Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files

#1

Post by Lucas-C » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 8:36 AM UTC

Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files
chezsoi.org

Re: Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files

#2

Post by 5- » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 9:51 AM UTC

curiously poppler doesn't mention that anywhere on their website, but the library comes with a similar suite of tools, typically available in linux distributions.

i have found them very helpful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppler_(software)#poppler-uti...

Re: Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files

#3

Post by jopsen » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:05 AM UTC

There is also: https://pdfcpu.io/

That said, if you're looking for a GUI app to do simple PDF mutations it's often hard to fine a simple solid open source cross platform app.

At least I haven't found one :)

Re: Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files

#4

Post by roschdal » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:10 AM UTC

https://github.com/LibrePDF/OpenPDF

Re: Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files

#5

Post by mschild » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:22 AM UTC

jopsen wrote: post #3

There is also: https://pdfcpu.io/ That said, if you're looking for a GUI app to do simple PDF mutations it's often hard to fine a simple solid open source cross platform app. At least I haven't found one :)

If self hosting is an option, I've found Signature PDF to be quite good.

https://github.com/24eme/signaturepdf?tab=readme-ov-file#sig...

Re: Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files

#6

Post by thb » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:28 AM UTC

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Re: Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files

#7

Post by blknight » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:31 AM UTC

I’m curious: what good would automating signing a PDF through a utility do?

The whole purpose of a signature is that a person signed and agreed to something. That cannot be done automatically.

Re: Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files

#8

Post by withinboredom » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:34 AM UTC

blknight wrote: post #7

I’m curious: what good would automating signing a PDF through a utility do? The whole purpose of a signature is that a person signed and agreed to something. That cannot be done automatically.

CEOs often need to sign changes to employment terms or options/vesting terms and have hundreds if not thousands of employees. They don't have the time to go through and sign all of those contracts.

Its no different than the analog ages where a secretary would go through and stamp all the contracts with the CEOs signature.

Re: Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files

#9

Post by nashashmi » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:44 AM UTC

withinboredom wrote: post #8

blknight wrote: post #7

I’m curious: what good would automating signing a PDF through a utility do? The whole purpose of a signature is that a person signed and agreed to something. That cannot be done automatically.

CEOs often need to sign changes to employment terms or options/vesting terms and have hundreds if not thousands of employees. They don't have the time to go through and sign all of those contracts. Its no different than the analog ages where a secretary would go through and stamp all the contracts with the CEOs signature.

Those don’t need certified signatures. They just need pdf stamps.

Re: Spotlight on pdfly, the Swiss Army knife for PDF files

#10

Post by phyalow » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:48 AM UTC

jopsen wrote: post #3

There is also: https://pdfcpu.io/ That said, if you're looking for a GUI app to do simple PDF mutations it's often hard to fine a simple solid open source cross platform app. At least I haven't found one :)

I had to bash my head against the wall and submit myself to paying for a creative cloud license. At least acrobat just works. Although I wish there was a reasonable alternative.