh and bash. You can enable bash completion with :command:`eval $(qpdf --completion-bash)` and zsh completion with :command:`eval $(qpdf --completion-zsh)`. If :command:`qpdf` is not in your path, you should use an absolute path to qpdf in the above invocation. If you invoke it with a relative path, it will warn you, and the completion won't work if you're in a different directory. :command:`qpdf` will use ``argv[0]`` to figure out where its executable is. This may produce unwanted results in some cases, especially if you are trying to use completion with a copy of qpdf that is run directly out of the source tree or that is invoked with a wrapper script. You can specify a full path to the qpdf you want to use for completion in the ``QPDF_EXECUTABLE`` environment variable. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --completion-bash .. help: enable bash completion Output a command that enables bash completion Output a completion command you can eval to enable shell completion from bash. .. qpdf:option:: --completion-zsh .. help: enable zsh completion Output a command that enables zsh completion Output a completion command you can eval to enable shell completion from zsh. .. _help-options: Help/Information ---------------- .. help-topic help: information about qpdf Help options provide some information about qpdf itself. Help options are only valid as the first and only command-line argument. Help options provide some information about qpdf itself. Help options are only valid as the first and only command-line argument. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --help[=--option|topic] .. help: provide help --help: provide general information and a list of topics --help=--option: provide help on a specific option --help=topic: provide help on a topic Display command-line invocation help. Use :samp:`--help={--option}` for help on a specific option and :samp:`--help={topic}` for help on a help topic and also provides a list of available help topics. .. qpdf:option:: --version .. help: show qpdf version Display the version of qpdf. Display the version of qpdf. The version number displayed is the one that is compiled into the qpdf library. If you don't see the version number you expect, you may have more than one version of :command:`qpdf` installed and may not have your library path set up correctly. .. qpdf:option:: --copyright .. help: show copyright information Display copyright and license information. Display copyright and license information. .. qpdf:option:: --show-crypto .. help: show available crypto providers Show a list of available crypto providers, one per line. The default provider is shown first. Show a list of available crypto providers, each on a line by itself. The default provider is always listed first. See :ref:`crypto` for more information about crypto providers. .. qpdf:option:: --job-json-help .. help: show format of job JSON Describe the format of the QPDFJob JSON input used by --job-json-file. Describe the format of the QPDFJob JSON input used by :qpdf:ref:`--job-json-file`. For more information about QPDFJob, see :ref:`qpdf-job`. .. _general-options: General Options --------------- .. help-topic general: general options General options control qpdf's behavior in ways that are not directly related to the operation it is performing. This section describes general options that control :command:`qpdf`'s behavior. They are not necessarily related to the specific operation that is being performed and may be used whether or not an output file is being created. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --password=password .. help: password for encrypted file Specify a password for an encrypted, password-protected file. Not needed for encrypted files without a password. Specifies a password for accessing encrypted, password-protected files. To read the password from a file or standard input, you can use :qpdf:ref:`--password-file`. Prior to 8.4.0, in the case of passwords that contain characters that fall outside of 7-bit US-ASCII, qpdf left the burden of supplying properly encoded encryption and decryption passwords to the user. Starting in qpdf 8.4.0, qpdf does this automatically in most cases. For an in-depth discussion, please see :ref:`unicode-passwords`. Previous versions of this manual described workarounds using the :command:`iconv` command. Such workarounds are no longer required or recommended starting with qpdf 8.4.0. However, for backward compatibility, qpdf attempts to detect those workarounds and do the right thing in most cases. .. qpdf:option:: --password-file=filename .. help: read password from a file The first line of the specified file is used as the password. This is used in place of the --password option. Reads the first line from the specified file and uses it as the password for accessing encrypted files. :samp:`{filename}` may be ``-`` to read the password from standard input, but if you do that the password is echoed and there is no prompt, so use ``-`` with caution. Note that leading and trailing spaces are not stripped from the password. .. qpdf:option:: --verbose .. help: print additional information Output additional information about various things qpdf is doing, including information about files created and operations performed. Increase verbosity of output. This includes information about files created, image optimization, and several other operations. In some cases, it also displays additional information when inspection options (see :ref:`inspection-options`) are used. .. qpdf:option:: --progress .. help: show progress when writing Indicate progress when writing files. Indicate progress while writing output files. Progress indication does not start until writing starts, so there may be a delay before progress indicators are seen if complicated transformations are being applied before the write process begins. .. qpdf:option:: --no-warn .. help: suppress printing of warning messages Suppress printing of warning messages. If warnings were encountered, qpdf still exits with exit status 3. Use --warning-exit-0 with --no-warn to completely ignore warnings. Suppress writing of warnings to stderr. If warnings were detected and suppressed, :command:`qpdf` will still exit with exit code 3. To completely ignore warnings, also specify :qpdf:ref:`--warning-exit-0`. Use with caution as qpdf is not always successful in recovering from situations that cause warnings to be issued. .. qpdf:option:: --deterministic-id .. help: generate ID deterministically Generate a secure, random document ID only using static information, such as the page contents. Does not use the file's name or attributes or the current time. Generate a secure, random document ID using deterministic values. This prevents use of timestamp and output file name information in the ID generation. Instead, at some slight additional runtime cost, the ID field is generated to include a digest of the significant parts of the content of the output PDF file. This means that a given qpdf operation should generate the same ID each time it is run, which can be useful when caching results or for generation of some test data. Use of this flag is not compatible with creation of encrypted files. This option can be useful for testing. See also :qpdf:ref:`--static-id`. While qpdf will generate the same deterministic ID given the same output PDF, there is no guarantee that different versions of qpdf will generate exactly the same PDF output for the same input and options. While care is taken to avoid gratuitous changes to qpdf's PDF generation, new versions of qpdf may include changes or bug fixes that cause slightly different PDF code to be generated. Such changes are noted in the release notes. .. qpdf:option:: --allow-weak-crypto .. help: allow insecure cryptographic algorithms Allow creation of files with weak cryptographic algorithms. This option is necessary to create 40-bit files or 128-bit files that use RC4 encryption. Encrypted PDF files using 40-bit keys or 128-bit keys without AES use the insecure *RC4* encryption algorithm. Starting with version 11.0, qpdf's default behavior is to refuse to write files using RC4 encryption. Use this option to allow creation of such files. In versions 10.4 through 10.6, attempting to create weak encrypted files was a warning, rather than an error, without this flag. See :ref:`weak-crypto` for additional details. No check is performed for weak crypto when preserving encryption parameters from or copying encryption parameters from other files. The rationale for this is discussed in :ref:`weak-crypto`. .. qpdf:option:: --keep-files-open=[y|n] .. help: manage keeping multiple files open When qpdf needs to work with many files, as when merging large numbers of files, explicitly indicate whether files should be kept open. The default behavior is to determine this based on the number of files. This option controls whether qpdf keeps individual files open while merging. By default, qpdf keeps files open when merging unless more than 200 files are specified, in which case files are opened as needed and closed when finished. Repeatedly opening and closing files may impose a large performance penalty with some file systems, especially networked file systems. If you know that you have a large enough open file limit and are suffering from performance problems, or if you have an open file limit smaller than 200, you can use this option to override the default behavior by specifying :samp:`--keep-files-open=y` to force :command:`qpdf` to keep files open or :samp:`--keep-files-open=n` to force it to only open files as needed. See also :qpdf:ref:`--keep-files-open-threshold`. Historical note: prior to version 8.1.0, qpdf always kept all files open, but this meant that the number of files that could be merged was limited by the operating system's open file limit. Version 8.1.0 opened files as they were referenced and closed them after each read, but this caused a major performance impact. Version 8.2.0 optimized the performance but did so in a way that, for local file systems, there was a small but unavoidable performance hit, but for networked file systems the performance impact could be very high. The current behavior was introduced in qpdf version 8.2.1. .. qpdf:option:: --keep-files-open-threshold=count .. help: set threshold for --keep-files-open Set the threshold used by --keep-files-open, overriding the default value of 200. If specified, overrides the default value of 200 used as the threshold for qpdf deciding whether or not to keep files open. See :qpdf:ref:`--keep-files-open` for details. .. _advanced-control-options: Advanced Control Options ------------------------ .. help-topic advanced-control: tweak qpdf's behavior Advanced control options control qpdf's behavior in ways that would normally never be needed by a user but that may be useful to developers or people investigating problems with specific files. Advanced control options control qpdf's behavior in ways that would normally never be needed by a user but that may be useful to developers or people investigating problems with specific files. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --password-is-hex-key .. help: provide hex-encoded encryption key Provide the underlying file encryption key as a hex-encoded string rather than supplying a password. This is an expert option. Overrides the usual computation/retrieval of the PDF file's encryption key from user/owner password with an explicit specification of the encryption key. When this option is specified, the parameter to the :qpdf:ref:`--password` option is interpreted as a hexadecimal-encoded key value. This only applies to the password used to open the main input file. It does not apply to other files opened by :qpdf:ref:`--pages` or other options or to files being written. Most users will never have a need for this option, and no standard viewers support this mode of operation, but it can be useful for forensic or investigatory purposes. For example, if a PDF file is encrypted with an unknown password, a brute-force attack using the key directly is sometimes more efficient than one using the password. Also, if a file is heavily damaged, it may be possible to derive the encryption key and recover parts of the file using it directly. To expose the encryption key used by an encrypted file that you can open normally, use the :qpdf:ref:`--show-encryption-key` option. .. qpdf:option:: --suppress-password-recovery .. help: don't try different password encodings Suppress qpdf's usual behavior of attempting different encodings of a password that contains non-ASCII Unicode characters if the first attempt doesn't succeed. Ordinarily, qpdf attempts to automatically compensate for passwords encoded with the wrong character encoding. This option suppresses that behavior. Under normal conditions, there are no reasons to use this option. See :ref:`unicode-passwords` for a discussion. .. qpdf:option:: --password-mode=mode .. help: tweak how qpdf encodes passwords Fine-tune how qpdf controls encoding of Unicode passwords. Valid options are auto, bytes, hex-bytes, and unicode. This option can be used to fine-tune how qpdf interprets Unicode (non-ASCII) password strings passed on the command line. With the exception of the :samp:`hex-bytes` mode, these only apply to passwords provided when encrypting files. The :samp:`hex-bytes` mode also applies to passwords specified for reading files. For additional discussion of the supported password modes and when you might want to use them, see :ref:`unicode-passwords`. The following modes are supported: - :samp:`auto`: Automatically determine whether the specified password is a properly encoded Unicode (UTF-8) string, and transcode it as required by the PDF spec based on the type of encryption being applied. On Windows starting with version 8.4.0, and on almost all other modern platforms, incoming passwords will be properly encoded in UTF-8, so this is almost always what you want. - :samp:`unicode`: Tells qpdf that the incoming password is UTF-8, overriding whatever its automatic detection determines. The only difference between this mode and :samp:`auto` is that qpdf will fail with an error message if the password is not valid UTF-8 instead of falling back to :samp:`bytes` mode with a warning. - :samp:`bytes`: Interpret the password as a literal byte string. For non-Windows platforms, this is what versions of qpdf prior to 8.4.0 did. For Windows platforms, there is no way to specify strings of binary data on the command line directly, but you can use a :samp:`@filename` option or :qpdf:ref:`--password-file` to do it, in which case this option forces qpdf to respect the string of bytes as provided. Note that this option may cause you to encrypt PDF files with passwords that will not be usable by other readers. - :samp:`hex-bytes`: Interpret the password as a hex-encoded string. This provides a way to pass binary data as a password on all platforms including Windows. As with :samp:`bytes`, this option may allow creation of files that can't be opened by other readers. This mode affects qpdf's interpretation of passwords specified for decrypting files as well as for encrypting them. It makes it possible to specify strings that are encoded in some manner other than the system's default encoding. .. qpdf:option:: --suppress-recovery .. help: suppress error recovery Avoid attempting to recover when errors are found in a file's cross reference table or stream lengths. Prevents qpdf from attempting to reconstruct a file's cross reference table when there are errors reading objects from the file. Recovery is triggered by a variety of situations. While usually successful, it uses heuristics that don't work on all files. If this option is given, :command:`qpdf` fails on the first error it encounters. .. qpdf:option:: --ignore-xref-streams .. help: use xref tables rather than streams Ignore any cross-reference streams in the file, falling back to cross-reference tables or triggering document recovery. Tells qpdf to ignore any cross-reference streams, falling back to any embedded cross-reference tables or triggering document recovery. Ordinarily, qpdf reads cross-reference streams when they are present in a PDF file. If this option is specified, qpdf will ignore any cross-reference streams for hybrid PDF files. The purpose of hybrid files is to make some content available to viewers that are not aware of cross-reference streams. It is almost never desirable to ignore them. The only time when you might want to use this feature is if you are testing creation of hybrid PDF files and wish to see how a PDF consumer that doesn't understand object and cross-reference streams would interpret such a file. .. _transformation-options: PDF Transformation ------------------ .. help-topic transformation: make structural PDF changes The options below tell qpdf to apply transformations that change the structure without changing the content. The options discussed in this section tell qpdf to apply transformations that change the structure of a PDF file without changing its content. Examples include creating linearized (web-optimized) files, adding or removing encryption, restructuring files for older viewers, and rewriting files for human inspection. See also :ref:`modification-options`. