PDF Tools
PDF crop tool
Some large size PDF documents, often CAD drawings, or posters, have excessive
white space around the actual image. This occurs when the PDFs were created using
a page (sheet) size that was larger than the actual document. Printing of these PDF
files is very often problematic as the printer also prints the unwanted white space.
PDF Cropper needs GhostScript
to obtain the extents of the imaged area.
Please note that I dropped a couple of less used functions that previous versions offered.
This new version of PDF Cropper (February 2024) offers these features:
- Optionally keep some white space around the image.
- Choose a folder where the output will be sent.
- Optionally write the cropped file using its original name and keep the original file as a backup with "_orig" in its name.
- It is no longer needed to configure PDF Cropper to point to the GhostScript executable (but GS must be installed!).
- Note that it does not crop the white space from raster images
- Drag and drop
You may try this old version of PDF Cropper in case of problems with the new version (handling layers).
Also frequently asked is a Command-line Version
Install & Use
GhostScript and .NET must be available. For the cropper unzip the .EXE file from the downloaded ZIP-archive; place it in a folder and create a shortcut to the executable.
Search strings in PDF and when found extract pages
PDF Search and Extract is meant to extract pages from a PDF. It offers these features:
- Search for a specified string and extract pages that contain that string
- Enter regular expresions (RegEx) for advanced text searching
- Extract pages by page numbers (various options: pagenumber, even, odd, range)
- High speed text search. It takes less than a minute to search and extract pages from the Adobe PDF Reference (~ 1000 pages)
- Handles Greek (and probably other languages)
- Make a copy of the input file, omitting the pages containing the search text ("NOT" function)
Install & Use
To "install": unzip the files from the downloaded ZIP-archive; place them in a folder and create a shortcut to the PdfSearchExtract executable.This tool uses the iTextSharp library (integrated in the tool). The program also uses "pdftotext" from the Xpdf toolbox (www.foolabs.com) to extract plain text from the input PDF. The needed file is included in the ZIP-archive, but please check the foolabs site for the latest updates. .NET must be available on the PC.
Experimenting with iTextSharp from Bruno Lowagie and Paulo Soares, as an exercise I created this simple tool for the most basic imposition needs.
Install & Use
Unzip the EXE from the ZIP-archive to a folder on your computer and create a shortcut to it. This application requires that .NET is installed.To run click on its icon or shortcut). Select the PDF with the button, or drag and drop the file to the form. Select what you want to do - prepare for 2-up printing - prepare for booklet printing or place two equal copies side by side. Then press "Action".
Here [external site] is a "how to" description.
PDF Tiler is meant to print large size (single page!) documents, like drawings and posters, on a small size printer. It offers these features:
- Automatically tile a PDF on multiple pages ("tiles")
- Automatically find the most economic orientation of "tiles"
- Optionally create an overview sheet with tile numbers, helpful for assembling
- Optionally place marks
- Optionally number tiles
- Drag and drop
- A single executable file - no setup needed
Install & Use
To "install": unzip the .EXE file from the downloaded ZIP-archive; place it in a folder and create a shortcut to the executable. This tool uses the iTextSharp library.Note that .NET must be available on the PC.
Here's another PDF tool, made with iTextSharp. The latest version offers these frequently needed features:
- Rotate PDF (steps of 90 degrees)
- Scale with a certain percentage (up or down)
- Scale to fit in a standard paper size
- Scale to fit in a certain width or height
Frequently asked too: Command-line Version
Install & Use
Again, .NET, available on Microsoft's site, is required, but you very probably already have that. To install the tool: unzip the .EXE file from the downloaded ZIP-archive; place it in a folder and create a shortcut to the executable.