PDFTK Builder

PC Apps
September 10, 2009 0

http://www.angusj.com/pdftkb/ (It’s the last program on the list of three PDF-related tools.)

PDFTK Builder

Compatible platforms: Win2k, XP, Vista, 7

Version highlighted in this post: 3.6

Portable version: Available at http://portableapps.com/apps/office/pdftk_builder_portable

PDFTK is a utility that allows users to manipulate PDF files in all kinds of clever ways. Unfortunately, it’s a command-line tool that’s just not user-friendly enough for most people. Fortunately, that’s where PDFTK Builder comes in. It takes the command-line tool and straps a graphical front-end on it, making it nice and easy for just about anybody to use.

PDFTK screenshot

As you can see from the screenshot, there are four things PDFTK Builder specializes in:

Collate–Allows you to combine, reorder, and remove pages of two or more PDFs. Once you have this function, you’ll probably be surprised just how often it comes in handy

Split–Lets you take a single PDF and break it up however you want

Background/Stamp–Background works a lot like a watermark. The only tricky thing is that the background image you’re using also has to be a PDF file. Once you do the background operation, it’ll place that image on every page in the target document. The stamp operation works similarly, but instead of being in the background (like a watermark), it places the image on top of whatever is already on each page of the target PDF.

Rotate–Lets you rotate one or a range of pages so whenever the PDF is pulled up in a viewer, its pages will be in the right aspect.

One other function that PDFTK gives you that Acrobat is able to do, but can’t be found in all freeware PDF creation software is the ability to password protect any PDF file. It’s not something most users will use daily, but it’s nice to have when you need it.

If you work with PDFs pretty regularly, PDFTK should be in your toolbox, without a doubt. Even if you own a copy of Acrobat Pro, PDFTK’s ability to do some advanced functionality with incredible ease makes it one most indispensable pieces of open source software out there.

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