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --linearize .. help: linearize (web-optimize) output Create linearized (web-optimized) output files. Create linearized (web-optimized) output files. Linearized files are formatted in a way that allows compliant readers to begin displaying a PDF file before it is fully downloaded. Ordinarily, the entire file must be present before it can be rendered because important cross-reference information typically appears at the end of the file. .. qpdf:option:: --encrypt [options] -- .. help: start encryption options Run qpdf --help=encryption for details. This flag starts encryption options, used to create encrypted files. Please see :ref:`encryption-options` for details. .. qpdf:option:: --decrypt .. help: remove encryption from input file Create an unencrypted output file even if the input file was encrypted. Normally qpdf preserves whatever encryption was present on the input file. This option overrides that behavior. Create an output file with no encryption even if the input file is encrypted. This option overrides the default behavior of preserving whatever encryption was present on the input file. This functionality is not intended to be used for bypassing copyright restrictions or other restrictions placed on files by their producers. See also :qpdf:ref:`--copy-encryption` and :qpdf:ref:`--remove-restrictions`. .. qpdf:option:: --remove-restrictions .. help: remove security restrictions from input file Remove restrictions associated with digitally signed PDF files. This may be combined with --decrypt to allow free editing of previously signed/encrypted files. This option invalidates and disables any digital signatures but leaves their visual appearances intact. Remove security restrictions associated with digitally signed PDF files. This may be combined with :qpdf:ref:`--decrypt` to allow free editing of previously signed/encrypted files. This option invalidates and disables any digital signatures but leaves their visual appearances intact. .. qpdf:option:: --copy-encryption=file .. help: copy another file's encryption details Copy encryption details from the specified file instead of preserving the input file's encryption. Use --encryption-file-password to specify the encryption file's password. Copy all encryption parameters, including the user password, the owner password, and all security restrictions, from the specified file instead of preserving the encryption details from the input file. This works even if only one of the user password or owner password is known. If the encryption file requires a password, use the :qpdf:ref:`--encryption-file-password` option to set it. Note that copying the encryption parameters from a file also copies the first half of ``/ID`` from the file since this is part of the encryption parameters. This option can be useful if you need to decrypt a file to make manual changes to it or to change it outside of qpdf, and then want to restore the original encryption on the file without having to manual specify all the individual settings. See also :qpdf:ref:`--decrypt`. Checks for weak cryptographic algorithms are intentionally not made by this operation. See :ref:`weak-crypto` for the rationale. .. qpdf:option:: --encryption-file-password=password .. help: supply password for --copy-encryption If the file named in --copy-encryption requires a password, use this option to supply the password. If the file specified with :qpdf:ref:`--copy-encryption` requires a password, supply the password using this option. This option is necessary because the :qpdf:ref:`--password` option applies to the input file, not the file from which encryption is being copied. .. qpdf:option:: --qdf .. help: enable viewing PDF code in a text editor Create a PDF file suitable for viewing in a text editor and even editing. This is for editing the PDF code, not the page contents. All streams that can be uncompressed are uncompressed, and content streams are normalized, among other changes. The companion tool "fix-qdf" can be used to repair hand-edited QDF files. QDF is a feature specific to the qpdf tool. Please see the "QDF Mode" chapter in the manual. Create a PDF file suitable for viewing and editing in a text editor. This is to edit the PDF code, not the page contents. To edit a QDF file, your text editor must preserve binary data. In a QDF file, all streams that can be uncompressed are uncompressed, and content streams are normalized, among other changes. The companion tool :command:`fix-qdf` can be used to repair hand-edited QDF files. QDF is a feature specific to the qpdf tool. For additional information, see :ref:`qdf`. Note that :qpdf:ref:`--linearize` disables QDF mode. QDF mode has full support for object streams, but sometimes it's easier to locate a specific object if object streams are disabled. When trying to understand some PDF construct by inspecting an existing file, it can be useful to combine :samp:`--qdf` with :samp:`--object-streams=disable`. This flag changes some of the defaults of other options: stream data is uncompressed, content streams are normalized, and encryption is removed. These defaults can still be overridden by specifying the appropriate options with :samp:`--qdf`. Additionally, in QDF mode, stream lengths are stored as indirect objects, objects are formatted in a less efficient but more readable fashion, and the documents are interspersed with comments that make it easier for the user to find things and also make it possible for :command:`fix-qdf` to work properly. When editing QDF files, it is not necessary to maintain the object formatting. When normalizing content, if qpdf runs into any lexical errors, it will print a warning indicating that content may be damaged. If you want to create QDF files without content normalization, specify :samp:`--qdf --normalize-content=n`. You can also create a non-QDF file with uncompressed streams using :samp:`--stream-data=uncompress`. Either option will uncompress all the streams but will not attempt to normalize content. Please note that if you are using content normalization or QDF mode for the purpose of manually inspecting files, you don't have to care about this. See also :qpdf:ref:`--no-original-object-ids`. .. qpdf:option:: --no-original-object-ids .. help: omit original object IDs in qdf Omit comments in a QDF file indicating the object ID an object had in the original file. Suppresses inclusion of original object ID comments in QDF files. This can be useful when generating QDF files for test purposes, particularly when comparing them to determine whether two PDF files have identical content. The original object ID comment is there by default because it makes it easier to trace objects back to the original file. .. qpdf:option:: --compress-streams=[y|n] .. help: compress uncompressed streams Setting --compress-streams=n prevents qpdf from compressing uncompressed streams. This can be useful if you are leaving some streams uncompressed intentionally. By default, or with :samp:`--compress-streams=y`, qpdf will compress streams using the flate compression algorithm (used by zip and gzip) unless those streams are compressed in some other way. This analysis is made after qpdf attempts to uncompress streams and is therefore closely related to :qpdf:ref:`--decode-level`. To suppress this behavior and leave streams uncompressed, use :samp:`--compress-streams=n`. In QDF mode (see :ref:`qdf` and :qpdf:ref:`--qdf`), the default is to leave streams uncompressed. .. qpdf:option:: --decode-level=parameter .. help: control which streams to uncompress When uncompressing streams, control which types of compression schemes should be uncompressed: - none: don't uncompress anything. This is the default with --json-output. - generalized: uncompress streams compressed with a general-purpose compression algorithm. This is the default except when --json-output is given. - specialized: in addition to generalized, also uncompress streams compressed with a special-purpose but non-lossy compression scheme - all: in addition to specialized, uncompress streams compressed with lossy compression schemes like JPEG (DCT) qpdf does not know how to uncompress all compression schemes. Controls which streams qpdf tries to decode. The default is :samp:`generalized`. The following values for :samp:`{parameter}` are available: - :samp:`none`: do not attempt to decode any streams. This is the default with :qpdf:ref:`--json-output`. - :samp:`generalized`: decode streams filtered with supported generalized filters: ``/LZWDecode``, ``/FlateDecode``, ``/ASCII85Decode``, and ``/ASCIIHexDecode``. We define generalized filters as those to be used for general-purpose compression or encoding, as opposed to filters specifically designed for image data. This is the default except when :qpdf:ref:`--json-output` is given. - :samp:`specialized`: in addition to generalized, decode streams with supported non-lossy specialized filters; currently this is just ``/RunLengthDecode`` - :samp:`all`: in addition to generalized and specialized, decode streams with supported lossy filters; currently this is just ``/DCTDecode`` (JPEG) There are several filters that :command:`qpdf` does not support. These are left untouched regardless of the option. Future versions of qpdf may support additional filters. Because the default value is ``generalized``, qpdf's default behavior is to uncompress any stream that is encoded using non-lossy filters that qpdf understands. If ``--compress-streams=y`` is also in effect, which is the default (see :qpdf:ref:`--compress-streams`), the overall effect is that qpdf will recompress streams with generalized filters using flate compression, effectively eliminating LZW and ASCII-based filters. This is usually desirable behavior but can be disabled with ``--decode-level=none``. Note that ``--decode-level=none`` is the default when :qpdf:ref:`--json-output` is specified, but it can be overridden in that case as well. As a special case, streams already compressed with ``/FlateDecode`` are not uncompressed and recompressed. You can change this behavior with :qpdf:ref:`--recompress-flate`. .. qpdf:option:: --stream-data=parameter .. help: control stream compression This option controls how streams are compressed in the output. It is less granular than the newer options, --compress-streams and --decode-level. Parameters: - compress: same as --compress-streams=y --decode-level=generalized - preserve: same as --compress-streams=n --decode-level=none - uncompress: same as --compress-streams=n --decode-level=generalized Controls transformation of stream data. This option predates the :qpdf:ref:`--compress-streams` and :qpdf:ref:`--decode-level` options. Those options can be used to achieve the same effect with more control. The value of :samp:`{parameter}` may be one of the following: - :samp:`compress`: recompress stream data when possible (default); equivalent to :samp:`--compress-streams=y` :samp:`--decode-level=generalized`. Does not recompress streams already compressed with ``/FlateDecode`` unless :qpdf:ref:`--recompress-flate` is also specified. - :samp:`preserve`: leave all stream data as is; equivalent to :samp:`--compress-streams=n` :samp:`--decode-level=none` - :samp:`uncompress`: uncompress stream data compressed with generalized filters when possible; equivalent to :samp:`--compress-streams=n` :samp:`--decode-level=generalized` .. qpdf:option:: --recompress-flate .. help: uncompress and recompress flate The default generalized compression scheme used by PDF is flate, which is the same as used by zip and gzip. Usually qpdf just leaves these alone. This option tells qpdf to uncompress and recompress streams compressed with flate. This can be useful when combined with --compression-level. The default generalized compression scheme used by PDF is flate (``/FlateDecode``), which is the same as used by :command:`zip` and :command:`gzip`. Usually qpdf just leaves these alone. This option tells :command:`qpdf` to uncompress and recompress streams compressed with flate. This can be useful when combined with :qpdf:ref:`--compression-level`. Using this option may make :command:`qpdf` much slower when writing output files. .. qpdf:option:: --compression-level=level .. help: set compression level for flate Set a compression level from 1 (least, fastest) to 9 (most, slowest) when compressing files with flate (used in zip and gzip), which is the default compression for most PDF files. You need --recompress-flate with this option if you want to change already compressed streams. When writing new streams that are compressed with ``/FlateDecode``, use the specified compression level. The value of :samp:`level` should be a number from 1 to 9 and is passed directly to zlib, which implements deflate compression. Lower numbers compress less and are faster; higher numbers compress more and are slower. Note that :command:`qpdf` doesn't uncompress and recompress streams compressed with flate by default. To have this option apply to already compressed streams, you should also specify :qpdf:ref:`--recompress-flate`. If your goal is to shrink the size of PDF files, you should also use :samp:`--object-streams=generate`. If you omit this option, qpdf defers to the compression library's default behavior. .. qpdf:option:: --normalize-content=[y|n] .. help: fix newlines in content streams Normalize newlines to UNIX-style newlines in PDF content streams, which is useful for viewing them in a programmer's text editor across multiple platforms. This is also turned on by --qdf. Enables or disables normalization of newlines in PDF content streams to UNIX-style newlines, which is useful for viewing files in a programmer-friendly text edit across multiple platforms. Content normalization is off by default, but is automatically enabled by :qpdf:ref:`--qdf` (see also :ref:`qdf`). It is not recommended to use this option for production use. If qpdf runs into any lexical errors while normalizing content, it will print a warning indicating that content may be damaged. .. qpdf:option:: --object-streams=mode .. help: control use of object streams Control what qpdf does regarding object streams. Options: - preserve: preserve original object streams, if any (the default) - disable: create output files with no object streams - generate: create object streams, and compress objects when possible Controls handling of object streams. The value of :samp:`{mode}` may be one of the following: .. list-table:: Object Stream Modes :widths: 10 80 :header-rows: 0 - - :samp:`preserve` - preserve original object streams, if any (the default) - - :samp:`disable` - create output files with no object streams - - :samp:`generate` - create object streams, and compress objects when possible Object streams are PDF streams that contain other objects. Putting objects into object streams allows the PDF objects themselves to be compressed, which can result in much smaller PDF files. Combining this option with :qpdf:ref:`--compression-level` and :qpdf:ref:`--recompress-flate` can often result in the creation of smaller PDF files. Object streams, also known as compressed objects, were introduced into the PDF specification at version 1.5 around 2003. Some ancient PDF viewers may not support files with object streams. qpdf can be used to transform files with object streams into files without object streams or vice versa. In :samp:`preserve` mode, the relationship between objects and the streams that contain them is preserved from the original file. If the file has no object streams, qpdf will not add any. In :samp:`disable` mode, all objects are written as regular, uncompressed objects. The resulting file should be structurally readable by older PDF viewers, though there is still a chance that the file may contain other content that some older readers can't support. In :samp:`generate` mode, qpdf will create its own object streams. This will usually result in more compact PDF files. In this mode, qpdf will also make sure the PDF version number in the header is at least 1.5. .. qpdf:option:: --preserve-unreferenced .. help: preserve unreferenced objects Preserve all objects from the input even if not referenced. Tells qpdf to preserve objects that are not referenced when writing the file. Ordinarily any object that is not referenced in a traversal of the document from the trailer dictionary will be discarded. Disabling this default behavior may be useful in working with some damaged files or inspecting files with known unreferenced objects. This flag is ignored for linearized files and has the effect of causing