Multifunctional tool for PDF files

PDF TO THE MAX

Article from Issue 59/2005
Author(s):

To manage the mountains of paper that cross our desks every day, we need to file, retrieve, copy, stamp, investigate, and classify documents. A special tool can help users keep on top of their electronic paperwork: pdftk – the PDF toolkit.

Native Linux PDF utilities such as GhostScript are very useful if you’re willing to click through the menus. But if you’re looking for something faster, or if you would like to automate a recurring task, try pdftk (the PDF Toolkit). pdftk is a convenient command-line program for processing PDF files. According to creator Sid Steward, "If PDF is electronic paper, then pdftk is an electronic staple-remover, hole-punch, binder, secret-decoder-ring, and X-Ray-glasses." Installation and Use

You can download the latest version of the PDF toolkit from one of the Sid Steward’s [1] websites. The GPL program is available for Linux, Mac OS X (Panther), FreeBSD, Solaris, and Windows. The platform-specific install proved to be quite simple on the platforms we tested (including Debian and SuSE Linux).

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