PDF

Problem

I have unprotected

1. input1.pdf
2. input2.pdf

and I want to create one single encrypted.pdf.

My try

I looked up QPDF’s manual and tried the following command.

qpdf --empty --pages input{1,2}.pdf --encrypt upw opw 256 -- encrypted.pdf

but I got this error.

qpdf: unrecognized argument --encrypt (pages options must be terminated with --)

For help:
  qpdf --help=usage       usage information
  qpdf --help=topic       help on a topic
  qpdf --help=--option    help on an option
  qpdf --help             general help and a topic list

Solution

The sentence inside the parentheses says it all.

Background

On M$ Win*, I don’t have dedicated PDF readers like Adobe.

During visioconference, one might want to share some downloaded PDFs. Those documents can be part of an ebook or notes. In some situations, they can provide context to a discussion.

Problem

1. Under the same folder, you might have

• downloaded_ebook.pdf
• personal_info.pdf
• other_personal_stuff.pdf that you don’t want to expose while streaming.

However, each downloaded PDF usually comes with a name set by others. It can be tedious to rename them according to your own habits. To protect users’ privacy, we can

Background

My churches are going green.

Problem

→ I downloaded a PDF from Haute-Garonne’s government site, filled in the form and saved it on a USB key. Then I printed it at a Konica Minolta bizhub photocopier yesterday.

pdfunite is fairly easy to use.

pdfunite PDF-sourcefile1..PDF-sourcefilen PDF-destfile

Another way is to use QPDF. I’ve learnt to add --empty from @qpdf/qpdf:#12.

qpdf --empty --pages *.pdf -- out.pdf