Automate on the command line: page size, pages per sheet and printing certain pages

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If you do PDF work in scripts or batch files, version 11.34.0 lets you do more without clicking.

Change the page size and pages per sheet: The DocTool has the new commands -changePageSize (with -pageSize, for example A4, letter or 210x297mm, and -orientation) and -nup (with -pagesPerSheet, -paperSize, -borders and more). They give the same result as the Toolbox tools and work with -silent, -outputDir and -outputFile. Two examples from the manual:

"C:\Program Files\PDF24\pdf24-DocTool.exe" -changePageSize -pageSize A4 -silent -outputDir "C:\Out" "C:\In\*.pdf"
"C:\Program Files\PDF24\pdf24-DocTool.exe" -nup -pagesPerSheet 4 -paperSize A3 -borders -silent -outputFile "C:\Out\handout.pdf" "C:\In\slides.pdf"

Print certain pages: PDF24 Reader prints only certain pages with /print or /printTo together with /pages, for example /pages 1-2, /pages 3- (to the end) or /pages 1,4,6-8. This way the first two pages can go to a printer with letterhead and the rest to another one:

"C:\Program Files\PDF24\pdf24-Reader.exe" /printTo "Printer with letterhead" /pages 1-2 "C:\Docs\letter.pdf"
"C:\Program Files\PDF24\pdf24-Reader.exe" /printTo "Office Printer" /pages 3- "C:\Docs\letter.pdf"

More news in the DocTool:

  • pdf24-DocTool.exe -help (also /? or without arguments) shows a short overview of the commands, options and exit codes.
  • -outputDir and -outputFile understand date, time and environment variables, for example -outputDir "D:\Archive\%Y-%m" for one folder per month. Missing folders are created.
  • -extractAttachments -nameAfterPdf names the attachments like the PDF: invoice1.pdf becomes invoice1.xml, handy for the XML data of many e-invoices.
  • -password also applies without -silent: the DocTool tries the password first and only asks if it does not fit.

All commands and options are in the manual: change the page size, pages per sheet and PDF24 Reader.