In the next article we are going to take a look at the Qpdf tools. If you are one of the users who works with PDF files on a regular basis in Ubuntu, you will find that this is a tool very useful, especially for those looking for few complications when managing and working with PDF documents. Qpdf Tools will allow us to easily perform tasks such as compressing, dividing, merging and even rotating our documents in this format.
This is a free and open source software. Its user interface is based on Qt and is easy to use with Ghostscript y Forklift, including the ability to compress, split, merge and rotate our PDF documents.
In its simple user interface, we will find the main window, which is simple and works with just 4 buttons. In it, we will only need to click on the action that we are interested in using with the PDF documents.
Then there is nothing but select the PDF file along with some options to configure, depending on the option selected in the main menu. To finish it is only necessary to click on the button that will appear in each of the possible options to start processing the selected files.
Options available in QPDF
- With the option 'Compress to PDF file', the resolution will be changed for printing, e-books, or optimized display. This option will also reduce the size of the file, depending on the option we choose.
- In the option 'Merge PDF files'the tool will allow us to add several PDF files, organize them and convert them into a single file.
- The option 'Split to PDF file'allows you to extract all pages from the PDF or extract a user-defined page range.
- 'Rotate to PDF file'will allow us to rotate to the left or right. It also includes a live preview of the rotated file.
Install the QPDF tool on Ubuntu
From your PPA
Ubuntu users can install this tool by opening a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and executing the following command in it to add the required repository:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:silash35/qpdftools
Right after it will be necessary update cache of available packages from the repositories. This should be done automatically as of Ubuntu 20.04. After the update we can install the tool with the command:
sudo apt install qpdftools
Once the installation is complete, we can find the program launcher on our computer and start working.
Using your .deb file
If for some reason the above installation option does not work, we can also install the latest available .deb package (Today its version is 1.6.1) for download from releases page From this project.
This version, we can also download it by opening a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and using wget as follows:
wget https://github.com/silash35/qpdftools/releases/download/v1.6/qpdftools_1.6-1_amd64.deb
Once the download is finished, we can install this package with the command:
sudo dpkg -i qpdftools_1.6-1_amd64.deb
uninstall
If you have installed this program using the PPA proposed above, this can be removed by running in a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) the command:
sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:silash35/qpdftools
You could also delete the repository by going to 'Software and updates'→'Other software', and in the window that appears on the screen, it will only be necessary to find and delete the corresponding line.
As for the program, it can be removed from our team executing in a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) the command:
sudo apt remove --purge qpdftools
I have to say that the program seems to get stuck for a few seconds when clicking the button 'Save'in the file export dialog. But while I was testing it, it always returned to working correctly after those seconds.
At Lóleo Eventos, GitHub page of the project, its creator welcomes all those who want to contribute to the development of this tool, and indicates how any user who wants to can help.
To know more about this set of tools, users can take a look at the website of its creator, or go to the Project Wiki, in which we can also obtain more information.