Pdfcpu - Revision history

BertrandCaron: /* User Experiences */

2026-02-05T16:32:13Z

User Experiences

Thorsted: Input Format

2021-10-19T12:08:24Z

Input Format

Ania Molenda at 15:01, 26 April 2021

2021-04-26T15:01:27Z

Lindlar at 08:47, 30 September 2020

2020-09-30T08:47:10Z

Lindlar: Created page with " {{Infobox_tool |purpose=A Go library and command line tool for PDF processing incl. validation |image=..."

2020-09-30T08:45:27Z

Created page with " {{Infobox_tool |purpose=A Go library and command line tool for PDF processing incl. validation |image=..."

New page

{{Infobox_tool
|purpose=A Go library and command line tool for PDF processing incl. validation
|image={{PAGENAMEE}}.png
|homepage=https://pdfcpu.io/
|license=Apache-2.0 License
|platforms=
}}



pdfcpu is a powerful Go library and command line tool that supports many PDF processing functions such as reading and writing the xref table, extracting images, fonts and embedded file attachments and encryption detection as well as decryption.
A full list of the command set is avaiable at:
https://pdfcpu.io/about/command_set

=== Validation ===
pdfcpu validates PDFs up to version 1.7. There are two different levels of validation, strict and relaxed, and the option to run validation in verbose mode which shows the output of the entire PDF syntax.

pdfcpu validate -mode strict this.pdf
validating(mode=strict) this.pdf ...
validation error (try -mode=relaxed): dict=type1FontDict required entry=FirstChar missing

pdfcpu validate -mode relaxed this.pdf
validating(mode=relaxed) this.pdf ...
validation ok

=== Metadata Extraction ===

Extraction of Metadata is possible in two ways. The argument ''info'' prints Information such as title, author, PDF producer, creation / modification data and some technical metadata such as encryption and permission information and whether the PDF is tagged, linearized or includes watermarks.
Sample output:

pdfcpu info this.pdf
PDF version: 1.6
Page count: 96
Page size: 21.00 x 29.70 cm
.........................................
Title: This is just a test
Author: Digiman
Subject:
PDF Producer: Adobe PDF Library 15.0
Content creator: Adobe InDesign CC 207 (Macintosh)
Creation date: D:20190912181416+02'00'
Modification date: D:20190918120753+02'00'
Keywords: key1
key2
..........................................
Tagged: Yes
Hybrid: No
Linearized: No
Using XRef streams: Yes
Using object streams: Yes
Watermarks: No
..........................................
Encrypted: No
Permissions: Full access

The second option is to extract any embedded metadata via the extract -mode meta flags. This creates txt files with the extracted metadata entries in a specified directory.
Sample output:

pdfcpu extract -mode meta this.pdf mdout
extracting metadata from this.pdf into mdout/ ...
writing mdout\this_Metadata_XObject_6499_6500.txt
writing mdout\this_Metadata_unknown_401_33.txt
writing mdout\this_Metadata_XObject_292_289.txt
writing mdout\this_Metadata_Catalog_6455_385.txt
writing mdout\this_Metadata_XObject_291_290.txt
writing mdout\this_Metadata_unknown_6491_6475.txt

== User Experiences ==


== Development Activity ==

pdfcpu has an active user and developer community. All activity can be viewed via the github repo:
[https://github.com/pdfcpu/pdfcpu https://github.com/pdfcpu/pdfcpu]


{{Infobox_tool_details
|releases_rss=
|issues_rss=
|mailing_lists=
|ohloh_id=
}}

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 |homepage=https://pdfcpu.io/
 |license=Apache-2.0 License
-|function=Validation, Metadata Extraction
+|formats_in=PDF
 |content=Document
 }}

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 == User Experiences ==
-<!-- Add hotlinks to user experiences with the tool (eg. blog posts). These should illustrate the effectiveness (or otherwise) of the tool. Use a bullet list. -->
 == Development Activity ==

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-<!-- Use the structure provided in this template, do not change it! -->
+{{Infobox tool
+|image=pdfcpuLogoSmall.png
 |purpose=A Go library and command line tool for PDF processing incl. validation
 |homepage=https://pdfcpu.io/
 |license=Apache-2.0 License
-|platforms=
+|function=Validation, Metadata Extraction
 }}
-<!-- Note that to use the image field, you should leave the value as {{PAGENAMEE}}.png (or similar) and upload a copy of the image. Hot-linking is not supported. If you don't want an image, just remove that line. -->
+{{Infobox tool details}}
 == Description ==
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 <!-- Add the OpenHub.com ID for the tool, if known. -->