pdfcrop
Version: 2023/04/15 v1.42
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Description
Copyright, Disclaimer, License
Files
Requirements
Installation
User Interface
Restricted Mode
Author
Acknowledgement
Questions, Suggested Improvements
Known Problems
History
ToDo
1. DESCRIPTION
PDFCROP takes a PDF file as input, calculates the BoundingBox for each page by the help of ghostscript and generates a output PDF file with removed margins.
2. COPYRIGHT, DISCLAIMER, LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008-2012 Heiko Oberdiek. 2020-2023 Oberdiek Package Support Group
Project Public License, version 1.3c or later.
3. FILES
The project
pdfcrop
consists of two files:
pdfcrop.pl
: This perl script is the main program. The extension
.pl
may be omitted.
README.md
: Documentation, the file you are reading.
Following temporary files are produced if
pdfcrop
is invoked:
tmp-pdfcrop-*.tex
: input file for pdf
, luatex or xetex
tmp-pdfcrop-*.log
: log file of pdf
, luatex or xetex run
tmp-pdfcrop-*.pdf
: result after pdf
, luatex or xetex run
The temporary files are deleted after the run unless the
--debug
option is used.
4. REQUIREMENTS
Perl5 (version 5 of the perl interpreter)
Ghostscript (>= 8.0 if PDF file contains rotated pages)
pdf
, version >= 1.0 (because of page selecting and pdfximage syntax) or
or Lua
5. INSTALLATION
Normally
pdfcrop
will be installed by the
system.
If a manual installation is needed
1. Perl script
pdfcrop.pl
TDS 1.1 location (TDS means "texmf" tree, see CTAN:tds/tds.pdf):
TDS:scripts/pdfcrop/pdfcrop.pl
and a directory that is part of PATH contains a wrapper script or link with name "pdfcrop".
Unix
It is allowed to rename
pdfcrop.pl
to
pdfcrop
: mv pdfcrop.pl pdfcrop
Ensure that the execute permission is set: chmod +x pdfcrop
Move the file to a directory where the shell can find it (environment variable PATH, e.g. /usr/local/bin/).
Dos/Windows
See requirements. I do not expect that the perl script runs under DOS.
2. Restricted program version
rpdfcrop
Generate links or install
pdfcrop.pl
again under the name
rpdfcrop
Prefer
rpdfcrop
if you want to add pdfcrop to the programs that may be executed in
's restricted shell escape mode. (This feature is added in
Live 2009.) For
Live (since 2009) see entry for
shell_escape_commands
in the configuration file
texmf.cnf
3. Documentation
README.md
Copy it to an appropriate place, for example
/usr/local/share/doc/pdfcrop/README.md
. It is allowed to rename it to
pdfcrop.txt
or
pdfcrop.md
TDS location:
somewhere below texmf/doc/... (?)
Examples:
TDS:doc/support/pdfcrop/README.md
TDS:doc/scripts/pdfcrop/README.md
TDS:doc/scripts/pdfcrop.txt
Live 2020 put it in
TDS:doc/support/pdfcrop/README.md
6. USER INTERFACE
ToDo: User manual
Online help:
pdfcrop --help
Ghostscript's calculation of the bounding box is faster, if
--resolution 72
is used instead of ghostscript's implicite default setting of 4000 DPI (hint from Ionut Georgescu). Of course the calculation with higher resolution settings are more accurate.
7. RESTRICTED MODE
Restricted mode is enabled if:
option
--restricted
is used,
the program is called under the name
rpdfcrop
or the called program name contains
restricted
This mode sets restrictions for the following options:
--pdftexcmd
: if used, the value must be empty or
pdftex
--xetexcmd
: if used, the value must be empty or
xetex
--luatexcmd
: if used, the value must be empty or
luatex
--gscmd
: if used, the value must
be empty or
be one of the standard names (gs, gswin32c, gswin64c, mgs, gs386, gsos2) or
consists of
gs
, followed by a version number and an optional
(Ghostscript's convention for
console version
).
8. AUTHORS
Heiko Oberdiek
Email: heiko.oberdiek at googlemail.com
Oberdiek Package Support Group
9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Anthony Williams
Scott Pakin
Ionut Georgescu
Yves Jäger
R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar
Christian Stapfer
David Menestrina
Karl Berry
10. QUESTIONS, SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS
If you have questions, problems with
pdfcrop
, error reports, if you have improvements or want to have additional features, please send them to the author or add an issue to
My environment for developing and testing:
linux, SuSE 9.0
perl v5.8.1
pdf
3.141592-1.40.x
Ghostscript 8.x
11. KNOWN PROBLEMS
pdfcrop relies on Ghostscript for the calculation of the Bounding Box. If Ghostscript returns wrong values or cannot process the pdf file, it sometimes helps to try another version of Ghostscript.
Older
(and pdf
< 1.10a) does not allow the setting of the PDF version in a direct way. In this cases pdfcrop tries to fix the PDF version afterwards in the PDF header and
warnings as the following can be safely ignored.
