pdfcpu — PDF Processing Toolkit for Go and the Command Line

Introduction

pdfcpu is a pure Go library and command-line tool for processing PDF files. It covers the full spectrum of common PDF operations without relying on external tools like Ghostscript or Poppler.

What pdfcpu Does

• Merges, splits, rotates, and reorders PDF pages
• Adds text and image watermarks or stamps to pages
• Encrypts and decrypts PDFs with AES-256 or RC4
• Validates PDF files against the PDF specification
• Optimizes file size by removing redundant objects and compressing streams

Architecture Overview

pdfcpu is written entirely in Go with no CGo dependencies. It implements a PDF parser and writer that handles the full PDF object model including cross-reference tables, object streams, and incremental updates. The CLI wraps the library API and supports batch operations across multiple files.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Install via go install or download prebuilt binaries from GitHub Releases
• Available in Homebrew, AUR, and Docker Hub
• No configuration file required; all options are passed via CLI flags
• The Go library can be imported directly into Go projects
• Supports stdin/stdout piping for integration into shell pipelines

Key Features

• Pure Go implementation with zero external dependencies
• Full PDF spec compliance including PDF 2.0 support
• Batch processing support for operating on multiple files at once
• Page-level operations: extract, insert, remove, rotate individual pages
• Form filling and flattening for automated document workflows

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Ghostscript — C-based and heavyweight; pdfcpu is a single Go binary with no system dependencies
• qpdf — C++ PDF transformation tool; pdfcpu offers a similar feature set in pure Go
• PyPDF — Python library; pdfcpu is faster and works as both a CLI and Go library
• pdftk — Java-based PDF toolkit; pdfcpu has no JVM requirement and is easier to deploy
• Stirling PDF — web-based PDF suite; pdfcpu is a CLI/library for automation and scripting

FAQ

Q: Does pdfcpu support password-protected PDFs? A: Yes. It can encrypt and decrypt PDFs using AES-128, AES-256, or RC4 encryption.

Q: Can I use pdfcpu as a Go library? A: Yes. The library API mirrors the CLI functionality and is well-documented.

Q: Does it handle scanned PDFs or OCR? A: No. pdfcpu works with the PDF structure, not image content. Use a separate OCR tool first.

Q: Is PDF 2.0 supported? A: Yes. pdfcpu supports reading and writing PDF 2.0 compliant files.

Sources

• https://github.com/pdfcpu/pdfcpu
• https://pdfcpu.io/