qpdf

qpdf Plugin

Content-preserving PDF transformation tool. Split, merge, encrypt, decrypt, linearize, and inspect PDFs.

Commands

Inspect

• qpdf info check document.pdf — Validate PDF structure and integrity
• qpdf info json document.pdf — Get full PDF metadata as JSON (pages, objects)

Split

• qpdf split pages input.pdf 1-10 output.pdf — Extract pages 1-10
• qpdf split pages input.pdf 1,3,7- output.pdf — Extract specific pages

Merge

• qpdf merge files file1.pdf file2.pdf -- output.pdf — Merge multiple PDFs

Encrypt & Decrypt

• qpdf encrypt set --encrypt 'userpw ownerpw' --password-mode 256 input.pdf output.pdf — Encrypt with passwords
• qpdf decrypt set encrypted.pdf --password mypass decrypted.pdf — Decrypt a PDF

Optimize

• qpdf optimize linearize input.pdf output.pdf — Linearize for fast web viewing

Full Access

• qpdf _ _ — Passthrough for any qpdf command (compress, show-object, etc.)

Usage Examples

• "Extract pages 3-7 from report.pdf"
• "Merge three PDFs into one document"
• "Encrypt this PDF with password protection"
• "Decrypt a protected PDF"
• "Check if this PDF is valid and not corrupted"
• "Get PDF metadata as JSON"
• "Optimize this PDF for web delivery"

Installation

brew install qpdf

Key Features

• JSON output: --json flag for machine-readable PDF metadata
• Split & merge: Extract or combine pages from multiple PDFs
• Encryption: 256-bit AES encryption with user/owner passwords
• Validation: Check PDF structure and integrity
• Linearization: Optimize PDFs for fast web viewing
• Non-interactive: All operations are one-shot CLI commands