objects in the new file to be written ordered by object ID from the original file. This does not mean that object numbers will be the same since qpdf may create stream lengths as direct or indirect differently from the original file, and the original file may have gaps in its numbering. See also :qpdf:ref:`--preserve-unreferenced-resources`, which does something completely different. .. qpdf:option:: --remove-unreferenced-resources=parameter .. help: remove unreferenced page resources Remove from a page's resource dictionary any resources that are not referenced in the page's contents. Parameters: "auto" (default), "yes", "no". Parameters: ``auto`` (the default), ``yes``, or ``no``. Starting with qpdf 8.1, when splitting pages, qpdf is able to attempt to remove images and fonts that are not used by a page even if they are referenced in the page's resources dictionary. When shared resources are in use, this behavior can greatly reduce the file sizes of split pages, but the analysis is very slow. In versions from 8.1 through 9.1.1, qpdf did this analysis by default. Starting in qpdf 10.0.0, if ``auto`` is used, qpdf does a quick analysis of the file to determine whether the file is likely to have unreferenced objects on pages, a pattern that frequently occurs when resource dictionaries are shared across multiple pages and rarely occurs otherwise. If it discovers this pattern, then it will attempt to remove unreferenced resources. Usually this means you get the slower splitting speed only when it's actually going to create smaller files. You can suppress removal of unreferenced resources altogether by specifying ``no`` or force qpdf to do the full algorithm by specifying ``yes``. Other than cases in which you don't care about file size and care a lot about runtime, there are few reasons to use this option, especially now that ``auto`` mode is supported. One reason to use this is if you suspect that qpdf is removing resources it shouldn't be removing. If you encounter such a case, please report it as a bug at https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/issues/. .. qpdf:option:: --preserve-unreferenced-resources .. help: use --remove-unreferenced-resources=no Synonym for --remove-unreferenced-resources=no. Use that instead. This is a synonym for :samp:`--remove-unreferenced-resources=no`. See :qpdf:ref:`--remove-unreferenced-resources`. See also :qpdf:ref:`--preserve-unreferenced`, which does something completely different. To reduce confusion, you should use :samp:`--remove-unreferenced-resources=no` instead. .. qpdf:option:: --newline-before-endstream .. help: force a newline before endstream For an extra newline before endstream. Using this option enables qpdf to preserve PDF/A when rewriting such files. Tell qpdf to insert a newline before the ``endstream`` keyword, not counted in the length, after any stream content even if the last character of the stream was a newline. This may result in two newlines in some cases. This is a requirement of PDF/A. While qpdf doesn't specifically know how to generate PDF/A-compliant PDFs, this at least prevents it from removing compliance on already compliant files. .. qpdf:option:: --coalesce-contents .. help: combine content streams If a page has an array of content streams, concatenate them into a single content stream. When a page's contents are split across multiple streams, this option causes qpdf to combine them into a single stream. Use of this option is never necessary for ordinary usage, but it can help when working with some files in some cases. For example, this can be combined with QDF mode or content normalization to make it easier to look at all of a page's contents at once. It is common for PDF writers to create multiple content streams for a variety of reasons such as making it easier to modify page contents and splitting very large content streams so PDF viewers may be able to use less memory. .. qpdf:option:: --externalize-inline-images .. help: convert inline to regular images Convert inline images to regular images. Convert inline images to regular images. By default, images whose data is at least 1,024 bytes are converted when this option is selected. Use :qpdf:ref:`--ii-min-bytes` to change the size threshold. This option is implicitly selected when :qpdf:ref:`--optimize-images` is selected unless :qpdf:ref:`--keep-inline-images` is also specified. .. qpdf:option:: --ii-min-bytes=size-in-bytes .. help: set minimum size for --externalize-inline-images Don't externalize inline images smaller than this size. The default is 1,024. Use 0 for no minimum. Avoid converting inline images whose size is below the specified minimum size to regular images. The default is 1,024 bytes. Use 0 for no minimum. .. qpdf:option:: --min-version=version .. help: set minimum PDF version Force the PDF version of the output to be at least the specified version. The version number format is "major.minor[.extension-level]", which sets the version header to "major.minor" and the extension level, if specified, to "extension-level". Force the PDF version of the output file to be at least :samp:`{version}`. In other words, if the input file has a lower version than the specified version, the specified version will be used. If the input file has a higher version, the input file's original version will be used. It is seldom necessary to use this option since qpdf will automatically increase the version as needed when adding features that require newer PDF readers. The version number may be expressed in the form :samp:`{major}.{minor}[.{extension-level}]`. If :samp:`.{extension-level}`, is given, version is interpreted as :samp:`{major.minor}` at extension level :samp:`{extension-level}`. For example, version ``1.7.8`` represents version 1.7 at extension level 8. Note that minimal syntax checking is done on the command line. :command:`qpdf` does not check whether the specified version is actually required. .. qpdf:option:: --force-version=version .. help: set output PDF version Force the output PDF file's PDF version header to be the specified value, even if the file uses features that may not be available in that version. This option forces the PDF version to be the exact version specified *even when the file may have content that is not supported in that version*. The version number is interpreted in the same way as with :qpdf:ref:`--min-version` so that extension levels can be set. In some cases, forcing the output file's PDF version to be lower than that of the input file will cause qpdf to disable certain features of the document. Specifically, 256-bit keys are disabled if the version is less than 1.7 with extension level 8 (except the deprecated, unsupported "R5" format is allowed with extension levels 3 through 7), AES encryption is disabled if the version is less than 1.6, cleartext metadata and object streams are disabled if less than 1.5, 128-bit encryption keys are disabled if less than 1.4, and all encryption is disabled if less than 1.3. Even with these precautions, qpdf won't be able to do things like eliminate use of newer image compression schemes, transparency groups, or other features that may have been added in more recent versions of PDF. As a general rule, with the exception of big structural things like the use of object streams or AES encryption, PDF viewers are supposed to ignore features they don't support. This means that forcing the version to a lower version may make it possible to open your PDF file with an older version, though bear in mind that some of the original document's functionality may be lost. .. _page-ranges: Page Ranges ----------- .. help-topic page-ranges: page range syntax A full description of the page range syntax, with examples, can be found in the manual. In summary, a range is a comma-separated list of groups. A group is a number or a range of numbers separated by a dash. A group may be prepended by x to exclude its members from the previous group. A number may be one of - where represents a number is the th page - r is the th page from the end - z the last page, same as r1 - a,b,c pages a, b, and c - a-b pages a through b inclusive; if a > b, this counts down - a-b,xc pages a through b except page c - a-b,xc-d pages a through b except pages c through d You can append :even or :odd to select every other page from the resulting set of pages, where :odd starts with the first page and :even starts with the second page. These are odd and even pages from the resulting set, not based on the original page numbers. Several :command:`qpdf` command-line options use page ranges. This section describes the syntax of a page range. - A plain number indicates a page numbered from ``1``, so ``1`` represents the first page. - A number preceded by ``r`` counts from the end, so ``r1`` is the last page, ``r2`` is the second-to-last page, etc. - The letter ``z`` represents the last page and is the same as ``r1``. - Page numbers may appear in any order separated by commas. - Two page numbers separated by dashes represents the inclusive range of pages from the first to the second. If the first number is higher than the second number, it is the range of pages in reverse. - A number or dash-separated range of numbers may be prepended with ``x`` (from qpdf 11.7.1). This means to exclude the pages in that range from the previous range that didn't start with ``x``. - The range may be appended with ``:odd`` or ``:even`` to select only pages from the resulting range in odd or even positions. In this case, odd and even refer to positions in the final range, not whether the original page number is odd or even. .. list-table:: Example Page Ranges :widths: 20 80 :header-rows: 0 - - ``1,6,4`` - pages 1, 6, and 4 in that order - - ``3-7`` - pages 3 through 7 inclusive in increasing order - - ``7-3`` - pages 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3 in that order - - ``1-z`` - all pages in order - - ``z-1`` - all pages in reverse order - - ``1,3,5-9,15-12`` - pages 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 15, 14, 13, and 12 in that order - - ``r3-r1`` - the last three pages of the document - - ``r1-r3`` - the last three pages of the document in reverse order - - ``1-20:even`` - even pages from 2 to 20 - - ``5,7-9,12`` - pages 5, 7, 8, 9, and 12 - - ``5,7-9,12:odd`` - pages 5, 8, and 12, which are the pages in odd positions from the original set of 5, 7, 8, 9, 12 - - ``5,7-9,12:even`` - pages 7 and 9, which are the pages in even positions from the original set of 5, 7, 8, 9, 12 - - ``1-10,x3-4`` - pages 1 through 10 except pages 3 and 4 (1, 2, and 5 through 10) - - ``4-10,x7-9,12-8,xr5`` - In a 15-page file, this is 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 10, 9, and 8 in that order. That is pages 4 through 10 except 7 through 9 followed by 12 through 8 descending except 11 (the fifth page from the end) .. _modification-options: PDF Modification ---------------- .. help-topic modification: change parts of the PDF Modification options make systematic changes to certain parts of the PDF, causing the PDF to render differently from the original. Modification options make systematic changes to certain parts of the PDF, causing the PDF to render differently from the original. See also :ref:`transformation-options`. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --pages [--file=]file [options] [...] -- .. help: begin page selection Run qpdf --help=page-selection for details. This flag starts page selection options, which are used to select pages from one or more input files to perform operations such as splitting, merging, and collating files. Please see :ref:`page-selection` for details about selecting pages. See also :qpdf:ref:`--split-pages`, :qpdf:ref:`--collate`, :ref:`page-ranges`. .. qpdf:option:: --file=file .. help: source for pages Specify the file for the current page operation. This is used with --pages, --overlay, and --underlay and appears between the option and the terminating --. Run qpdf --help=page-selection for details. Specify the file for the current page operation. This option is used with :qpdf:ref:`--pages`, :qpdf:ref:`--overlay` and :qpdf:ref:`--underlay` and appears between the option and the terminating ``--``. Please see :ref:`page-selection` for additional details. .. qpdf:option:: --range=numeric-range .. help: page range Specify the page range for the current page operation with --pages. If omitted, all pages are selected. This is used with --pages and appears between --pages and --. Run qpdf --help=page-selection for details. Specify the page range for the current page operation with :qpdf:ref:`--pages`. If omitted, all pages are selected. This option is used with :qpdf:ref:`--pages` and appears between :qpdf:ref:`--pages` and ``--``. Please see :ref:`page-selection` for additional details. .. qpdf:option:: --collate[=n[,m,...]] .. help: collate with --pages Collate rather than concatenate pages specified with --pages. With a numeric parameter, collate in groups of n. The default is 1. With comma-separated numeric parameters, take n from the first file, m from the second, etc. Run qpdf --help=page-selection for additional details. This option causes :command:`qpdf` to collate rather than concatenate pages specified with :qpdf:ref:`--pages`. With a numeric parameter, collate in groups of :samp:`{n}`. The default is 1. With comma-separated numeric parameters, take :samp:`{n}` from the first file, :samp:`{m}` from the second, etc. Please see :ref:`page-selection` for additional details. .. qpdf:option:: --split-pages[=n] .. help: write pages to separate files This option causes qpdf to create separate output files for each page or group of pages rather than a single output file. File names are generated from the specified output file as follows: - If the string %d appears in the output file name, it is replaced with a zero-padded page range starting from 1 - Otherwise, if the output file name ends in .pdf (case insensitive), a zero-padded page range, preceded by a dash, is inserted before the file extension - Otherwise, the file name is appended with a zero-padded page range preceded by a dash. Page ranges are single page numbers for single-page groups or first-last for multi-page groups. Write each group of :samp:`{n}` pages to a separate output file. If :samp:`{n}` is not specified, create single pages. Output file names are generated as follows: - If the string ``%d`` appears in the output file name, it is replaced with a range of zero-padded page numbers starting from 1. - Otherwise, if the output file name ends in :file:`.pdf` (case insensitive), a zero-padded page range, preceded by a dash, is inserted before the file extension. - Otherwise, the file name is appended with a zero-padded page range preceded by a dash. Zero padding is added to all page numbers in file names so that all the numbers are the same length, which causes the output filenames to sort lexically in numerical order. Page ranges are a single number in the case of single-page groups or two numbers separated by a dash otherwise. Here are some examples. In these examples, :file:`infile.pdf` has 12 pages. - ``qpdf --split-pages infile.pdf %d-out``: output files are :file:`01-out` through :file:`12-out` with no extension. - ``qpdf --split-pages=2 infile.pdf outfile.pdf``: output files are :file:`outfile-01-02.pdf` through :file:`outfile-11-12.pdf` - ``qpdf --split-pages infile.pdf something.else`` would generate files :file:`something.else-01` through :file:`something.else-12`. The extension ``.else`` is not treated in any special way regarding the placement of the number. Note that outlines, threads, and other document-level features of the original PDF file are not preserved. For each page of output, this option creates an empty PDF and copies a single page from the output into it. If you require the document-level data, you will have to run :command:`qpdf` with the :qpdf:ref:`--pages` option once for each page. Using :qpdf:ref:`--split-pages` is much faster if you don't require the document-level data. A future version of qpdf may support preservation of some document-level information. .. qpdf:option:: --overlay file [options] -- .. help: begin overlay options Overlay pages from another file on the output. Run qpdf --help=overlay-underlay for details. Overlay pages from another file on the output. See :ref:`overlay-underlay` for details. .. qpdf:option:: --underlay file [options] -- .. help: begin underlay options Underlay pages from another file on the output. Run qpdf --help=overlay-underlay for details. Underlay pages from another file on the output. See :ref:`overlay-underlay` for details. .. qpdf:option:: --flatten-rotation .. help: remove rotation from page dictionary For each page that is rotated using the /Rotate key in the page's dictionary, remove the /Rotate key and implement the identical rotation semantics by modifying the page's contents. This can be useful if a broken PDF viewer fails