PDF UtilitiesMany people think of PDFs as frozen files, which cannot be modified. But this is not true, as there exist excellent tools
for manipulations and rearrangements of pages
to read and update document info
to read, set or change some permissions
of an existing PDF document.
Kile's PDF wizard under → uses two different methods to manipulate and rearrange PDF documents:
LATEX package pdfpages, which is part of each LATEX distribution. pdfpages doesn't work with encrypted pages.
pdftk, which is an excellent command-line tool for doing everyday things with PDF documents (see The PDF Toolkit).
If one of these helpers, pdfpages or pdftk, is not present in your system, the corresponding items will not be visible. Furthermore, remember that only pdftk can work with encrypted files.
If Kile's PDF wizard is called, it starts with the Rearrangements register card.
First choose your input file. If Kile finds a PDF file corresponding to your current master document, it will already be filled in as input file, but you are also free to choose another file. Then choose an output file or overwrite the existing PDF file, and select one of the tasks. Finally, you have to decide whether you want to do the conversion only, or also invoke the viewer (e.g. Okular) to show the resulting document.
If the PDF file is encrypted, only pdftk will work and you have to set the password of this document to execute tasks.
- 1 page + empty page --> A4
Combine one page together with an empty page on one A4 page. Whenever two A5 pages are combined together, they are rotated by 90 degrees and will be arranged on an A4 page in landscape mode.
Whenever two A4 pages are combined together, they are scaled, rotated by 90 degrees and will be arranged on an A4 page in landscape mode.
- 1 page + duplicate --> A4
Put one page and a duplicate together on one A4 page.
If the page to be duplicated has A4 size, it will scaled to fit on the page.
- 2 pages --> A4
Combine two consecutive pages together on one A4 page. Whenever two A5 pages are combined together, they are rotated by 90 degrees and will be arranged on an A4 page in landscape mode.
Whenever two A4 pages are combined together, they are scaled, rotated by 90 degrees and will be arranged on an A4 page in landscape mode.
- 2 pages (landscape) --> A4
Put two consecutive pages in landscape mode together on one A4 page.
- 4 pages --> A4
Combine four consecutive pages together on one A4 page. The pages have to be scaled to fit on the page.
- 4 pages (landscape) --> A4
Combine four consecutive pages in landscape mode together on one A4 page. The pages have to be scaled to fit on the page.
- select even pages
Select all even pages of a document.
- select odd pages
Select all odd pages of a document.
- select even pages (reverse order)
Select all even pages of a document and reverse the order.
- select odd pages (reverse order)
Select all even pages of a document and reverse the order.
- reverse all pages
Reverse all pages of a document.
- decrypt a file
If the PDF file is encrypted, you can decrypt this file.
- select pages
Add a comma separated list of pages or page ranges, e.g. 1,4-7,9. Only these pages will appear in the resulting PDF file.
- delete pages
Add a comma separated list of pages or page ranges, which should be removed from the chosen PDF file.
- apply a background watermark
Applies a PDF watermark to the background of a single input PDF. The wizard only uses the first page from the background PDF and applies it to every page of the input PDF. This page is scaled and rotated as needed to fit the input page.
- apply a background color
Applies a background color to all pages of the current document. This can only be done once, as the second color will be put behind the first color and will not be visible then.
- apply a foreground stamp
Applies a foreground stamp on top of the input PDF document's pages. The wizard uses only the first page from the stamp PDF and applies it to every page of the input PDF. This page is scaled and rotated as needed to fit the input page. This works best if the stamp PDF page has a transparent background.
- pdftk: choose parameter
You can invoke pdftk with an option of your choice. Please read the manual for all possible options.
- pdfpages: choose parameter
You can invoke pdfpages with an option of your choice. Please read the manual for all possible options.
Setting, changing and removing of properties will only be possible, if pdftk is installed and if additionally Kile was compiled with the libpoppler library.
Traditional PDF metadata includes document's title, author, subject, keywords, creator, producer and the dates of creation and last modification.
Also, setting, changing and removing of permissions will be only possible, if pdftk is installed.
A password is necessary to set or change these document settings. Additionally, PDF encryption is done to lock the file's content behind this password or to enforce lighter restrictions imposed by the author. So the author can allow or restrict to
print pages
modify pages
copy text and graphics from pages
change or add annotations
fill form fields with data
Changing permissions always forces encryption associated with 128-bit security of Acrobat 5 and 6 and also needs a password.
But always remember: encryption and a password do not provide any real PDF security. The content is encrypted, but the key is known. You should see it more as a polite but firm request to respect the author's wishes.