REWRITEPDF(1p)

💖 REWRITEPDF(1p) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to rewritepdf from the User Contributed Perl Documentation corner of the world 🫶 this is a little Perl script that lives in the CAM::PDF universe and it is literally here to rebuild your PDF files. no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

rewritepdf — rebuild a PDF file. that's it. that's the whole job. 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

here's the vibe, verbatim, don't touch it:

 rewritepdf [options] infile.pdf [outfile.pdf] [password(s)]\n";

and the options, in all their glory:

  -c --cleanse        seek and destroy unreferenced metadata in the document
  -C --clearannots    remove all annotations (including forms)
  -d --decode         uncompress any encoded elements
  -f --filter=name    compress all elements with this filter (can use more than once)
  -X --decrypt        remove encryption from the document
  -o --order          preserve the internal PDF ordering for output
  -v --verbose        print diagnostic messages
  -h --help           verbose help message
  -V --version        print CAM::PDF version

  -p --pass opass upass              set a new owner and user password
  -P --prefs print modify copy add   set boolean permissions for the document

okay and now the same energy, but explained, because i love you:

• -c, --cleanse — go on a little hunt 🕵️‍♀️ and destroy any unreferenced metadata chillin' in the document
• -C, --clearannots — yeet every single annotation out, forms included, gone, bye 👋
• -d, --decode — uncompress anything that's encoded
• -f, --filter=name — compress all the elements using this filter (and yes you can use this more than once, go off)
• -X, --decrypt — strip the encryption off the document
• -o, --order — keep the internal PDF ordering for the output, don't mess with it
• -v, --verbose — spill the diagnostic messages, we love a chatty king
• -h, --help — the verbose help message
• -V, --version — prints the CAM::PDF version
• -p, --pass opass upass — set a brand new owner password and user password
• -P, --prefs print modify copy add — set boolean permissions for the document

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🔐 the password tea 🔐

so the optional password arguments? yeah, those are for opening PDFs that are password-protected. she's locked, bestie, you need the key 🔑

here's an example of password-protecting a file and then unprotecting it, in sequence:

  rewritepdf --pass SecretPass SecretPass orig.pdf passworded.pdf
  rewritepdf --decrypt passworded.pdf unprotected.pdf SecretPass

now… if you want to stop people from being able to do that second step, you gotta tighten your permissions:

  rewritepdf -p Secret Secret -P 1 0 0 0 orig.pdf passworded.pdf

which means users can print the passworded PDF, but they can't change it, can't copy-and-paste from it, and can't append to it. boundaries, periodt. 🚫

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

it reads a PDF document, writes a PDF document, and maybe, just maybe, modifies it along the way. lowkey iconic.

⚠️ the --cleanse option could possibly break some PDFs that use undocumented or poorly documented PDF features. like, specifically: some PDFs implicitly store their FontDescriptor objects just before their Font objects, without ever explicitly referring to the former. cleansing removes the former, and then Acrobat Reader chokes. 😭 not the vibe.

and listen — we recommend that you avoid the --decode and --filter options, because we're not sure they work right any longer. fr fr. 🙈

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

CAM::PDF

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

See CAM::PDF

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okay that's the whole thing, you're a PDF rewriting legend now 👑

this was perl v5.36.0, dated 2022-12-08, and that's REWRITEPDF(1p) signing off 🎀✨