to properly consider page rotation metadata. For each page that is rotated using the ``/Rotate`` key in the page's dictionary, remove the ``/Rotate`` key and implement the identical rotation semantics by modifying the page's contents. This option can be useful to prepare files for buggy PDF applications that don't properly handle rotated pages. There is usually no reason to use this option unless you are working around a specific problem. .. qpdf:option:: --flatten-annotations=parameter .. help: push annotations into content Push page annotations into the content streams. This may be necessary in some case when printing or splitting files. Parameters: "all", "print", "screen". This option collapses annotations into the pages' contents with special handling for form fields. Ordinarily, an annotation is rendered separately and on top of the page. Combining annotations into the page's contents effectively freezes the placement of the annotations, making them look right after various page transformations. The library functionality backing this option was added for the benefit of programs that want to create *n-up* page layouts and other similar things that don't work well with annotations. The value of :samp:`{parameter}` may be any of the following: .. list-table:: Flatten Annotation Parameters :widths: 10 80 :header-rows: 0 - - :samp:`all` - include all annotations that are not marked invisible or hidden - - :samp:`print` - only include annotations that should appear when the page is printed - - :samp:`screen` - omit annotations that should not appear on the screen In a PDF file, interactive form fields have a value and, independently, a set of instructions, called an appearance, to render the filled-in field. If a form is filled in by a program that doesn't know how to update the appearances, they may become inconsistent with the fields' values. If qpdf detects this case, its default behavior is not to flatten those annotations because doing so would cause the value of the form field to be lost. This gives you a chance to go back and resave the form with a program that knows how to generate appearances. qpdf itself can generate appearances with some limitations. See the :qpdf:ref:`--generate-appearances` option for details. .. qpdf:option:: --rotate=[+|-]angle[:page-range] .. help: rotate pages Rotate specified pages by multiples of 90 degrees specifying either absolute or relative angles. "angle" may be 0, 90, 180, or 270. You almost always want to use +angle or -angle rather than just angle, as discussed in the manual. Run qpdf --help=page-ranges for help with page ranges. Rotate the specified range of pages by the specified angle, which must be a multiple of 90 degrees. The value of :samp:`{angle}` may be ``0``, ``90``, ``180``, or ``270``. For a description of the syntax of :samp:`{page-range}`, see :ref:`page-ranges`. If the page range is omitted, the rotation is applied to all pages. If ``+`` is prepended to :samp:`{angle}`, the angle is added, so an angle of ``+90`` indicates a 90-degree clockwise rotation. If ``-`` is prepended, the angle is subtracted, so ``-90`` is a 90-degree counterclockwise rotation and is exactly the same as ``+270``. If neither ``+`` or ``-`` is prepended, the rotation angle is set exactly. You almost always want ``+`` or ``-`` since, without inspecting the actual PDF code, it is impossible to know whether a page that appears to be rotate is rotated "naturally" or has been rotated by specifying rotation. For example, if a page appears to contain a portrait-mode image rotated by 90 degrees so that the top of the image is on the right edge of the page, there is no way to tell by visual inspection whether the literal top of the image is the top of the page or whether the literal top of the image is the right edge and the page is already rotated in the PDF. Specifying a rotation angle of ``-90`` will produce an image that appears upright in either case. Use of absolute rotation angles should be reserved for cases in which you have specific knowledge about the way the PDF file is constructed. Examples: - ``qpdf in.pdf out.pdf --rotate=+90:2,4,6 --rotate=+180:7-8``: rotate pages 2, 4, and 6 by 90 degrees clockwise from their original rotation - ``qpdf in.pdf out.pdf --rotate=+180``: rotate all pages by 180 degrees - ``qpdf in.pdf out.pdf --rotate=0``: force each page to be displayed in its natural orientation, which would undo the effect of any rotations previously applied in page metadata. See also :qpdf:ref:`--flatten-rotation`. .. qpdf:option:: --generate-appearances .. help: generate appearances for form fields PDF form fields consist of values and appearances, which may be inconsistent with each other if a form field value has been modified without updating its appearance. This option tells qpdf to generate new appearance streams. There are some limitations, which are discussed in the manual. If a file contains interactive form fields and indicates that the appearances are out of date with the values of the form, this flag will regenerate appearances, subject to a few limitations. Note that there is usually no reason to do this, but it can be necessary before using the :qpdf:ref:`--flatten-annotations` option. Here is a summary of the limitations. - Radio button and checkbox appearances use the pre-set values in the PDF file. :command:`qpdf` just makes sure that the correct appearance is displayed based on the value of the field. This is fine for PDF files that create their forms properly. Some PDF writers save appearances for fields when they change, which could cause some controls to have inconsistent appearances. - For text fields and list boxes, any characters that fall outside of US-ASCII or, if detected, "Windows ANSI" or "Mac Roman" encoding, will be replaced by the ``?`` character. :command:`qpdf` does not know enough about fonts and encodings to correctly represent characters that fall outside of this range. - For variable text fields where the default appearance stream specifies that the font should be auto-sized, a fixed font size is used rather than calculating the font size. - Quadding is ignored. Quadding is used to specify whether the contents of a field should be left, center, or right aligned with the field. - Rich text, multi-line, and other more elaborate formatting directives are ignored. - There is no support for multi-select fields or signature fields. Appearances generated by :command:`qpdf` should be good enough for simple forms consisting of ASCII characters where the original file followed the PDF specification and provided template information for text field appearances. If :command:`qpdf` doesn't do a good enough job with your form, use an external application to save your filled-in form before processing it with :command:`qpdf`. Most PDF viewers that support filling in of forms will generate appearance streams. Some of them will even do it for forms filled in with characters outside the original font's character range by embedding additional fonts as needed. .. qpdf:option:: --optimize-images .. help: use efficient compression for images Attempt to use DCT (JPEG) compression for images that fall within certain constraints as long as doing so decreases the size in bytes of the image. See also help for the following options: --oi-min-width --oi-min-height --oi-min-area --keep-inline-images This flag causes qpdf to recompress all images that are not compressed with DCT (JPEG) using DCT compression as long as doing so decreases the size in bytes of the image data and the image does not fall below minimum specified dimensions. Useful information is provided when used in combination with :qpdf:ref:`--verbose`. See also the :qpdf:ref:`--oi-min-width`, :qpdf:ref:`--oi-min-height`, and :qpdf:ref:`--oi-min-area` options. By default, inline images are converted to regular images and optimized as well. Use :qpdf:ref:`--keep-inline-images` to prevent inline images from being included. .. qpdf:option:: --oi-min-width=width .. help: minimum width for --optimize-images Don't optimize images whose width is below the specified value. Avoid optimizing images whose width is below the specified amount. If omitted, the default is 128 pixels. Use 0 for no minimum. .. qpdf:option:: --oi-min-height=height .. help: minimum height for --optimize-images Don't optimize images whose height is below the specified value. Avoid optimizing images whose height is below the specified amount. If omitted, the default is 128 pixels. Use 0 for no minimum. .. qpdf:option:: --oi-min-area=area-in-pixels .. help: minimum area for --optimize-images Don't optimize images whose area in pixels is below the specified value. Avoid optimizing images whose pixel count (:samp:`{width}` × :samp:`{height}`) is below the specified amount. If omitted, the default is 16,384 pixels. Use 0 for no minimum. .. qpdf:option:: --keep-inline-images .. help: exclude inline images from optimization Prevent inline images from being considered by --optimize-images. Prevent inline images from being included in image optimization done by :qpdf:ref:`--optimize-images`. .. qpdf:option:: --remove-page-labels .. help: remove explicit page numbers Exclude page labels (explicit page numbers) from the output file. Exclude page labels (explicit page numbers) from the output file by omitting the ``/PageLabels`` dictionary in the document catalog. See also :qpdf:ref:`--set-page-labels`. .. qpdf:option:: --set-page-labels label-spec ... -- .. help: number pages for the entire document Set page labels (explicit page numbers) for the entire file. Each label-spec has the form first-page:[type][/start[/prefix]] where - "first-page" represents a sequential page number using the same format as page ranges: a number, a number preceded by "r" to indicate counting from the end, or "z" indicating the last page - "type" is one of - D: Arabic numerals (digits) - A: Upper-case alphabetic characters - a: Lower-case alphabetic characters - R: Upper-case Roman numerals - r: Lower-case Roman numerals - omitted: the page number does not appear, though the prefix, if specified will still appear - "start" must be a number >= 1 - "prefix"` may be any string and is prepended to each page label The first label spec must have a first-page value of 1, indicating the first page of the document. If multiple page label specs are specified, they must be given in increasing order. If multiple page label specs are specified, they must be given in increasing order. A given page label spec causes pages to be numbered according to that scheme starting with first-page and continuing until the next label spec or the end of the document. If you want to omit numbering starting at a certain page, you can use first-page: as the spec. Example: "1:r 5:D" would number the first four pages i through iv, then the remaining pages with Arabic numerals starting with 1 and continuing sequentially until the end of the document. For additional examples, please consult the manual. Set page labels (explicit page numbers) for the entire file. This generates a ``/PageLabels`` dictionary in the document catalog. A PDF file's pages can be explicitly numbered using page labels. Page labels in a PDF file have an optional type (Arabic numerals, upper/lower-case alphabetic characters, upper/lower-case Roman numerals), an optional prefix, and an optional starting value, which defaults to 1. A qpdf page label spec has the form :samp:`{first-page}:[{type}][/{start}[/{prefix}]]` where - :samp:`{first-page}` represents a sequential page number using the same format as page ranges (see :ref:`page-ranges`): a number, a number preceded by ``r`` to indicate counting from the end, or ``z`` indicating the last page - :samp:`{type}` may be one of - ``D``: Arabic numerals (digits) - ``A``: Upper-case alphabetic characters - ``a``: Lower-case alphabetic characters - ``R``: Upper-case Roman numerals - ``r``: Lower-case Roman numerals - omitted: the page number does not appear, though the prefix, if specified will still appear - :samp:`{start}` must be a number ≥ 1 - :samp:`{prefix}` may be any string and is prepended to each page label The first label spec must have a :samp:`{first-page}` value of ``1``, indicating the first page of the document. If multiple page label specs are specified, they must be given in increasing order. A given page label spec causes pages to be numbered according to that scheme starting with :samp:`{first-page}` and continuing until the next label spec or the end of the document. If you want to omit numbering starting at a certain page, you can use :samp:`{first-page}:` as the spec. Here are some example page labeling schemes. For these examples, assume a 50-page document. - ``1:a 5:D`` - The first four pages will be numbered ``a`` through ``d``, then the remaining pages will numbered ``1`` through ``46``. - ``1:r 5:D 12: 14:D/10 r5:D//A- z://"end note"``: - The first four pages are numbered ``i`` through ``iv`` - The 5th page is numbered ``1``, and pages are numbered sequentially through the 11th page, which will be numbered ``7`` - The 12th and 13th pages will not have labels - The 14th page is numbered ``10``. Pages will be numbered sequentially up through the 45th page, which will be numbered ``41`` - Starting with the 46th page (the fifth to last page) and going to the 49th page, pages will be labeled ``A-1`` through ``A-4`` - The 50th page (the last page) will be labeled ``end note``. The limitations on the range of formats for page labels are as specified in Section 12.4.2 of the PDF spec, ISO 32000. See also :qpdf:ref:`--remove-page-labels`. .. _encryption-options: Encryption ---------- .. help-topic encryption: create encrypted files Create encrypted files. Usage: --encrypt \ [--user-password=user-password] \ [--owner-password=owner-password] \ --bits=key-length [options] -- OR --encrypt user-password owner-password key-length [options] -- The first form, with flags for the passwords and bit length, was introduced in qpdf 11.7.0. Only the --bits option is is mandatory. This form allows you to use any text as the password. If passwords are specified, they must be given before the --bits option. The second form has been in qpdf since the beginning and wil continue to be supported. Either or both of user-password and owner-password may be empty strings. The key-length parameter must be either 40, 128, or 256. The user and/or owner password may be omitted. Omitting either password enables the PDF file to be opened without a password. Specifying the same value for the user and owner password and specifying an empty owner password are both considered insecure. Encryption options are terminated by "--" by itself. 40-bit encryption is insecure, as is 128-bit encryption without AES. Use 256-bit encryption unless you have a specific reason to use an insecure format, such as testing or compatibility with very old viewers. You must use the --allow-weak-crypto to create encrypted files that use insecure cryptographic algorithms. The --allow-weak-crypto flag appears outside of --encrypt ... -- (before --encrypt or after --). Available options vary by key length. Not all readers respect all restrictions. Different PDF readers respond differently to various combinations of options. Sometimes a PDF viewer may show you restrictions that differ from what you selected. This is probably not a bug in qpdf. Options for 40-bit only: --annotate=[y|n] restrict comments, filling forms, and signing --extract=[y|n] restrict text/graphic extraction --modify=[y|n] restrict document modification --print=[y|n] restrict printing Options for 128-bit or 256-bit: --accessibility=[y|n] restrict accessibility (usually ignored) --annotate=[y|n] restrict commenting/filling form fields --assemble=[y|n] restrict document assembly --extract=[y|n] restrict text/graphic extraction --form=[y|n] restrict filling form fields --modify-other=[y|n] restrict other modifications --modify=modify-opt control modify access by level --print=print-opt control printing access --cleartext-metadata prevent encryption of metadata For 128-bit only: --use-aes=[y|n] indicates whether to use AES encryption --force-V4 forces use of V=4 encryption handler For 256-bit only: --force-R5 forces use of deprecated R=5 encryption --allow-insecure allow user password with empty owner password Values for print-opt: none disallow printing low allow only low-resolution printing full allow full printing Values for modify-opt: none allow no modifications assembly allow document assembly only form assembly + filling in form fields and signing annotate form + commenting and modifying forms all allow full document modification This section describes the options used to create encrypted files. For other options related to encryption, see also :qpdf:ref:`--decrypt` and :qpdf:ref:`--copy-encryption`. For a more in-depth technical discussion of how PDF encryption works internally, see :ref:`pdf-encryption`. To create an encrypted file, use one of :: --encrypt \ [--user-password=user-password] \ [--owner-password=owner-password] \ --bits=key-length [options] -- OR :: --encrypt user-password owner-password key-length [options] -- The first form, with flags for the passwords and bit length, was introduced in qpdf 11.7.0. Only the :qpdf:ref:`--bits` option is is mandatory. This form allows you to use any text as the password. If passwords are specified, they must be given before the :qpdf:ref:`--bits` option. The second form has been in qpdf since the beginning and wil continue to be supported. Either or both of user-password and owner-password may be empty strings. The ``key-length`` parameter must be either ``40``, ``128``, or ``256``. The user and/or owner password may be omitted. Omitting either password enables the PDF file to be opened without a password. Specifying the same value for the user and owner password and specifying an empty owner password are both considered insecure. Encryption options are terminated by ``--`` by itself. 