PDF Manipulation Agent Skill
Manipulate PDF files including merge, split, extract, redact, convert, and secure workflows.
Install
one command, takes just this skill from the repositorynpx skills add https://github.com/besoeasy/open-skills --skill pdf-manipulationThe instruction itself
24 sections, as written by the authorPDF Manipulation Skill
Merge, split, extract, redact, and transform PDF files using free command-line tools and libraries. Covers common PDF operations for document automation workflows.
When to use
- Merge multiple PDFs into one document
- Split large PDFs into separate files or page ranges
- Extract text, images, or specific pages
- Redact sensitive information
- Add watermarks, passwords, or metadata
- Convert PDFs to images or other formats
Required tools
- pdftk — Swiss Army knife for PDF manipulation (merge, split, rotate, encrypt)
- qpdf — PDF transformation and encryption (linearize, decrypt, repair)
- pdftotext / pdfimages — Part of poppler-utils (extract text and images)
- ghostscript (gs) — Advanced PDF processing, compression, and conversion
Installation
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install pdftk qpdf poppler-utils ghostscript
# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install pdftk-java qpdf poppler ghostscript
# For Node.js: npm i pdf-lib (pure JS, no system deps)
# For Python: pip install PyPDF2 pypdf
Skills
Merge PDFs
# Using pdftk (preserves bookmarks, forms)
pdftk file1.pdf file2.pdf file3.pdf cat output merged.pdf
# Using ghostscript (better compression)
gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=merged.pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf file3.pdf
# Using qpdf (preserves structure)
qpdf --empty --pages file1.pdf file2.pdf file3.pdf -- merged.pdf
Node.js (pdf-lib):
const { PDFDocument } = require('pdf-lib');
const fs = require('fs');
async function mergePDFs(files, output) {
const mergedPdf = await PDFDocument.create();
for (const file of files) {
const pdfBytes = fs.readFileSync(file);
const pdf = await PDFDocument.load(pdfBytes);
const pages = await mergedPdf.copyPages(pdf, pdf.getPageIndices());
pages.forEach(page => mergedPdf.addPage(page));
}
const mergedBytes = await mergedPdf.save();
fs.writeFileSync(output, mergedBytes);
}
// mergePDFs(['file1.pdf', 'file2.pdf'], 'merged.pdf');
Split PDF (by page or range)
# Split every page into separate files
pdftk input.pdf burst output page_%02d.pdf
# Extract specific pages (e.g., pages 1-5 and 10)
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-5 10 output subset.pdf
# Extract page ranges with qpdf
qpdf input.pdf --pages . 1-5 -- output.pdf
# Split every N pages (e.g., every 2 pages)
pdftk input.pdf burst
# then manually combine or script it
Node.js (pdf-lib):
const { PDFDocument } = require('pdf-lib');
const fs = require('fs');
async function extractPages(inputPath, pages, outputPath) {
const pdfBytes = fs.readFileSync(inputPath);
const pdfDoc = await PDFDocument.load(pdfBytes);
const newPdf = await PDFDocument.create();
for (const pageNum of pages) {
const [page] = await newPdf.copyPages(pdfDoc, [pageNum - 1]);
newPdf.addPage(page);
}
const newBytes = await newPdf.save();
fs.writeFileSync(outputPath, newBytes);
}
// extractPages('input.pdf', [1, 3, 5], 'output.pdf');
Extract text
# Extract all text (preserves layout)
pdftotext input.pdf output.txt
# Extract text as raw (no layout)
pdftotext -raw input.pdf output.txt
# Extract specific pages
pdftotext -f 1 -l 5 input.pdf output.txt
# Using qpdf + pdftotext
pdftotext -layout input.pdf -
Node.js (pdf-parse):
const fs = require('fs');
const pdf = require('pdf-parse');
async function extractText(filePath) {
const dataBuffer = fs.readFileSync(filePath);
const data = await pdf(dataBuffer);
return data.text;
}
// extractText('input.pdf').then(console.log);
Extract images
# Extract all images from PDF
pdfimages -all input.pdf output_prefix
# Output: output_prefix-000.png, output_prefix-001.jpg, etc.
# Extract only JPEGs
pdfimages -j input.pdf output_prefix
Redact / Remove pages
# Remove specific pages (e.g., remove pages 2-4)
pdftk input.pdf cat 1 5-end output redacted.pdf
# Keep only specific pages
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-10 20-30 output selected.pdf
Add password protection
# Encrypt PDF with password
pdftk input.pdf output secured.pdf user_pw mypassword
# Remove password
pdftk secured.pdf input_pw mypassword output unlocked.pdf
# Using qpdf (AES-256)
qpdf --encrypt userpass ownerpass 256 -- input.pdf output.pdf
Node.js (pdf-lib):
const { PDFDocument } = require('pdf-lib');
const fs = require('fs');
async function encryptPDF(inputPath, password, outputPath) {
const pdfBytes = fs.readFileSync(inputPath);
const pdfDoc = await PDFDocument.load(pdfBytes);
const encryptedBytes = await pdfDoc.save({
userPassword: password,
ownerPassword: password
});
fs.writeFileSync(outputPath, encryptedBytes);
}
Rotate pages
# Rotate all pages 90 degrees clockwise
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-endright output rotated.pdf
# Rotate specific pages
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-5 6right 7-end output rotated.pdf
