NAME
pdflink - insert document links in PDF
SYNOPSIS
pdflink [options] pdf-file [csv-file]
pdflink [options] --targets=file1;file2 pdf-file [pdf-file ...]
Inserts document links in PDF
Options:
--output=XXX name of the new PDF (default __new__.pdf)
--embed embed the data files instead of linking
--attach attach the data files instead of linking
--xpos=NN X-position for links
--ypos=NN Y-position for links relative to top
--iconsize=NN size of the icons, default 50
--icons=type=XXX add icon image XXX for this type
--padding=NN padding between icons, default 0
--vertical stacks icons vertically
--border draws a border around the links
--gfunder draws the images behind the page
--targets=XXX specifies the target(s) to link to
--ident shows identification
--help shows a brief help message and exits
--man shows full documentation and exits
--verbose provides more verbose information
DESCRIPTION
When invoked without a --targets option, this program will process the PDF document using the associated CSV as table of contents.
For every item in the PDF that has one or more additional files (files with the same name as the title, but differing extensions), clickable icons are added to the first page of the item. When clicked in a suitable PDF viewing tool, the corrresponding file will be activated.
For example, if the CSV contains
title;pages;
Blue Moon;24;
And the following files are present in the current directory
Blue Moon.html
Blue Moon.mscz
Then two clickable icons will be added to page 24 of the document, leading to these two files.
Upon completion, the updated PDF is written out under the specified name.
When invoked with the --targets option, all specified PDF files get links inserted to the targets on the first page. If there is only one PDF file you can use the --pdf option to designate the name of the new PDF document, otherwise all PDF files are updated (rewritten.
OPTIONS
Note that all sizes and dimensions are in points (72 points per inch).
- --pdf=XXX
-
Specifies the updated PDF to be written.
- --embed
-
Normally links are inserted into the PDF document that point to files on disk. To use the links from the PDF document, the target files must exist on disk.
With --embed, the target files are embedded (as file attachments) to the PDF document. The resultant PDF document will be usable on its own, no other files needed.
- --attach
-
This is similar to --embed, but the files are attached to the PDF document and no icons are placed on the pages.
- --all
-
Normally, only files with known types (extensions) are taken into account. Currently, these are
html
for iRealPro,mscz
for MuseScore,sib
for Sibelius,mxl
andmusicxml
for MusicXML,abc
for ABC andXML
for generic XML documents.With --all, all files that have matching names will be processed. However, files with unknown extensions will get a neutral document icon.
- --xpos=NN
-
Horizontal position of the icons.
If the value is positive, icon placement starts relative to the left side of the page.
If the value is negative, icon placement starts relative to the right side of the page.
Default is 0 (zero); icon placement begins against the left side of the page.
Icons are always placed from the outside of the page towards the inner side.
An xpos value may also be specified in the CSV file, in a column with title
xpos
. If present, this value is added to position resulting from the command line / default values. - --ypos=NN
-
If the value is positive, icon placement starts relative to the top of the page.
If the value is negative, icon placement starts relative to the bottom of the page.
Default is 0 (zero); icon placement begins against the top of the page.
Icons are always placed from the outside of the page towards the inner side.
An ypos offset value may also be specified in the CSV file, in a column with title
ypos
. If present, this value is added to position resulting from the command line / default values. This is especially useful if there are songs in the PDF that do not start at the top of the page, e.g., when there are multiple songs on a single page. - --iconsize=NN
-
Desired size of the link icons. Default is 50.
- --padding=NN
-
Space between icons. Default is to place the icons adjacent to each other.
- --vertical
-
Stacks the icons vertically.
- --border
-
Requests a border to be drawn around the links.
Borders are always drawn for links without icons.
- --gfunder
-
Drawing the icon images uses the page transformations in effect at the end of the page. If these were not neatly restored, the graphics may be misplaced/scaled/flipped.
By using --gfunder, the images are placed behind the page but this only works for transparent pages.
This option is only relevant when adding links to external files. With --embed the problem does not occur.
- --targets=FILE1 [ ; FILE2 ... ]
-
Explicitly specifies the target files to link to. In this case no CSV is processed and the input PDF(s) are updated (rewritten) unless --pdf is used to designate the output PDF name.
- --help
-
Prints a brief help message and exits.
- --man
-
Prints the manual page and exits.
- --ident
-
Prints program identification.
- --version
-
Prints program identification and exits.
- --verbose
-
Provides more verbose information.
- directory
-
The directory to process. Defaults to the current directory.
ICONS
pdflink has a number of icons built-in for common file types. Associations between a filename extension and an icon can be made with the --icons command line option.
For example,
--icons=pdf=builtin:PDF
This will associate the built-in icon PDF with filename extension pdf
.
Alternatively, an image file may be specified to add user defined icons.
--icons=pdf=builtin:myicons/pdficon.png
The following icons are built-in. By default, only MuseScore and iRealPro icons are associated and all other filename extensions will be skipped. When pdflink is run with command line option --all, all built-in icons will be associated and all matching files will get linked.
-
Associated to filename extension
pdf
(generic PDF document). - PNG
-
Associated to filename extension
png
(PNG image). - JPG
-
Associated to filename extensions
jpg
andjpeg
(JPG image). - MuseScore
-
Associated to filename extension
mscz
(MuseScore document). - iRealPro
-
Associated to filename extension
html
(iRealPro link in HTML document).While technically this is wrong, this is the way iRealPro data is handled on Android and iPad.
- BandInABox
-
Associated to filename extensions
mgu
,mg1
and so on (Band-In-A-Box document). - MXL
-
Associated with filename extension
xml
andmusicxml
(MusicXML). - XML
-
Associated with filename extension
xml
(generic XML document). - Document
-
Fallback icon for unknown filename extensions.
- Border
-
Alternative fallback icon for unknown filename extensions.
LIMITATIONS
Some PDF files cannot be processed. If this happens, try converting the PDF to PDF-1.4 or PDF/A.
Files with extension html are assumed to be iRealPro files and will get the iRealPro icon.
Unknown extensions will get an empty square box instead of an icon.
Since colon :
and slash /
are not allowed in file names, they are replaced with @
characters.
If the icons come out at the wrong place or upside down, try --gfunder.
AUTHOR
Johan Vromans <jvromans@squirrel.nl>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2016,2020 Johan Vromans. All rights reserved.
This module is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
AUTHOR
Johan Vromans <jv at CPAN dot org >
SUPPORT
PDFlink development is hosted on GitHub, repository https://github.com/sciurius/pdflink.
Please report any bugs or feature requests to the GitHub issue tracker, https://github.com/sciurius/pdflink/issues.