pdftk

pdftk is a command that is used to manipulate Portable Document Format (PDF) files. There are many ways to manipulate PDFs through the command such as merging, splitting, encrypting and much more.

$ pdftk in1.pdf in2.pdf cat output combinedIn.pdf

Useful Options / Examples

Unlock a PDF File – Decryption

$ pdftk locked.pdf input_pw YouShallPass output unlocked.pdf

This allows you to decrpyt pdf files through inputing a password, in this case “YouShallPass”, and direct the output into a file named unlocked.pdf.

Split a PDF File into Seperate Pages

$ pdftk in1.pdf burst

This allows you to split each of the pdf pages within the ‘in1.pdf’ file into seperate pages within the current directory. In addition, it will also create a ‘doc_data.txt’ that will give you the data of the original pdf.

Remove Pages Within a PDF File

$ pdftk in1.pdf cat 1-4 12-end output out1.pdf

This allows you to remove pages from a pdf. In this example pages 5 through 11 will be removed from the ‘in1.pdf’. So, in order to remove pages in the command type which pages you want to keep i.e. 1-4 and 12-end which means that page 1 through 4 as well as page 12 until the end of the document.

Page Rotation

$ pdftk in1.pdf cat 1east 2-end output out1.pdf

This allows you to rotate the first page of the file in1.pdf by 90 degrees clockwise. Other flags could include 1west, which would rotate first page by 90 degrees counter-clockwise. Or 1south, which would rotate the first page 180 degrees. Other possible flags include left, right, and down.