Convert dvi-file to a4-sized pdf-file

Convert a TeX DVI-file to a4-sized pdf-file using ghostscript and dvips

dvipdf -sPAPERSIZE=a4 file.dvi file.pdf

Convert dvi-file to a4-sized ps-file

Convert a TeX DVI-file to a4-sized postscrip-file

dvips -t a4 file.dvi file.ps

Convert ps-file to a4-sized pdf-file

Convert a ps-file to a4-sized pdf-file using ps2pdf

ps2pdf -sPAPERSIZE=a4 file.ps file.pdf

Convert ps-file to eps-file

Convert a ps-file to epsi-file using ps2epsi

ps2epsi file.ps file.epsi

Remove bitmap preview

Remove bitmap preview image using perl

perl -ne 'print unless /^%%BeginPreview/../^%%EndPreview/' < file.epsi > file.eps

Convert eps file to pdf file

Convert a eps-file to pdf-file while and embedding the all the fonts (requires epstopdf v2.9.9 or later)

epstopdf --embed file.eps

Convert pdf files to pdf files

Convert all pdf files in the folder to eps files.

Save the the following shell script to, e.g., pdftoeps.sh and change the permissions as

chmod +x pdftoeps.sh   

#!/bin/bash

for f in *.pdf
do
     TARGET=${f%.pdf}.eps
     echo "pdftops -eps ${1} - | ps2eps > ${TARGET}"
     pdftops -eps ${f} - | ps2eps > ${TARGET}
     echo "ps2eps stdout redirected to: ${TARGET}"
done

Embed fonts in a PDF using pdf2ps and ps2pdf (for IEEE PDF eXpress)

Convert pdf file into a postscript file with pdf2ps, and then turn it back into a pdf while embedding the fonts

pdf2ps file.pdf - | ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress - file_embedded.pdf

Embed fonts in a PDF using ghostscript

gs -dSAFER -dNOPLATFONTS -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sPAPERSIZE=letter -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dMaxSubsetPct=100 -dSubsetFonts=true -dEmbedAllFonts=true -sOutputFile=file_embedded.pdf -f file.pdf

Extracting pages from the pdf-file

Extract pages from the PDF file using Ghostscript by specifying the first page (m) and the last page (n) that you want in the output file:

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -dFirstPage=m -dLastPage=n -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.pdf

Extract pages from the PDF file by using pdftk:

pdftk input.pdf cat m-n output output.pdf

Merging pdf-files

Merge file1.pdf and file2.pdf to form file12.pdf using ghostscript

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=file12.pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf

Merge file1.pdf and file2.pdf using pdfjoin

pdfjoin file1.pdf file1.pdf

Replacing spaces in filenames

For filenames containing spaces, rename files replacing spaces with underscores:

for file in *[[:blank:]]*
do
  mv "$file" ${file// /_}
done

Reducing the margin of the pdf files

Increase the page content of the A4-sized pdf-file by 10 percent. Here, the size of the DIN A4 page is 595×842 pps and the page is shifted 5 percent of it (−29.75, −42.1) in order to center the scaled page.

gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dSAFER -dCompatibilityLevel="1.3" -dPDFSETTINGS="/printer" -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -sOutputFile="out.pdf" -c "<</BeginPage{1.1 1.1 scale -29.75 -42.1 translate}>> setpagedevice" -f in.pdf

Fitting the pdf file with custom page size to A4 paper size

gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dSAFER -dCompatibilityLevel="1.3" -dPDFSETTINGS="/printer" -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -dPDFFitPage -sOutputFile="out.pdf" -f in.pdf

Converting the booklet with multiple pages into single pages

First get the page size of the original pdf file

pdfinfo -f 1 -l 1000 -box Example.pdf

This will give you the page size in point as follows:

Page 1 size: 595 x 842 pts (A4)

Now each page can be splitted into 421×595-point pages using the pdfwrite steps given below (the sizes has to multiplied by ten to obey the pdfwrite’s resolution of 720 dpi)

gs -o out%03d_A.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -g4210x5950 -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -dPDFFitPage -c "<</PageOffset [0 0]>> setpagedevice" -f Example.pdf
gs -o out%03d_B.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -g4210x5950 -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -dPDFFitPage -c "<</PageOffset [-421 0]>> setpagedevice" -f Example.pdf

Finally the resulting single-page pdf files has to be combined, e.g., using the pdftk as follows

pdftk out*_?.pdf cat output combined.pdf

pdftk can be installed in KDE using

pkcon install pdftk

Batch processing of matlab figures using inkscape from matlab

Inscape can be called from matlab, e.g., for converting svg figures to pdf format as follows:

name = 'Example'; ext = 'svg';
system([inkscape ' [name '.' ext] ' --export-pdf ' [name '.pdf 2>/dev/null']])

Here error messages are directed to /dev/null.

Under matlab on windows, the system call has to be modified to following

name = 'Example'; ext = 'svg';
system(['(inkscape.exe ' [name '.' ext] ' --export-pdf ' [name '.pdf) 2>nul']]);

In order to use inkscape from matlab on windows, inkscape has to added to seach path. This can be achieved from control panel, e.g., by searching for “Edit environment variables for your account” and then adding inkscape folder to your path.