** WARNING ** Version of PDF file (1.6) is newer
than version limit specification.
12. HISTORY
Version
Notes
2002/10/30 v1.0:
First release
2002/10/30 v1.1:
Option
--hires
added.
2002/11/04 v1.2:
"nul" instead of "/dev/null" for windows.
2002/11/23 v1.3:
Use of File::Spec module's "devnull" call.
2002/11/29 v1.4:
Option
--papersize
added.
2004/06/24 v1.5:
Clear map file entries so that pdf
does not touch the fonts.
2004/06/26 v1.6:
Use mgs.exe instead of gswin32c.exe for MIKTEX.
2005/03/11 v1.7:
Support of spaces in file names
(open("-
")
is used for ghostscript call).
2008/01/09 v1.8:
Fix for moving the temporary file to the output file across file system boundaries.
2008/04/05 v1.9:
Options
--resolution
and
--bbox
added.
2008/07/16 v1.10:
Support for
added with new options
--pdftex
--xetex
--xetexcmds
2008/07/22 v1.11:
Workaround for
(open("-
")
2008/07/23 v1.12:
Workarounds for the workaround (error detection, ...).
2008/07/24 v1.13:
(open("-
")
/ workaround removed.
Input files with unsafe file names are linked/copied to temporary file with safe file name.
2008/09/12 v1.14:
Error detection for invalid Bounding Boxes.
2009/07/14 v1.15:
Fix for negative coordinates in Bounding Boxes (David Menestrina).
2009/07/17 v1.16:
Security fixes:
-dSAFER
added for Ghostscript,
-no-shell-escape
added for pdf
2009/07/17 v1.17:
Security fixes:
* Backticks and whitespace are forbidden for options
--gs
--pdftexcmd
--xetexcmd
* Validation of options
--papersize
and
--resolution
2009/07/18 v1.18:
* Restricted mode added.
* Option
--version
added.
2009/09/24 v1.19:
* Ghostscript detection rewritten.
* Cygwin:
gs
is preferred to
gswin32c
2009/10/06 v1.20:
* File name sanitizing in .tex file.
2009/12/21 v1.21:
* Option
--ini
added for ini
mode.
* Option
--luatex
and
--luatexcmd
added for Lua
2009/12/29 v1.22:
* Syntax description for option
--bbox
fixed (Lukas Prochazka).
2010/01/09 v1.23:
* Options
--bbox
-odd and –bbox-even added.
2010/08/16 v1.24:
* Workaround added for buggy ghostscript ports that print the BoundingBox data twice.
2010/08/26 v1.25:
* Fix for the case that the PDF file contains an entry /CropBox different to /MediaBox.
* pageinclude implemented for
--clip
does not die, but this option is ignored, because
always clip.
2010/08/26 v1.26:
's
pdffile expects keyword
media
, not
mediabox
* New option
--pdfversion
Default is
auto
that means the PDF version is inherited from the input file. Before pdfcrop has used the
engine's default.
* Option
--luatex
fixed (extra empty page at end).
2010/09/03 v1.27:
* Workaround of v1.24 fixed.
2010/09/06 v1.28:
* The Windows registry is searched if Ghostscript is not found via PATH.
* Windows only: support of spaces in command names in unrestricted mode.
2010/09/06 v1.29:
* Find the latest Ghostscript version in registry.
2010/09/15 v1.30:
* Warning of pdf
because of pdfobjcompresslevel avoided when reducing pdfminorversion.
* Fix for
syntax characters in input file names.
2010/09/17 v1.31:
* Passing the input file name via hex string to
* Again input file names restricted for Ghostscript command line, switch then to symbol link/copy method.
2011/08/10 v1.32:
* Detection for gswin64c.exe added.
2012/02/01 v1.33:
* Input file can be
(standard input).
2012/04/18 v1.34:
* Format of option
--version
changed from naked version number to a line with program name, date and version.
2012/10/15 v1.35:
* Additional debug infos added for Perl version.
2012/10/16 v1.36:
* More error codes added.
2012/10/16 v1.37:
* Extended error messages if available.
* Fix for broken v1.36.
2012/11/02 v1.38:
* Fix for unsufficient cleanup, if function
cleanup
is prematurely called in
eval
for
symlink
checking.
2020/05/24 v1.39:
* adapted to pdfversion 2.0,
* corrected luatex support
* corrected a problem with xetex.
2020/06/06 v1.40:
* improved ghostscript detection on windows when a bash is used
* added direct pdfversion support to xetex.
2023/04/13 v1.41:
* allow gswin64c in restricted mode, fix typos in messages issues 14, 17
* add -q option, issue 7
* don't print whole help msg for unknown options, issue 7.
* do not create two pages with xetex, issue 3
2023/04/15 v1.42:
* update help text issue 18
13. TODO
Description of user interface.
Documentation in other formats, eg. man or info pages.
Improved error checking.
Units support for option
--margins