When search software by the key words “split PDF” in Google, you can find many software available. But when we search by keyword “split PDF and set password” for protection, there is seldom at hand. In order to make up the market gap, VeryPDF developed software named PDF Toolbox Command Line, which can be used to split PDF and set password for the output single pages PDF files. In the following part, I will show you how to operate.
Step 1 Download and Install
- PDF Toolbox Command Line has three versions: Mac, Linux and Windows. It is a great application which can be used to merge, split, encrypt, fill PDF form, edit PDF description information, and optimize PDF. Splitting PDF is just a part of its functions.
- As its names implied, this is command line software. For facilitating uploading and downloading, we have compressed it to zip file. So after downloading, please unzip it to some folder then you can check elements in it.
Step 2. Split PDF and Set Password
- When open the folder, there is a folder named doc where the readme.txt is saved. In the readme.txt, all the parameters and some of the examples are stated.
- In the bin folder, there are some dlls and one executable file named pdftoolbox. When do the conversion, please call this file.
Usage: pdftoolbox <input files> [options] <-outfile output >
Input files:Support all versions of PDF documents.
Related parameters:
-split : split a multi-page PDF file into single-page PDF files.When split PDF, you can add suffix like _%04d to the end of the specified output file name so that numbers like 0001 can be added to the result file names.
-key40bit : set output PDF encryption strength as 40 bits.
-key128bit : set output PDF encryption strength as 128 bits.
-permit <permissions> : permissions are applied to the output PDF only if encryption strength is specified or an owner or user password is given.
printing : allow top quality printing.
lowprinting : allow lower quality printing.
modifycontents : allow modifying contents.
assembly : allow document assembly.
copying : allow copying.
screenreader : allow screen reader.
modifyannot : allow adding annotation.
filling : allow filling interactive PDF form.
allowall : allow all the above permissions and top quality printing.
-ownerpassword: set owner password to output PDF file.
-userpassword: set user password to output PDF file.
- When you need to split PDF and set password, please refer to the following example. The following command line means that you can split input PDF file into single page and set owner password as foopass meanwhile you permit low quality printing and disable other abilities.
pdftoolbox in.pdf -split -ownerpassword foopass -permit lowprinting
Form this example, you can write some command lines like the followings:
pdftoolbox in.pdf -split -ownerpassword foopass –openpassword 123456 -permit lowprinting - When you just need to split multipage PDF file to single page, please refer to the following command lines.
- pdftoolbox in.pdf -split
pdftoolbox in.pdf -split -outfile pg_4202794.pdf
pdftoolbox in.pdf -split -outfile out_%02d.pdf
pdftoolbox in.pdf -split -outfile out_%04d.pdf
Note:When split PDF, you can add suffix like _%04d to the end of the specified output file name so that numbers like 0001 can be added to the result file names. And please make sure that there is no non-English characters showing up in the file path or else the conversion will fail.
During the using, if you have any question, please contact us as soon as possible.