# Options: right (90°), left (270°), down (180°)
Compress / Reduce file size
# Using ghostscript (adjust quality)
gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook \
-dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=compressed.pdf input.pdf
# Quality settings:
# /screen - low quality (72 dpi)
# /ebook - medium (150 dpi)
# /printer - high (300 dpi)
# /prepress - highest (300 dpi, preserves color)
# Using qpdf (lossless compression)
qpdf --linearize --object-streams=generate input.pdf compressed.pdf
Convert PDF to images
# Convert each page to PNG (300 DPI)
pdftoppm -png -r 300 input.pdf output_prefix
# Output: output_prefix-1.png, output_prefix-2.png, etc.
# Convert to JPEG
pdftoppm -jpeg -r 150 input.pdf output_prefix
# Using ImageMagick (alternative)
convert -density 300 input.pdf output_%03d.png
Add watermark
# Overlay watermark.pdf on every page
pdftk input.pdf stamp watermark.pdf output watermarked.pdf
# Background watermark (behind content)
pdftk input.pdf background watermark.pdf output watermarked.pdf
# Watermark specific pages only
pdftk input.pdf multistamp watermark.pdf output watermarked.pdf
Get PDF metadata
# Using pdftk
pdftk input.pdf dump_data
# Using qpdf
qpdf --show-object=1 input.pdf
# Using pdfinfo (poppler-utils)
pdfinfo input.pdf
Multi-operation script (Node.js)
const { PDFDocument } = require('pdf-lib');
const fs = require('fs');
class PDFHelper {
static async merge(files, output) {
const merged = await PDFDocument.create();
for (const file of files) {
const pdf = await PDFDocument.load(fs.readFileSync(file));
const pages = await merged.copyPages(pdf, pdf.getPageIndices());
pages.forEach(p => merged.addPage(p));
}
fs.writeFileSync(output, await merged.save());
}
static async split(input, ranges, output) {
const pdf = await PDFDocument.load(fs.readFileSync(input));
const newPdf = await PDFDocument.create();
const pages = await newPdf.copyPages(pdf, ranges);
pages.forEach(p => newPdf.addPage(p));
fs.writeFileSync(output, await newPdf.save());
}
static async info(input) {
const pdf = await PDFDocument.load(fs.readFileSync(input));
return {
pages: pdf.getPageCount(),
title: pdf.getTitle(),
author: pdf.getAuthor(),
creator: pdf.getCreator()
};
}
}
module.exports = PDFHelper;
Agent prompt
You have PDF manipulation skills. When a user requests PDF operations:
1. Detect the operation: merge, split, extract (text/images/pages), redact, compress, encrypt, rotate, watermark, or get info.
2. Use appropriate tools:
- pdftk for merge, split, rotate, encrypt, watermark
- pdftotext/pdfimages for extraction
- ghostscript for compression
- qpdf for repair and advanced operations
3. Always validate input files exist before processing.
4. For scripting, prefer pdf-lib (Node.js) or PyPDF2 (Python) for portability.
5. Return structured output (file paths, metadata, text) in JSON format.
Best practices
- Validate PDFs before processing (use
qpdf --check input.pdf). - Preserve metadata when possible (use pdftk or pdf-lib, avoid ghostscript for simple operations).
- Use appropriate compression — ghostscript
/ebookis a good balance for most cases. - Security — Always remove passwords before processing if user provides them; never log passwords.
- Large files — For 100+ page PDFs, process in chunks or use streaming APIs.
Common workflows
Invoice processing
# 1. Extract text for parsing
pdftotext invoice.pdf invoice.txt
# 2. Extract first page only (summary)
pdftk invoice.pdf cat 1 output summary.pdf
# 3. Compress for archival
gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q \
-sOutputFile=invoice_compressed.pdf invoice.pdf
Batch processing
# Merge all PDFs in a directory
pdftk *.pdf cat output combined.pdf
# Split each PDF in directory into individual pages
for f in *.pdf; do
pdftk "$f" burst output "${f%.pdf}_page_%02d.pdf"
done
# Extract text from all PDFs
for f in *.pdf; do
pdftotext "$f" "${f%.pdf}.txt"
done
Troubleshooting
- Corrupted PDF: Use
qpdf --checkthenqpdf input.pdf --replace-inputto repair. - Encrypted PDF: Remove password first with
qpdf --decrypt --password=PASS input.pdf output.pdf. - Large file size: Use ghostscript compression or remove embedded fonts/images if not needed.
- Missing fonts: Install
fonts-liberationormsttcorefontspackages.
See also
- anonymous-file-upload.md — Upload processed PDFs anonymously.
- using-web-scraping.md — Scrape web pages and convert to PDF.
Other skills for the same job
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How to use it
Take besoeasy/pdf-manipulation from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.
The instructions reference pip, npm, brew, apt.
Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.