40-bit encryption is insecure, as is 128-bit encryption without AES. Use 256-bit encryption unless you have a specific reason to use an insecure format, such as testing or compatibility with very old viewers. You must use the :qpdf:ref:`--allow-weak-crypto` flag to create encrypted files that use insecure cryptographic algorithms. The :qpdf:ref:`--allow-weak-crypto` flag appears outside of ``--encrypt ... --`` (before ``--encrypt`` or after ``--``). If :samp:`{key-length}` is 256, the minimum PDF version is 1.7 with extension level 8, and the AES-based encryption format used is the one described in the PDF 2.0 specification. Using 128-bit encryption forces the PDF version to be at least 1.4, or if AES is used, 1.6. Using 40-bit encryption forces the PDF version to be at least 1.3. When 256-bit encryption is used, PDF files with empty owner passwords are insecure. To create such files, you must specify the :qpdf:ref:`--allow-insecure` option. Available options vary by key length. Not all readers respect all restrictions. The default for each permission option is to be fully permissive. These restrictions may or may not be enforced by any particular reader. :command:`qpdf` allows very granular setting of restrictions. Some readers may not recognize the combination of options you specify. If you specify certain combinations of restrictions and find a reader that doesn't seem to honor them as you expect, it is most likely not a bug in :command:`qpdf`. qpdf itself does not obey encryption restrictions already imposed on the file. Doing so would be meaningless since qpdf can be used to remove encryption from the file entirely. Here is a summary of encryption options. Details are provided in the help for each option. .. list-table:: Options for 40-bit Encryption Only :widths: 30 70 :header-rows: 0 - - ``--annotate=[y|n]`` - restrict comments, filling forms, and signing - - ``--extract=[y|n]`` - restrict text/graphic extraction - - ``--modify=[y|n]`` - restrict document modification - - ``--print=[y|n]`` - restrict printing .. list-table:: Options for 128-bit or 256-bit Encryption :widths: 30 70 :header-rows: 0 - - ``--accessibility=[y|n]`` - restrict accessibility (usually ignored) - - ``--annotate=[y|n]`` - restrict commenting/filling form fields - - ``--assemble=[y|n]`` - restrict document assembly - - ``--extract=[y|n]`` - restrict text/graphic extraction - - ``--form=[y|n]`` - restrict filling form fields - - ``--modify-other=[y|n]`` - restrict other modifications - - ``--modify=modify-opt`` - control modify access by level - - ``--print=print-opt`` - control printing access - - ``--cleartext-metadata`` - prevent encryption of metadata .. list-table:: Options for 128-bit Encryption Only :widths: 35 65 :header-rows: 0 - - ``--use-aes=[y|n]`` - indicates whether to use AES encryption - - ``--force-V4`` - forces use of V=4 encryption handler .. list-table:: Options for 256-bit Encryption Only :widths: 30 70 :header-rows: 0 - - ``--force-R5`` - forces use of deprecated ``R=5`` encryption algorithm - - ``--allow-insecure`` - allow user password with empty owner password .. list-table:: Values for :samp:`{print-opt}` :widths: 20 80 :header-rows: 0 - - ``none`` - disallow printing - - ``low`` - allow only low-resolution printing - - ``full`` - allow full printing .. list-table:: Values for :samp:`{modify-opt}` :widths: 20 80 :header-rows: 0 - - ``none`` - allow no modifications - - ``assembly`` - allow document assembly only - - ``form`` - ``assembly`` permissions plus filling in form fields and signing - - ``annotate`` - ``form`` permissions plus commenting and modifying forms - - ``all`` - allow full document modification Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --user-password=user-password .. help: specify user password Set the user password of the encrypted file. Set the user password of the encrypted file. Conforming readers apply security restrictions to files opened with the user password. .. qpdf:option:: --owner-password=owner-password .. help: specify owner password Set the owner password of the encrypted file. Set the owner password of the encrypted file. Conforming readers apply allow security restrictions to be changed or overridden when files are opened with the owner password. .. qpdf:option:: --bits={48|128|256} .. help: specify encryption key length Specify the encryption key length. For best security, always use a key length of 256. Set the key length for encrypted files. You should always use ``--bits=256`` unless you have a strong reason to create a file with weaker encryption. .. qpdf:option:: --accessibility=[y|n] .. help: restrict document accessibility This option is ignored except with very old encryption formats. The current PDF specification does not allow restriction of document accessibility. This option is not available with 40-bit encryption. Enable/disable extraction of text for accessibility to visually impaired users. The default is to be fully permissive. The qpdf library disregards this field when AES is used with 128-bit encryption or when 256-bit encryption is used. You should never disable accessibility unless you are explicitly doing so for creating test files. The PDF spec says that conforming readers should disregard this permission and always allow accessibility. This option is not available with 40-bit encryption. .. qpdf:option:: --annotate=[y|n] .. help: restrict document annotation Enable/disable modifying annotations including making comments and filling in form fields. For 128-bit and 256-bit encryption, this also enables editing, creating, and deleting form fields unless --modify-other=n or --modify=none is also specified. Enable/disable modifying annotations including making comments and filling in form fields. The default is to be fully permissive. For 128-bit and 256-bit encryption, this also enables editing, creating, and deleting form fields unless :samp:`--modify-other=n` or :samp:`--modify=none` is also specified. .. qpdf:option:: --assemble=[y|n] .. help: restrict document assembly Enable/disable document assembly (rotation and reordering of pages). This option is not available with 40-bit encryption. Enable/disable document assembly (rotation and reordering of pages). The default is to be fully permissive. This option is not available with 40-bit encryption. .. qpdf:option:: --extract=[y|n] .. help: restrict text/graphic extraction Enable/disable text/graphic extraction for purposes other than accessibility. Enable/disable text/graphic extraction for purposes other than accessibility. The default is to be fully permissive. .. qpdf:option:: --form=[y|n] .. help: restrict form filling Enable/disable whether filling form fields is allowed even if modification of annotations is disabled. This option is not available with 40-bit encryption. Enable/disable whether filling form fields is allowed even if modification of annotations is disabled. The default is to be fully permissive. This option is not available with 40-bit encryption. .. qpdf:option:: --modify-other=[y|n] .. help: restrict other modifications Enable/disable modifications not controlled by --assemble, --annotate, or --form. --modify-other=n is implied by any of the other --modify options. This option is not available with 40-bit encryption. Enable/disable modifications not controlled by :qpdf:ref:`--assemble`, :qpdf:ref:`--annotate`, or :qpdf:ref:`--form`. ``--modify-other=n`` is implied by any of the other :qpdf:ref:`--modify` options except for ``--modify=all``. The default is to be fully permissive. This option is not available with 40-bit encryption. .. qpdf:option:: --modify=modify-opt .. help: restrict document modification For 40-bit files, modify-opt may only be y or n and controls all aspects of document modification. For 128-bit and 256-bit encryption, modify-opt values allow enabling and disabling levels of restriction in a manner similar to how some PDF creation tools do it. modify-opt values map to other combinations of options as follows: all: allow full modification (the default) annotate: --modify-other=n form: --modify-other=n --annotate=n assembly: --modify-other=n --annotate=n --form=n none: --modify-other=n --annotate=n --form=n --assemble=n For 40-bit files, :samp:`{modify-opt}` may only be ``y`` or ``n`` and controls all aspects of document modification. The default is to be fully permissive. For 128-bit and 256-bit encryption, :samp:`{modify-opt}` values allow enabling and disabling levels of restriction in a manner similar to how some PDF creation tools do it: .. list-table:: :samp:`{modify-opt}` for 128-bit and 256-bit Encryption :widths: 10 80 :header-rows: 0 - - ``none`` - allow no modifications - - ``assembly`` - allow document assembly only - - ``form`` - ``assembly`` permissions plus filling in form fields and signing - - ``annotate`` - ``form`` permissions plus commenting and modifying forms - - ``all`` - allow full document modification (the default) Modify options correspond to the more granular options as follows: .. list-table:: Mapping :samp:`{modify-opt}` to Other Options :widths: 10 80 :header-rows: 0 - - ``none`` - ``--modify-other=n --annotate=n --form=n --assemble=n`` - - ``assembly`` - ``--modify-other=n --annotate=n --form=n`` - - ``form`` - ``--modify-other=n --annotate=n`` - - ``annotate`` - ``--modify-other=n`` - - ``all`` - no other modify options (the default) You can combine this option with the options listed above. If you do, later options override earlier options. .. qpdf:option:: --print=print-opt .. help: restrict printing Control what kind of printing is allowed. For 40-bit encryption, print-opt may only be y or n and enables or disables all printing. For 128-bit and 256-bit encryption, print-opt may have the following values: none: disallow printing low: allow low-resolution printing only full: allow full printing (the default) Control what kind of printing is allowed. The default is to be fully permissive. For 40-bit encryption, :samp:`{print-opt}` may only be ``y`` or ``n`` and enables or disables all printing. For 128-bit and 256-bit encryption, :samp:`{print-opt}` may have the following values: .. list-table:: :samp:`{print-opt}` Values :widths: 10 80 :header-rows: 0 - - :samp:`none` - disallow printing - - :samp:`low` - allow low-resolution printing only - - :samp:`full` - allow full printing (the default) .. qpdf:option:: --cleartext-metadata .. help: don't encrypt metadata If specified, don't encrypt document metadata even when encrypting the rest of the document. This option is not available with 40-bit encryption. If specified, any metadata stream in the document will be left unencrypted even if the rest of the document is encrypted. This also forces the PDF version to be at least 1.5. This option is not available with 40-bit encryption. .. qpdf:option:: --use-aes=[y|n] .. help: use AES with 128-bit encryption Enables/disables use of the more secure AES encryption with 128-bit encryption. Specifying --use-aes=y forces the PDF version to be at least 1.6. This option is only available with 128-bit encryption. The default is "n" for compatibility reasons. Use 256-bit encryption instead. Enables/disables use of the more secure AES encryption with 128-bit encryption. Specifying ``--use-aes=y`` forces the PDF version to be at least 1.6. This option is only available with 128-bit encryption. The default is ``n`` for compatibility reasons. Use 256-bit encryption instead. .. qpdf:option:: --allow-insecure .. help: allow empty owner passwords Allow creation of PDF files with empty owner passwords and non-empty user passwords when using 256-bit encryption. Allow creation of PDF files with 256-bit keys where the user password is non-empty and the owner password is empty. Files created in this way are insecure since they can be opened without a password, and restrictions will not be enforced. Users would ordinarily never want to create such files. If you are using qpdf to intentionally create strange files for testing (a valid use of qpdf!), this option allows you to create such insecure files. This option is only available with 256-bit encryption. See :ref:`pdf-passwords` for a more technical discussion of this issue. .. qpdf:option:: --force-V4 .. help: force V=4 in encryption dictionary This option is for testing and is never needed in practice since qpdf does this automatically when needed. Use of this option forces the ``V`` and ``R`` parameters in the document's encryption dictionary to be set to the value ``4``. As qpdf will automatically do this when required, there is no reason to ever use this option. It exists primarily for use in testing qpdf itself. This option also forces the PDF version to be at least 1.5. .. qpdf:option:: --force-R5 .. help: use unsupported R=5 encryption Use an undocumented, unsupported, deprecated encryption algorithm that existed only in Acrobat version IX. This option should not be used except for compatibility testing. Use an undocumented, unsupported, deprecated encryption algorithm that existed only in Acrobat version IX. This option should not be used except for compatibility testing. If specified, qpdf sets the minimum version to 1.7 at extension level 3. .. _page-selection: Page Selection -------------- .. help-topic page-selection: select pages from one or more files Use the --pages option to select pages from multiple files. Usage: qpdf in.pdf --pages --file=input-file \ [--range=page-range] [--password=password] [...] -- out.pdf OR qpdf in.pdf --pages input-file [--password=password] [page-range] \ [...] -- out.pdf Between --pages and the -- that terminates pages option, repeat the following: --file=filename [--range=page-range] [--password=password] [options] For compatibility, the file and range can be specified positionally. qpdf versions prior to 11.9.0 require --password=password to immediately follow the filename. In the older syntax, repeat the following: filename [--password=password] [page-range] Document-level information, such as outlines, tags, etc., is taken from in.pdf and is preserved in out.pdf. You can use --empty in place of an input file to start from an empty file and just copy pages equally from all files. You can use "." as a shorthand for the primary input file (if not --empty). In the above example, "." would refer to in.pdf. Use --password=password to specify the password for a password-protected input file. If the same input file is used more than once, you only need to supply the password the first time. If the page range is omitted, all pages are selected. Run qpdf --help=page-ranges for help with page ranges. Use --collate=n to cause pages to be collated in groups of n pages (default 1) instead of concatenating the input. Use --collate=i,j,k,... to take i from the first, then j from the second, then k from the third, then i from the first, etc. Examples: - Start with in.pdf and append all pages from a.pdf and the even pages from b.pdf, and write the output to out.pdf. Document-level information from in.pdf is retained. Note the use of "." to refer to in.pdf. qpdf in.pdf --pages . a.pdf b.pdf 1-z:even -- out.pdf - Take all the pages from a.pdf, all the pages from b.pdf in reverse, and only pages 3 and 6 from c.pdf and write the result to out.pdf. Use password "x" to open b.pdf: qpdf --empty --pages a.pdf b.pdf --password=x z-1 c.pdf 3,6 More examples are in the manual. :command:`qpdf` allows you to use the :qpdf:ref:`--pages` option to split and merge PDF files by selecting pages from one or more input files. :: qpdf primary-input.pdf \ --pages \ --file=input.pdf \ [--range=page-range] \ [--password=password] \ [...] \ -- output.pdf OR :: qpdf primary-input.pdf \ --pages \ input.pdf [--password=password] [page-range] \ [...] -- output.pdf Notes: - The first form, with :qpdf:ref:`--file` and :qpdf:ref:`--range`, was introduced in qpdf 11.9.0. In this form, the :qpdf:ref:`--range` and :qpdf:ref:`--password` options apply to the most recently specified :qpdf:ref:`--file` option. - The password option is needed only for password-protected files. If you specify the same file more than once, you only need to supply the password the first time. - The page range may be omitted. If omitted, all pages are included. - Document-level information, such as outlines, tags, etc., is taken from the primary input file (in the above example, :file:`in.pdf`) and is preserved in :file:`out.pdf`. You can use :qpdf:ref:`--empty` in place of an input file to start from an empty file and just copy pages equally from all files. - You can use ``.