snippetbashTip

cpdf — Manipulate PDF files. More information: <https://www.coherentpdf.com/cpdfmanual/cpdfmanual.html>.

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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Problem

How to use the cpdf command: Manipulate PDF files. More information: <https://www.coherentpdf.com/cpdfmanual/cpdfmanual.html>.

Solution

cpdf — Manipulate PDF files. More information: <https://www.coherentpdf.com/cpdfmanual/cpdfmanual.html>.

Select pages 1, 2, 3, and 6 from a source document and write those to a destination document:

cpdf {{path/to/source_document.pdf}} {{1-3,6}} -o {{path/to/destination_document.pdf}}

Merge two documents into a new one:

cpdf -merge {{path/to/source_document_one.pdf}} {{path/to/source_document_two.pdf}} -o {{path/to/destination_document.pdf}}

Show the bookmarks of a document:

cpdf -list-bookmarks {{path/to/document.pdf}}

Split a document into ten-page chunks, writing them to chunk001.pdf, chunk002.pdf, etc:

cpdf -split {{path/to/document.pdf}} -o {{path/to/chunk%%%.pdf}} -chunk {{10}}

Encrypt a document using 128bit encryption, providing fred as owner password and joe as user password:

cpdf -encrypt {{128bit}} {{fred}} {{joe}} {{path/to/source_document.pdf}} -o {{path/to/encrypted_document.pdf}}

Decrypt a document using the owner password fred:

cpdf -decrypt {{path/to/encrypted_document.pdf}} owner={{fred}} -o {{path/to/decrypted_document.pdf}}

Show the annotations of a document:

cpdf -list-annotations {{path/to/document.pdf}}

Create a new document from an existing one with additional metadata:

cpdf -set-metadata {{path/to/metadata.xml}} {{path/to/source_document.pdf}} -o {{path/to/destination_document.pdf}}

Code Snippets

Select pages 1, 2, 3, and 6 from a source document and write those to a destination document

cpdf {{path/to/source_document.pdf}} {{1-3,6}} -o {{path/to/destination_document.pdf}}

Merge two documents into a new one

cpdf -merge {{path/to/source_document_one.pdf}} {{path/to/source_document_two.pdf}} -o {{path/to/destination_document.pdf}}

Show the bookmarks of a document

cpdf -list-bookmarks {{path/to/document.pdf}}

Split a document into ten-page chunks, writing them to `chunk001.pdf`, `chunk002.pdf`, etc

cpdf -split {{path/to/document.pdf}} -o {{path/to/chunk%%%.pdf}} -chunk {{10}}

Encrypt a document using 128bit encryption, providing `fred` as owner password and `joe` as user password

cpdf -encrypt {{128bit}} {{fred}} {{joe}} {{path/to/source_document.pdf}} -o {{path/to/encrypted_document.pdf}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/cpdf

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