thechandanbhagat/claude-skills/pdf

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Work with PDF files - read, extract text/images/tables, create PDFs, merge, split, and convert PDFs. Use when the user asks to read, create, modify, or analyze PDF documents.

Install

npx vskill@latest install thechandanbhagat/claude-skills/pdf

SKILL.md

PDF Processing Skill

When working with PDF files, follow these guidelines:

1. Reading & Extracting from PDFs

For text extraction:

bash
# Extract all text
pdftotext input.pdf output.txt
 
# Extract specific pages
pdftotext -f 1 -l 10 input.pdf output.txt
 
# Preserve layout
pdftotext -layout input.pdf output.txt

For extracting images:

bash
# Extract all images
pdfimages -all input.pdf output_prefix
 
# Extract as PNG
pdfimages -png input.pdf images/page

For metadata:

bash
# Get PDF info
pdfinfo document.pdf
 
# Get detailed metadata
exiftool document.pdf

2. Creating PDFs

From text/markdown:

bash
# From markdown using pandoc
pandoc input.md -o output.pdf
 
# From text with formatting
enscript input.txt -o - | ps2pdf - output.pdf

From HTML:

bash
# Using wkhtmltopdf
wkhtmltopdf input.html output.pdf
 
# With options
wkhtmltopdf --page-size A4 --margin-top 10mm input.html output.pdf

From images:

bash
# Convert images to PDF
convert image1.png image2.png output.pdf
 
# Multiple images
img2pdf img1.jpg img2.jpg -o output.pdf

3. Merging PDFs

bash
# Merge multiple PDFs (using pdftk)
pdftk file1.pdf file2.pdf file3.pdf cat output merged.pdf
 
# Using ghostscript
gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=merged.pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf
 
# Using pdfunite
pdfunite file1.pdf file2.pdf output.pdf

4. Splitting PDFs

bash
# Split into individual pages
pdftk input.pdf burst output page_%02d.pdf
 
# Extract specific pages
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-5 output first-5-pages.pdf
 
# Extract page ranges
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-10 25-30 output selected.pdf

5. Converting PDFs

PDF to Images:

bash
# To PNG (high quality)
pdftoppm -png -r 300 input.pdf output
 
# To JPG
pdftoppm -jpeg -r 150 input.pdf output
 
# Specific pages
pdftoppm -png -f 1 -l 5 input.pdf output

PDF to DOCX:

bash
# Using libreoffice
libreoffice --headless --convert-to docx input.pdf
 
# Using pandoc
pandoc input.pdf -o output.docx

PDF to Text:

bash
# Simple conversion
pdftotext input.pdf output.txt
 
# Maintain layout
pdftotext -layout input.pdf output.txt

6. PDF Analysis & Information

Get page count:

bash
pdfinfo document.pdf | grep "Pages:" | awk '{print $2}'

Check PDF version:

bash
pdfinfo document.pdf | grep "PDF version"

Analyze structure:

bash
# Get detailed structure
mutool show input.pdf outline
 
# Extract fonts
pdffonts input.pdf

7. PDF Optimization

Compress PDF:

bash
# Using ghostscript (screen quality - smallest)
gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen \
   -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=compressed.pdf input.pdf
 
# Using ghostscript (ebook quality - medium)
gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook \
   -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=compressed.pdf input.pdf

Remove password:

bash
# If you know the password
pdftk secured.pdf input_pw PASSWORD output unsecured.pdf

8. Common Workflows

Extract tables from PDF
bash
# Using tabula-py
tabula-py input.pdf --output-format csv --pages all
 
# Or use pdfplumber for complex tables
Add watermark
bash
pdftk input.pdf stamp watermark.pdf output watermarked.pdf
Rotate pages
bash
# Rotate all pages 90 degrees clockwise
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-endright output rotated.pdf
 
# Rotate specific pages
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-5 6right 7-end output rotated.pdf

Tools Required

Make sure these tools are installed:

  • poppler-utils (pdftotext, pdfinfo, pdftoppm, pdfunite)
  • pdftk or pdftk-java
  • ghostscript (gs)
  • imagemagick (convert)
  • pandoc (for conversions)
  • img2pdf (for image to PDF)
  • exiftool (for metadata)

Install on Ubuntu/Debian:

bash
sudo apt-get install poppler-utils pdftk ghostscript imagemagick pandoc python3-img2pdf exiftool

Security Notes

  • ✅ Always validate PDF file paths before processing
  • ✅ Check file sizes to prevent resource exhaustion
  • ✅ Sanitize output filenames
  • ✅ Be cautious with password-protected PDFs
  • ✅ Scan PDFs for malicious content if from untrusted sources

When to Use This Skill

Use /pdf when the user:

  • Wants to read or extract text from a PDF
  • Needs to create a PDF from other formats
  • Wants to merge or split PDFs
  • Needs to convert PDFs to images or other formats
  • Asks to analyze PDF structure or metadata
  • Wants to compress or optimize PDFs

Always confirm destructive operations before executing.

Security

  • Security scanPassed, 100 of 100Pattern checks on the skill's files.
  • Model reviewPassed

See the full security report

Quality evaluation

  • Task evaluationNot runNo evaluation yet. Run one in Skill Studio.

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Source

Popularity

Repository stars
2
7-day trend score
5

Stars and forks are for the whole GitHub repository, not this skill alone. Refreshed 23 Mar 2026, 7 months ago.

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