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1 QPDF is a command-line program that does structural, content-preserving transformations on PDF files.
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2 It could have been called something like pdf-to-pdf.
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3 It also provides many useful capabilities to developers of PDF-producing software or for people
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4 who just want to look at the innards of a PDF file to learn more about how they work.
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5
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6 QPDF is capable of creating linearized (also known as web-optimized) files and encrypted files.
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7 It is also capable of converting PDF files with object streams (also known as compressed objects)
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8 to files with no compressed objects or to generate object streams from files that don't have them
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9 (or even those that already do).
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10 QPDF also supports a special mode designed to allow you to edit the content of PDF files in a text editor.
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11
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12 QPDF includes support for merging and splitting PDFs through the ability to copy objects from one PDF file
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13 into another and to manipulate the list of pages in a PDF file.
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14 The QPDF library also makes it possible for you to create PDF files from scratch. In this mode,
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15 you are responsible for supplying all the contents of the file, while the QPDF library takes care off all
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16 the syntactical representation of the objects, creation of cross references tables and, if you use them,
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17 object streams, encryption, linearization, and other syntactic details.
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18
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19 QPDF is not a PDF content creation library, a PDF viewer, or a program capable of converting PDF into
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20 other formats. In particular, QPDF knows nothing about the semantics of PDF content streams.
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21 If you are looking for something that can do that, you should look elsewhere.
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22 However, once you have a valid PDF file, QPDF can be used to transform that file in ways perhaps your
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23 original PDF creation can't handle.
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24 For example, programs generate simple PDF files but can't password-protect them, web-optimize them,
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25 or perform other transformations of that type. |