`` as a shorthand for the primary input file, if not empty. See :ref:`page-ranges` for help on specifying a page range. Use :samp:`--collate={n}` to cause pages to be collated in groups of :samp:`{n}` pages (default 1) instead of concatenating the input. Use :samp:`--collate={i},{j},{k},...` to take :samp:`{i}` from the first, then :samp:`{j}` from the second, then :samp:`{k}` from the third, then :samp:`{i}` from the first, etc. Note that the :qpdf:ref:`--collate` appears outside of ``--pages ... --`` (before ``--pages`` or after ``--``). Pages are pulled from each document in turn. When a document is out of pages, it is skipped. See examples below. Examples ~~~~~~~~ - Start with :file:`in.pdf` and append all pages from :file:`a.pdf` and the even pages from :file:`b.pdf`, and write the output to :file:`out.pdf`. Document-level information from :file:`in.pdf` is retained. Note the use of ``.`` to refer to :file:`in.pdf`. :: qpdf in.pdf --pages . a.pdf b.pdf 1-z:even -- out.pdf - Take all the pages from :file:`a.pdf`, all the pages from :file:`b.pdf` in reverse, and only pages 3 and 6 from :file:`c.pdf` and write the result to :file:`out.pdf`. Document-level metadata is discarded from all input files. The password ``x`` is used to open :file:`b.pdf`. :: qpdf --empty --pages --file=a.pdf \ --file=b.pdf --password=x --range=z-1 \ --file=c.pdf --range=3,6 -- out.pdf - Scan a document with double-sided printing by scanning the fronts into :file:`odd.pdf` and the backs into :file:`even.pdf`. Collate the results into :file:`all.pdf`. This takes the first page of :file:`odd.pdf`, the first page of :file:`even.pdf`, the second page of :file:`odd.pdf`, the second page of :file:`even.pdf`, etc. :: qpdf --collate odd.pdf --pages . even.pdf -- all.pdf OR qpdf --collate --empty --pages odd.pdf even.pdf -- all.pdf OR qpdf --collate --empty --pages --file=odd.pdf --file=even.pdf -- all.pdf - When collating, any number of files and page ranges can be specified. If any file has fewer pages, that file is just skipped when its pages have all been included. For example, if you ran :: qpdf --collate --empty --pages a.pdf 1-5 b.pdf 6-4 c.pdf r1 -- out.pdf you would get the following pages in this order: - a.pdf page 1 - b.pdf page 6 - c.pdf last page - a.pdf page 2 - b.pdf page 5 - a.pdf page 3 - b.pdf page 4 - a.pdf page 4 - a.pdf page 5 - You can specify a numeric parameter to :qpdf:ref:`--collate`. With :samp:`--collate={n}`, pull groups of :samp:`{n}` pages from each file, as always, stopping when there are no more pages. For example, if you ran :: qpdf --collate=2 --empty --pages a.pdf 1-5 b.pdf 6-4 c.pdf r1 -- out.pdf you would get the following pages in this order: - a.pdf page 1 - a.pdf page 2 - b.pdf page 6 - b.pdf page 5 - c.pdf last page - a.pdf page 3 - a.pdf page 4 - b.pdf page 4 - a.pdf page 5 - You can specify a multiple numeric parameters to :qpdf:ref:`--collate`. With :samp:`--collate={i,j,k}`, pull groups of :samp:`{i}` pages from the first file, then :samp:`{j}` from the second, then :samp:`{k}` from the third, repeating. The number of parameters must equal the number of groups. For example, if you ran :: qpdf --collate=2,1,3 --empty --pages a.pdf 1-5 b.pdf 6-4 c.pdf r1-r4 -- out.pdf you would get the following pages in this order: - a.pdf pages 1 and 2 - b.pdf page 6 - c.pdf last three pages in reverse order - a.pdf pages 3 and 4 - b.pdf page 5 - c.pdf fourth to last page - a.pdf page 5 - b.pdf page 4 - Take pages 1 through 5 from :file:`file1.pdf` and pages 11 through 15 in reverse from :file:`file2.pdf`, taking document-level metadata from :file:`file2.pdf`. :: qpdf file2.pdf --pages file1.pdf 1-5 . 15-11 -- outfile.pdf - Here's a more contrived example. If, for some reason, you wanted to take the first page of an encrypted file called :file:`encrypted.pdf` with password ``pass`` and repeat it twice in an output file without any shared data between the two copies of page 1, and if you wanted to drop document-level metadata but preserve encryption, you could run :: qpdf --empty --copy-encryption=encrypted.pdf \ --encryption-file-password=pass \ --pages encrypted.pdf --password=pass 1 \ ./encrypted.pdf --password=pass 1 -- \ outfile.pdf Note that we had to specify the password all three times because giving a password as :qpdf:ref:`--encryption-file-password` doesn't count for page selection, and as far as qpdf is concerned, :file:`encrypted.pdf` and :file:`./encrypted.pdf` are separate files. (This is by design. See :ref:`page-limitations` for a discussion.) These are all corner cases that most users should hopefully never have to be bothered with. .. _page-limitations: Limitations ~~~~~~~~~~~ With the exception of page labels (page numbers), :command:`qpdf` doesn't yet have full support for handling document-level data as it relates to pages. Certain document-level features such as form fields, outlines (bookmarks), and article tags among others, are copied in their entirety from the primary input file. Starting with qpdf version 8.3, page labels are preserved from all files unless :qpdf:ref:`--remove-page-labels` is specified. .. If updating this after limitations are removed or reduced, recheck --split-pages as well. It is expected that a future version of :command:`qpdf` will have more complete and configurable behavior regarding document-level metadata. In the meantime, semantics of splitting and merging vary across features. For example, the document's outlines (bookmarks) point to actual page objects, so if you select some pages and not others, bookmarks that point to pages that are in the output file will work, and remaining bookmarks will not work. If you don't want to preserve the primary file's metadata, use :qpdf:ref:`--empty` as the primary input file. Visit `qpdf issues labeled with "pages" `__ or look at the :file:`TODO` file in the qpdf source distribution for some of the ideas. .. NOTE: The workaround described in the following paragraph is mentioned in the documentation in more than one place. Searching for ./ should help find them. It is also in the test suite. I believe there are several valid uses cases for doing this, and so it is my intention to leave the behavior of treating different paths to the same file as separate even if the above limitations are removed. See also https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/issues/399 Prior to :command:`qpdf` version 8.4, it was not possible to specify the same page from the same file directly more than once, and a workaround of specifying the same file in more than one way was required. Version 8.4 removes this limitation, but when the same page is copied more than once, all its data is shared between the pages. Sometimes this is fine, but sometimes it may not work correctly, particularly if there are form fields or you intend to perform other modifications on one of the pages. A future version of qpdf should address this more completely. You can work around this by specifying the same file in two different ways. For example :command:`qpdf in.pdf --pages . 1 ./in.pdf 1 -- out.pdf` would create a file with two copies of the first page of the input, and the two copies would not share any objects in common. This includes fonts, images, and anything else the page references. .. _overlay-underlay: Overlay and Underlay -------------------- .. help-topic overlay-underlay: overlay/underlay pages from other files These options allow pages from another file to be overlaid or underlaid on the primary output. Overlaid pages are drawn on top of the destination page and may obscure the page. Underlaid pages are drawn below the destination page. Usage: {--overlay|--underlay} [--file=]file [--password=password] [--to=page-range] [--from=[page-range]] [--repeat=page-range] -- Note the use of "--" by itself to terminate overlay/underlay options. For overlay and underlay, a file and optional password are specified, along with a series of optional page ranges. The default behavior is that each page of the overlay or underlay file is imposed on the corresponding page of the primary output until it runs out of pages, and any extra pages are ignored. You can also give a page range with --repeat to cause those pages to be repeated after the original pages are exhausted. This options are repeatable. Pages will be stacked in order of appearance: first underlays, then the original page, then overlays. Run qpdf --help=page-ranges for help with page ranges. You can use :command:`qpdf` to overlay or underlay pages from other files onto the output generated by qpdf. Specify overlay or underlay as follows: :: {--overlay|--underlay} [--file=]file [options] -- Overlay and underlay options are processed late, so they can be combined with other options like merging and will apply to the final output. The ``--overlay`` and ``--underlay`` options work the same way, except underlay pages are drawn underneath the page to which they are applied, possibly obscured by the original page, and overlay files are drawn on top of the page to which they are applied, possibly obscuring the page. The ability to specify the file using the :qpdf:ref:`--file` option was added in qpdf 11.9.0. You can combine overlay and underlay. Starting in qpdf 11.9.0, you can specify these options multiple times. The final page will be a stack containing the underlays in order of appearance, then the original page, then the overlays in order of appearance. The default behavior of overlay and underlay is that pages are taken from the overlay/underlay file in sequence and applied to corresponding pages in the output until there are no more output pages. If the overlay or underlay file runs out of pages, remaining output pages are left alone. This behavior can be modified by options, which are provided between the ``--overlay`` or ``--underlay`` flag and the ``--`` option. The following options are supported: .. qpdf:option:: --to=page-range .. help: destination pages for underlay/overlay Specify the range of pages in the primary output to apply overlay/underlay to. See qpdf --help=page-ranges for help with the page range syntax. Specify a page range (see :ref:`page-ranges`) that indicates which pages in the output should have the overlay/underlay applied. If not specified, overlay/underlay are applied to all pages. .. qpdf:option:: --from=[page-range] .. help: source pages for underlay/overlay Specify pages from the overlay/underlay file that are applied to the destination pages. See qpdf --help=page-ranges for help with the page range syntax. The page range may be omitted if --repeat is used. Specify a page range that indicates which pages in the overlay/underlay file will be used for overlay or underlay. If not specified, all pages will be used. The "from" pages are used until they are exhausted, after which any pages specified with :qpdf:ref:`--repeat` are used. If you are using the :qpdf:ref:`--repeat` option, you can use ``--from=`` to provide an empty set of "from" pages. .. qpdf:option:: --repeat=page-range .. help: overlay/underlay pages to repeat Specify pages from the overlay/underlay that are repeated after "from" pages have been exhausted. See qpdf --help=page-ranges for help with the page range syntax. Specify an optional page range that indicates which pages in the overlay/underlay file will be repeated after the "from" pages are used up. If you want to apply a repeat a range of pages starting with the first page of output, you can explicitly use ``--from=``. Examples ~~~~~~~~ - Overlay the first three pages from file :file:`o.pdf` onto the first three pages of the output, then overlay page 4 from :file:`o.pdf` onto pages 4 and 5 of the output. Leave remaining output pages untouched. :: qpdf in.pdf --overlay o.pdf --to=1-5 --from=1-3 --repeat=4 -- out.pdf - Underlay page 1 of :file:`footer.pdf` on all odd output pages, and underlay page 2 of :file:`footer.pdf` on all even output pages. :: qpdf in.pdf --underlay footer.pdf --from= --repeat=1,2 -- out.pdf - Combine two files and overlay the single page from watermark.pdf on the result. :: qpdf --empty --pages a.pdf b.pdf -- \ --overlay watermark.pdf --from= --repeat=1 -- out.pdf .. _attachments: Embedded Files/Attachments -------------------------- .. help-topic attachments: work with embedded files It is possible to list, add, or delete embedded files (also known as attachments) and to copy attachments from other files. See help on individual options for details. Run qpdf --help=add-attachment for additional details about adding attachments. See also --help=--list-attachments and --help=--show-attachment. It is possible to list, add, or delete embedded files (also known as attachments) and to copy attachments from other files. See also :qpdf:ref:`--list-attachments` and :qpdf:ref:`--show-attachment`. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --add-attachment file [options] -- .. help: start add attachment options The --add-attachment flag and its options may be repeated to add multiple attachments. Run qpdf --help=add-attachment for details. This flag starts add attachment options, which are used to add attachments to a file. The ``--add-attachment`` flag and its options may be repeated to add multiple attachments. Please see :ref:`add-attachment` for additional details. .. qpdf:option:: --copy-attachments-from file [options] -- .. help: start copy attachment options The --copy-attachments-from flag and its options may be repeated to copy attachments from multiple files. Run qpdf --help=copy-attachments for details. This flag starts copy attachment options, which are used to copy attachments from other files. The ``--copy-attachments-from`` flag and its options may be repeated to copy attachments from multiple files. Please see :ref:`copy-attachments` for additional details. .. qpdf:option:: --remove-attachment=key .. help: remove an embedded file Remove an embedded file using its key. Get the key with --list-attachments. Remove the specified attachment. This doesn't only remove the attachment from the embedded files table but also clears out the file specification to ensure that the attachment is actually not present in the output file. That means that any potential internal links to the attachment will be broken. Run with :qpdf:ref:`--verbose` to see status of the removal. Use :qpdf:ref:`--list-attachments` to find the attachment key. This option may be repeated to remove multiple attachments. .. _pdf-dates: PDF Date Format ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. help-topic pdf-dates: PDF date format When a date is required, the date should conform to the PDF date format specification, which is "D:yyyymmddhhmmssz" where "z" is either literally upper case "Z" for UTC or a timezone offset in the form "-hh'mm'" or "+hh'mm'". Negative timezone offsets indicate time before UTC. Positive offsets indicate how far after. For example, US Eastern Standard Time (America/New_York) is "-05'00'", and Indian Standard Time (Asia/Calcutta) is "+05'30'". Examples: - D:20210207161528-05'00' February 7, 2021 at 4:15:28 p.m. - D:20210207211528Z February 7, 2021 at 21:15:28 UTC When a date is required, the date should conform to the PDF date format specification, which is :samp:`D:{yyyymmddhhmmssz}` where :samp:`{z}` is either literally upper case ``Z`` for UTC or a timezone offset in the form :samp:`{-hh'mm'}` or :samp:`{+hh'mm'}`. Negative timezone offsets indicate time before UTC. Positive offsets indicate how far after. For example, US Eastern Standard Time (America/New_York) is ``-05'00'``, and Indian Standard Time (Asia/Calcutta) is ``+05'30'``. .. list-table:: PDF Date Examples :widths: 30 70 :header-rows: 0 - - ``D:20210207161528-05'00'`` - February 7, 2021 at 4:15:28 p.m. - - ``D:20210207211528Z`` - February 7, 2021 at 21:15:28 UTC .. _add-attachment: Options for Adding Attachments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. help-topic add-attachment: attach (embed) files The options listed below appear between --add-attachment and its terminating "--". These options are valid between :qpdf:ref:`--add-attachment` and ``--``. .. qpdf:option:: --key=key .. help: specify attachment key Specify the key to use for the attachment in the embedded files table. It defaults to the last element (basename) of the attached file's filename. Specify the key to use for the attachment in the embedded files table. It defaults to the