How to use the command pdfjoin (with examples)
PDFjoin is a PDF merging utility based on pdfjam. It allows users to merge multiple PDF files into one, rearrange pages, and save the output to a new file. The command provides a lot of flexibility for combining and manipulating PDF documents.
Use case 1: Merge two PDFs into one with the default suffix “joined”
Code:
pdfjoin path/to/file1.pdf path/to/file2.pdf
Motivation: This example is useful when you need to combine multiple PDF files into a single document.
Explanation: The path/to/file1.pdf and path/to/file2.pdf arguments represent the paths to the PDF files you want to merge. The command will merge these files together and create a new PDF with the default suffix “joined”.
Example Output: A new PDF file named output-joined.pdf will be created in the current directory, containing the combined contents of file1.pdf and file2.pdf.
Use case 2: Merge the first page of each given file together
Code:
pdfjoin path/to/file1.pdf path/to/file2.pdf ... 1 --outfile output_file
Motivation: This example is useful when you want to extract specific pages from multiple PDF files and merge them into a new document.
Explanation: The 1 argument indicates that only the first page of each file should be merged together. The --outfile flag is used to specify the name of the output file.
Example Output: A new PDF file named output_file will be created in the current directory, containing the first page from each specified PDF file.
Use case 3: Save pages 3 to 5 followed by page 1 to a new PDF with custom suffix
Code:
pdfjoin path/to/file.pdf 3-5,1 --suffix rearranged
Motivation: This example is useful when you need to rearrange the pages of a single PDF document and save them as a new file.
Explanation: The 3-5,1 argument specifies the page ranges to be included in the output file. In this case, it includes pages 3 to 5 followed by page 1. The --suffix flag is used to specify a custom suffix for the output file.
Example Output: A new PDF file named file-rearranged.pdf will be created in the current directory, containing pages 3 to 5 followed by page 1 from the original PDF.
Use case 4: Merge page subranges from two PDFs
Code:
pdfjoin /path/to/file1.pdf 2- /path/to/file2.pdf last-3 --outfile output_file
Motivation: This example is useful when you need to extract specific page ranges from two different PDF files and combine them into a new document.
Explanation: The /path/to/file1.pdf and /path/to/file2.pdf arguments represent the paths to the PDF files you want to merge. The 2- argument specifies that all pages starting from page 2 of file1.pdf should be included. The last-3 argument specifies that the last 3 pages of file2.pdf should be included. The --outfile flag is used to specify the name of the output file.
Example Output: A new PDF file named output_file will be created in the current directory, containing all pages starting from page 2 of file1.pdf followed by the last 3 pages of file2.pdf.
