pdfio - PDF Read/Write Library

pdfio is a simple C library for reading and writing PDF files. The primary goals of pdfio are:

• Read any PDF file with or without encryption or linearization
• Write PDF files without encryption or linearization
• Extract or embed useful metadata (author, creator, page information, etc.)
• "Filter" PDF files, for example to extract a range of pages or to embed fonts that are missing from a PDF
• Provide access to objects used for each page

pdfio is not concerned with rendering or viewing a PDF file, although a PDF RIP or viewer could be written using it.

Installing pdfio

pdfio comes with a portable makefile that will work on any POSIX-compliant system with zlib installed. To make it, run:

make all

To test it, run:

make test

To install it, run:

make install

If you want a shared library, run:

make all-shared
make install-shared

The default installation location is "/usr/local". Pass the prefix variable to make to install it to another location:

make install prefix=/some/other/directory

The makefile installs the pdfio header to "${prefix}/include", the library to "${prefix}/lib", the pkg-config file to "${prefix}/lib/pkgconfig", the man page to "${prefix}/share/man/man3", and the documentation to "${prefix}/share/doc/pdfio".

The makefile supports the following variables that can be specified in the make command or as environment variables:

• AR: the library archiver (default "ar")
• ARFLAGS: options for the library archiver (default "cr")
• CC: the C compiler (default "cc")
• CFLAGS: options for the C compiler (default "")
• CODESIGN_IDENTITY: the identity to use when code signing the shared library on macOS (default "Developer ID")
• COMMONFLAGS: options for the C compiler and linker (typically architecture and optimization options, default is "-Os -g")
• CPPFLAGS: options for the C preprocessor (default "")
• DESTDIR" and "DSTROOT: specifies a root directory when installing (default is "", specify only one)
• DSOFLAGS: options for the C compiler when linking the shared library (default "")
• LDFLAGS: options for the C compiler when linking the test programs (default "")
• LIBS: library options when linking the test programs (default "-lz")
• RANLIB: program that generates a table-of-contents in a library (default "ranlib")
• prefix: specifies the installation directory (default "/usr/local")

Legal Stuff

pdfio is Copyright © 2021 by Michael R Sweet.

This software is licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0 with an (optional) exception to allow linking against GPL2/LGPL2 software. See the files "LICENSE" and "NOTICE" for more information.