last element of the attached file's filename. For example, if you say ``--add-attachment /home/user/image.png``, the default key will be just ``image.png``. .. qpdf:option:: --filename=name .. help: set attachment's displayed filename Specify the filename to be used for the attachment. This is what is usually displayed to the user and is the name most graphical PDF viewers will use when saving a file. It defaults to the last element (basename) of the attached file's filename. Specify the filename to be used for the attachment. This is what is usually displayed to the user and is the name most graphical PDF viewers will use when saving a file. It defaults to the last element of the attached file's filename. For example, if you say ``--add-attachment /home/user/image.png``, the default key will be just ``image.png``. .. qpdf:option:: --creationdate=date .. help: set attachment's creation date Specify the attachment's creation date in PDF format; defaults to the current time. Run qpdf --help=pdf-dates for information about the date format. Specify the attachment's creation date in PDF format; defaults to the current time. See :ref:`pdf-dates` for information about the date format. .. qpdf:option:: --moddate=date .. help: set attachment's modification date Specify the attachment's modification date in PDF format; defaults to the current time. Run qpdf --help=pdf-dates for information about the date format. Specify the attachment's modification date in PDF format; defaults to the current time. See :ref:`pdf-dates` for information about the date format. .. qpdf:option:: --mimetype=type/subtype .. help: attachment mime type, e.g. application/pdf Specify the mime type for the attachment, such as text/plain, application/pdf, image/png, etc. Specify the mime type for the attachment, such as ``text/plain``, ``application/pdf``, ``image/png``, etc. The qpdf library does not automatically determine the mime type. In a UNIX-like environment, the :command:`file` command can often provide this information. In MacOS, you can use :samp:`file -I {filename}`. In Linux, it's :samp:`file -i {filename}`. Implementation note: the mime type appears in a field called ``/Subtype`` in the PDF file, but that field actually includes the full type and subtype of the mime type. This is because ``/Type`` already means something else in PDF. .. qpdf:option:: --description="text" .. help: set attachment's description Supply descriptive text for the attachment, displayed by some PDF viewers. Supply descriptive text for the attachment, displayed by some PDF viewers. .. qpdf:option:: --replace .. help: replace attachment with same key Indicate that any existing attachment with the same key should be replaced by the new attachment. Otherwise, qpdf gives an error if an attachment with that key is already present. Indicate that any existing attachment with the same key should be replaced by the new attachment. Otherwise, :command:`qpdf` gives an error if an attachment with that key is already present. .. _copy-attachments: Options for Copying Attachments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. help-topic copy-attachments: copy attachments from another file The options listed below appear between --copy-attachments-from and its terminating "--". To copy attachments from a password-protected file, use the --password option after the file name. Options in this section are valid between :qpdf:ref:`--copy-attachments-from` and ``--``. .. qpdf:option:: --prefix=prefix .. help: key prefix for copying attachments Prepend a prefix to each key; may be needed if there are duplicate attachment keys. This affects the key only, not the file name. Only required if the file from which attachments are being copied has attachments with keys that conflict with attachments already in the file. In this case, the specified prefix will be prepended to each key. This affects only the key in the embedded files table, not the file name. The PDF specification doesn't preclude multiple attachments having the same file name. .. _inspection-options: PDF Inspection -------------- .. help-topic inspection: inspect PDF files These options provide tools for inspecting PDF files. When any of the options in this section are specified, no output file may be given. These options provide tools for inspecting PDF files. When any of the options in this section are specified, no output file may be given. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --is-encrypted .. help: silently test whether a file is encrypted Silently exit with a code indicating the file's encryption status: 0: the file is encrypted 1: not used 2: the file is not encrypted This can be used with password-protected files even if you don't know the password. Silently exit with a code indicating the file's encryption status: .. list-table:: Exit Codes for ``--is-encrypted`` :widths: 5 80 :header-rows: 0 - - ``0`` - the file is encrypted - - ``1`` - not used - - ``2`` - the file is not encrypted This option can be used for password-protected files even if you don't know the password. This option is useful for shell scripts. Other options are ignored if this is given. This option is mutually exclusive with :qpdf:ref:`--requires-password`. Both this option and :qpdf:ref:`--requires-password` exit with status ``2`` for non-encrypted files. .. qpdf:option:: --requires-password .. help: silently test a file's password Silently exit with a code indicating the file's password status: 0: a password, other than as supplied, is required 1: not used 2: the file is not encrypted 3: the file is encrypted, and correct password (if any) has been supplied Silently exit with a code indicating the file's password status: .. list-table:: Exit Codes for ``--requires-password`` :widths: 5 80 :header-rows: 0 - - ``0`` - a password, other than as supplied, is required - - ``1`` - not used - - ``2`` - the file is not encrypted - - ``3`` - the file is encrypted, and correct password (if any) has been supplied Use with the :qpdf:ref:`--password` option to specify the password to test. The choice of exit status ``0`` to mean that a password is required is to enable code like .. code-block:: bash if qpdf --requires-password file.pdf; then # prompt for password fi If a password is supplied with :qpdf:ref:`--password`, that password is used to open the file just as with any normal invocation of :command:`qpdf`. That means that using this option with :qpdf:ref:`--password` can be used to check the correctness of the password. In that case, an exit status of ``3`` means the file works with the supplied password. This option is mutually exclusive with :qpdf:ref:`--is-encrypted`. Both this option and :qpdf:ref:`--is-encrypted` exit with status ``2`` for non-encrypted files. .. qpdf:option:: --check .. help: partially check whether PDF is valid Check the structure of the PDF file as well as a number of other aspects of the file, and write information about the file to standard output. Note that qpdf does not perform any validation of the actual PDF page content or semantic correctness of the PDF file. It merely checks that the PDF file is syntactically valid. See also qpdf --help=exit-status. Check the file's structure as well as encryption, linearization, and encoding of stream data, and write information about the file to standard output. An exit status of ``0`` indicates syntactic correctness of the PDF file. Note that :samp:`--check` writes nothing to standard error when everything is valid, so if you are using this to programmatically validate files in bulk, it is safe to run without output redirected to :file:`/dev/null` and just check for a ``0`` exit code. A file for which :samp:`--check` reports no errors may still have errors in stream data content or may contain constructs that don't conform to the PDF specification, but it should be syntactically valid. If :samp:`--check` reports any errors, qpdf will exit with a status of ``2``. There are some recoverable conditions that :samp:`--check` detects. These are issued as warnings instead of errors. If qpdf finds no errors but finds warnings, it will exit with a status of ``3``. When :samp:`--check` is combined with other options, checks are always performed before any other options are processed. For erroneous files, :samp:`--check` will cause qpdf to attempt to recover, after which other options are effectively operating on the recovered file. Combining :samp:`--check` with other options in this way can be useful for manually recovering severely damaged files. See also :ref:`exit-status`. .. qpdf:option:: --show-encryption .. help: information about encrypted files Show document encryption parameters. Also show the document's user password if the owner password is given and the file was encrypted using older encryption formats that allow user password recovery. This option shows document encryption parameters. It also shows the document's user password if the owner password is given and the file was encrypted using older encryption formats that allow user password recovery. (See :ref:`pdf-encryption` for a technical discussion of this feature.) The output of ``--show-encryption`` is included in the output of :qpdf:ref:`--check`. .. qpdf:option:: --show-encryption-key .. help: show key with --show-encryption When used with --show-encryption or --check, causes the underlying encryption key to be displayed. When encryption information is being displayed, as when :qpdf:ref:`--check` or :qpdf:ref:`--show-encryption` is given, display the computed or retrieved encryption key as a hexadecimal string. This value is not ordinarily useful to users, but it can be used as the parameter to :qpdf:ref:`--password` if the :qpdf:ref:`--password-is-hex-key` is specified. Note that, when PDF files are encrypted, passwords and other metadata are used only to compute an encryption key, and the encryption key is what is actually used for encryption. This enables retrieval of that key. See :ref:`pdf-encryption` for a technical discussion. .. qpdf:option:: --check-linearization .. help: check linearization tables Check to see whether a file is linearized and, if so, whether the linearization hint tables are correct. Check to see whether a file is linearized and, if so, whether the linearization hint tables are correct. qpdf does not check all aspects of linearization. A linearized PDF file with linearization errors that is otherwise correct is almost always readable by a PDF viewer. As such, "errors" in PDF linearization are treated by :command:`qpdf` as warnings. .. qpdf:option:: --show-linearization .. help: show linearization hint tables Check and display all data in the linearization hint tables. Check and display all data in the linearization hint tables. .. qpdf:option:: --show-xref .. help: show cross reference data Show the contents of the cross-reference table or stream (object locations in the file) in a human-readable form. This is especially useful for files with cross-reference streams, which are stored in a binary format. Show the contents of the cross-reference table or stream in a human-readable form. The cross-reference data gives the offset of regular objects and the object stream ID and 0-based index within the object stream for compressed objects. This is especially useful for files with cross-reference streams, which are stored in a binary format. If the file is invalid and cross reference table reconstruction is performed, this option will show the information in the reconstructed table. .. qpdf:option:: --show-object={trailer|obj[,gen]} .. help: show contents of an object Show the contents of the given object. This is especially useful for inspecting objects that are inside of object streams (also known as "compressed objects"). Show the contents of the given object. This is especially useful for inspecting objects that are inside of object streams (also known as "compressed objects"). .. qpdf:option:: --raw-stream-data .. help: show raw stream data When used with --show-object, if the object is a stream, write the raw (compressed) binary stream data to standard output instead of the object's contents. See also --filtered-stream-data. When used with :qpdf:ref:`--show-object`, if the object is a stream, write the raw (compressed) binary stream data to standard output instead of the object's contents. Avoid combining this with other inspection options to avoid commingling the stream data with other output. See also :qpdf:ref:`--filtered-stream-data`. .. qpdf:option:: --filtered-stream-data .. help: show filtered stream data When used with --show-object, if the object is a stream, write the filtered (uncompressed, potentially binary) stream data to standard output instead of the object's contents. See also --raw-stream-data. When used with :qpdf:ref:`--show-object`, if the object is a stream, write the filtered (uncompressed, potentially binary) stream data to standard output instead of the object's contents. If the stream is filtered using filters that qpdf does not support, an error will be issued. This option acts as if ``--decode-level=all`` was specified (see :qpdf:ref:`--decode-level`), so it will uncompress images compressed with supported lossy compression schemes. Avoid combining this with other inspection options to avoid commingling the stream data with other output. This option may be combined with :qpdf:ref:`--normalize-content`. If you do this, qpdf will attempt to run content normalization even if the stream is not a content stream, which will probably produce unusable results. See also :qpdf:ref:`--raw-stream-data`. .. qpdf:option:: --show-npages .. help: show number of pages Print the number of pages in the input file on a line by itself. Useful for scripts. Print the number of pages in the input file on a line by itself. Since the number of pages appears by itself on a line, this option can be useful for scripting if you need to know the number of pages in a file. .. qpdf:option:: --show-pages .. help: display page dictionary information Show the object and generation number for each page dictionary object and for each content stream associated with the page. Show the object and generation number for each page dictionary object and for each content stream associated with the page. Having this information makes it more convenient to inspect objects from a particular page. See also :qpdf:ref:`--with-images`. .. qpdf:option:: --with-images .. help: include image details with --show-pages When used with --show-pages, also shows the object and generation numbers for the image objects on each page. When used with :qpdf:ref:`--show-pages`, also shows the object and generation numbers for the image objects on each page. .. qpdf:option:: --list-attachments .. help: list embedded files Show the key and stream number for each embedded file. Combine with --verbose for more detailed information. Show the *key* and stream number for each embedded file. With :qpdf:ref:`--verbose`, additional information, including preferred file name, description, dates, and more are also displayed. The key is usually but not always equal to the file name and is needed by some of the other options. See also :ref:`attachments`. Note that this option displays dates in PDF timestamp syntax. When attachment information is included in json output in the ``"attachments"`` key (see :qpdf:ref:`--json`), dates are shown (just within that object) in ISO-8601 format. .. qpdf:option:: --show-attachment=key .. help: export an embedded file Write the contents of the specified attachment to standard output as binary data. Get the key with --list-attachments. Write the contents of the specified attachment to standard output as binary data. The key should match one of the keys shown by :qpdf:ref:`--list-attachments`. If this option is given more than once, only the last attachment will be shown. See also :ref:`attachments`. .. _json-options: JSON Options ------------ .. help-topic json: JSON output for PDF information Show information about the PDF file in JSON format. Please see the JSON chapter in the qpdf manual for details. It is possible to view information about PDF files in a JSON format. See :ref:`json` for details about the qpdf JSON format. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --json[=version] .. help: show file in JSON format Generate a JSON representation of the file. This is described in depth in the JSON section of the manual. "version" may be a specific version or "latest" (the default). Run qpdf --json-help for a description of the generated JSON object. Generate a JSON representation of the file. This is described in depth in :ref:`json`. The version parameter can be used to specify which version of the qpdf JSON format should be output. The version number be a number or ``latest``. The default is ``latest``. As of qpdf 11, the latest version is ``2``. If you have code that reads qpdf JSON output, you can tell what version of the JSON output you have from the ``"version"`` key in the output. Use the :qpdf:ref:`--json-help` option to get a description of the JSON object. Starting with qpdf 11, when this option is specified, an output file is optional (for backward compatibility) and defaults to standard output. You may specify an output file to write the JSON to a file rather than standard output. (Example: ``qpdf --json in.pdf out.json``) Stream data is only included if :qpdf:ref:`--json-output` is specified or if a value other than ``none`` is passed to :qpdf:ref:`--json-stream-data`. .. qpdf:option:: --json-help[=version] .. help: show format of JSON output Describe the format of the JSON output by writing to standard output a JSON object with the same keys and with values containing descriptive text. Describe the format of the corresponding version of JSON output by writing to standard output a JSON object with the same structure as the JSON generated by qpdf. In the output written by ``--json-help``, each key's value is a description of the key. The specific contract guaranteed by qpdf in its JSON representation is explained in more detail in the :ref:`json`. The default version of help is version ``2``, as with the :qpdf:ref:`--json` flag. .. qpdf:option:: --json-key=key .. help: limit which keys are in JSON output This option is repeatable. If given, only the specified top-level keys will be included in the JSON output. Otherwise, all keys will be included. With --json-output, when not given, only the "qpdf" key will appear in the output. This option is repeatable. If given, only the specified top-level keys will be included in the JSON output. Otherwise, all keys will be included. If not given, all keys will be included, unless :qpdf:ref:`--json-output` was specified, in which case, only the ``"qpdf"`` key will be included by default. If :qpdf:ref:`--json-output` was not given, the ``version`` and ``parameters`` keys will always appear in the output. .. qpdf:option:: --json-object={trailer|obj[,gen]} .. help: limit which objects are in JSON This option is repeatable. If given, only specified objects will be shown in the "objects" key of the JSON output. Otherwise, all objects will be shown. This option is repeatable. If given, only specified objects will be shown in the objects dictionary in the JSON output. Otherwise, all objects will be shown. See :ref:`json` for details about the qpdf JSON format. .. qpdf:option:: --json-stream-data={none|inline|file} .. help: how to handle streams in json output When used with --json, this option controls whether streams in json output should be omitted, written inline (base64-encoded) or written to a file. If "file" is chosen, the file will be the name of the output file appended with -nnn where nnn is the object number. The prefix can be overridden with --json-stream-prefix. The default is "none", except when --json-output is specified, in which case the default is "inline". When used with :qpdf:ref:`--json`, this option controls whether streams in JSON output should be omitted, written inline (base64-encoded) or written to a file. If ``file`` is chosen, the file will be the name of the output file appended with :samp:`-{nnn}` where :samp:`{nnn}` is the object number. The stream data file prefix can be overridden with :qpdf:ref:`--json-stream-prefix`. The default value is ``none``, except when :qpdf:ref:`--json-output` is specified, in which case the default is ``inline``. .. qpdf:option:: --json-stream-prefix=file-prefix .. help: prefix for json stream data files When used with --json-stream-data=file, --json-stream-data=file-prefix sets the prefix for stream data files, overriding the default, which is to use the output file name. Whatever is given here will be appended with -nnn to create the name of the file that will contain the data for the stream stream in object nnn. When used with ``--json-stream-data=file``, ``--json-stream-data=file-prefix`` sets the prefix for stream data files, overriding the default, which is to use the output file name. Whatever is given here will be appended with :samp:`-{nnn}` to create the name of the file that will contain the data for the stream stream in object :samp:`{nnn}`. .. qpdf:option:: --json-output[=version] .. help: apply defaults for JSON serialization Implies --json=version. Changes default values for certain options so that the JSON output written is the most faithful representation of the original PDF and contains no additional JSON keys. See also --json-stream-data, --json-stream-prefix, and --decode-level. Implies :qpdf:ref:`--json` at the specified version. This option changes several default values, all of which can be overridden by specifying the stated option: - The default value for :qpdf:ref:`--json-stream-data` changes from ``none`` to ``inline``. - The default value for :qpdf:ref:`--decode-level` changes from ``generalized`` to ``none``. - By default, only the ``"qpdf"`` key is included in the JSON output, but you can add additional keys with :qpdf:ref:`--json-key`. - The ``"version"`` and ``"parameters"`` keys will be excluded from the JSON output. If you want to look at the contents of streams easily as you would in QDF mode (see :ref:`qdf`), you can use ``--decode-level=generalized`` and ``--json-stream-data=file`` for a convenient way to do that. .. qpdf:option:: --json-input .. help: input file is qpdf JSON Treat the input file as a JSON file in qpdf JSON format. See the "qpdf JSON Format" section of the manual for information about how to use this option. Treat the input file as a JSON file in qpdf JSON format. The input file must be complete and include all stream data. The JSON version must be at least 2. All top-level keys are ignored except for ``"qpdf"``. For information about converting between PDF and JSON, please see :ref:`json`. .. qpdf:option:: --update-from-json=qpdf-json-file .. help: update a PDF from qpdf JSON Update a PDF file from a JSON file. Please see the "qpdf JSON" chapter of the manual for information about how to use this option. This option updates a PDF file from the specified qpdf JSON file. For a information about how to use this option, please see :ref:`json`. .. _test-options: Options for Testing or Debugging -------------------------------- .. help-topic testing: options for testing or debugging The options below are useful when writing automated test code that includes files created by qpdf or when testing qpdf itself. The options below are useful when writing automated test code that includes files created by qpdf or when testing qpdf itself. When changes are made to qpdf, care is taken to avoid gratuitously changing the output of PDF files. This is to make it easier to do direct comparisons in test suites with files created by qpdf. However, there are no guarantees that the PDF output won't change such as in the event of a bug fix or feature enhancement to some aspect of the output that qpdf creates. .. _idempotency: Idempotency ~~~~~~~~~~~ Note about idempotency of byte-for-byte content: there is no expectation that qpdf is idempotent in the general case. In other words, there is no expectation that, when qpdf is run on its own output, it will create *byte-for-byte* identical output, even though it will create semantically identical files. There are a variety of reasons for this including document ID generation, which includes a random element, as well as the interaction of stream length encoding with dictionary key sorting. It is possible to get idempotent behavior by using the :qpdf:ref:`--deterministic-id` (or, for testing only, :qpdf:ref:`--static-id`) option with qpdf and running it *three* times so that you are processing the output of qpdf on its own previous output. For example, in this sequence of commands: :: qpdf any-file.pdf 1.pdf qpdf --deterministic-id 1.pdf 2.pdf qpdf --deterministic-id 2.pdf 3.pdf the files :file:`2.pdf` and :file:`3.pdf` should be *byte-for-byte* identical. The qpdf test suite relies on this behavior. See also :qpdf:ref:`--static-aes-iv`, which should also be used only for testing. Related Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. qpdf:option:: --static-id .. help: use a fixed document ID Use a fixed value for the document ID. This is intended for testing only. Never use it for production files. See also qpdf --help=--deterministic-id. Use a fixed value for the document ID (``/ID`` in the trailer). **This is intended for testing only. Never use it for production files.** If you are trying to get the same ID each time for a given file and you are not generating encrypted files, consider using the :qpdf:ref:`--deterministic-id` option. .. qpdf:option:: --static-aes-iv .. help: use a fixed AES vector Use a static initialization vector for AES-CBC. This is intended for testing only so that output files can be reproducible. Never use it for production files. This option is not secure since it significantly weakens the encryption. Use a static initialization vector for AES-CBC. This is intended for testing only so that output files can be reproducible. Never use it for production files. **This option in particular is not secure since it significantly weakens the encryption.** When combined with :qpdf:ref:`--static-id` and using the three-step process described in :ref:`idempotency`, it is possible to create byte-for-byte idempotent output with PDF files that use 256-bit encryption to assist with creating reproducible test suites. .. qpdf:option:: --linearize-pass1=file .. help: save pass 1 of linearization Write the first pass of linearization to the named file. The resulting file is not a valid PDF file. This option is useful only for debugging qpdf. Write the first pass of linearization to the named file. *The resulting file is not a valid PDF file.* This option is useful only for debugging ``QPDFWriter``'s linearization code. When qpdf linearizes files, it writes the file in two passes, using the first pass to calculate sizes and offsets that are required for hint tables and the linearization dictionary. Ordinarily, the first pass is discarded. This option enables it to be captured, allowing inspection of the file before values calculated in pass 1 are inserted into the file for pass 2. .. qpdf:option:: --test-json-schema .. help: test generated json against schema This is used by qpdf's test suite to check consistency between the output of qpdf --json and the output of qpdf --json-help. This is used by qpdf's test suite to check consistency between the output of ``qpdf --json`` and the output of ``qpdf --json-help``. This option causes an extra copy of the generated JSON to appear in memory and is therefore unsuitable for use with large files. This is why it's also not on by default. .. qpdf:option:: --report-memory-usage .. help: best effort report of memory usage This is used by qpdf's performance test suite to report the maximum amount of memory used in supported environments. This is used by qpdf's performance test suite to report the maximum amount of memory used in supported environments. .. _unicode-passwords: Unicode Passwords ----------------- At the library API level, all methods that perform encryption and decryption interpret passwords as strings of bytes. It is up to the caller to ensure that they are appropriately encoded. Starting with qpdf version 8.4.0, qpdf will attempt to make this easier for you when interacting with qpdf via its command line interface. The PDF specification requires passwords used to encrypt files with 40-bit or 128-bit encryption to be encoded with PDF Doc encoding. This encoding is a single-byte encoding that supports ISO-Latin-1 and a handful of other commonly used characters. It has a large overlap with Windows ANSI but is not exactly the same. There is generally no way to provide PDF Doc encoded strings on the command line. As such, qpdf versions prior to 8.4.0 would often create PDF files that couldn't be opened with other software when given a password with non-ASCII characters to encrypt a file with 40-bit or 128-bit encryption. Starting with qpdf 8.4.0, qpdf recognizes the encoding of the parameter and transcodes it as needed. The rest of this section provides the details about exactly how qpdf behaves. Most users will not need to know this information, but it might be useful if you have been working around qpdf's old behavior or if you are using qpdf to generate encrypted files for testing other PDF software. A note about Windows: when qpdf builds, it attempts to determine what it has to do to use ``wmain`` instead of ``main`` on Windows. The ``wmain`` function is an alternative entry point that receives all arguments as UTF-16-encoded strings. When qpdf starts up this way, it converts all the strings to UTF-8 encoding and then invokes the regular main. This means that, as far as qpdf is concerned, it receives its command-line arguments with UTF-8 encoding, just as it would in any modern Linux or UNIX environment. If a file is being encrypted with 40-bit or 128-bit encryption and the supplied password is not a valid UTF-8 string, qpdf will fall back to the behavior of interpreting the password as a string of bytes. If you have old scripts that encrypt files by passing the output of :command:`iconv` to qpdf, you no longer need to do that, but if you do, qpdf should still work. The only exception would be for the extremely unlikely case of a password that is encoded with a single-byte encoding but also happens to be valid UTF-8. Such a password would contain strings of even numbers of characters that alternate between accented letters and symbols. In the extremely unlikely event that you are intentionally using such passwords and qpdf is thwarting you by interpreting them as UTF-8, you can use :samp:`--password-mode=bytes` to suppress qpdf's automatic behavior. The :qpdf:ref:`--password-mode` option, as described earlier in this chapter, can be used to change qpdf's interpretation of supplied passwords. There are very few reasons to use this option. One would be the unlikely case described in the previous paragraph in which the supplied password happens to be valid UTF-8 but isn't supposed to be UTF-8. Your best bet would be just to provide the password as a valid UTF-8 string, but you could also use :samp:`--password-mode=bytes`. Another reason to use :samp:`--password-mode=bytes` would be to intentionally generate PDF files encrypted with passwords that are not properly encoded. The qpdf test suite does this to generate invalid files for the purpose of testing its password recovery capability. If you were trying to create intentionally incorrect files for a similar purposes, the :samp:`bytes` password mode can enable you to do this. When qpdf attempts to decrypt a file with a password that contains non-ASCII characters, it will generate a list of alternative passwords by attempting to interpret the password as each of a handful of different coding systems and then transcode them to the required format. This helps to compensate for the supplied password being given in the wrong coding system, such as would happen if you used the :command:`iconv` workaround that was previously needed. It also generates passwords by doing the reverse operation: translating from correct in incorrect encoding of the password. This would enable qpdf to decrypt files using passwords that were improperly encoded by whatever software encrypted the files, including older versions of qpdf invoked without properly encoded passwords. The combination of these two recovery methods should make qpdf transparently open most encrypted files with the password supplied correctly but in the wrong coding system. There are no real downsides to this behavior, but if you don't want qpdf to do this, you can use the :qpdf:ref:`--suppress-password-recovery` option. One reason to do that is to ensure that you know the exact password that was used to encrypt the file. With these changes, qpdf now generates compliant passwords in most cases. There are still some exceptions. In particular, the PDF specification directs compliant writers to normalize Unicode passwords and to perform certain transformations on passwords with bidirectional text. Implementing this functionality requires using a real Unicode library like ICU. If a client application that uses qpdf wants to do this, the qpdf library will accept the resulting passwords, but qpdf will not perform these transformations itself. It is possible that this will be addressed in a future version of qpdf. The ``QPDFWriter`` methods that enable encryption on the output file accept passwords as strings of bytes. Please note that the :qpdf:ref:`--password-is-hex-key` option is unrelated to all this. That flag bypasses the normal process of going from password to encryption key entirely, allowing the raw encryption key to be specified directly. That behavior is useful for forensic purposes or for brute-force recovery of files with unknown passwords and has nothing to do with the document's actual passwords.