A terminal-based PDF utility tool for merging, splitting, compressing, rotating, encrypting, and decrypting PDFs.

Installation

Prerequisites:

• Bun (latest recommended)
• Python 3.10+

Install project dependencies:

bun install

Setup

First-time setup (creates Python virtual environment and installs backend dependencies):

bun run setup

Usage

Run the app (cross-platform):

bun run dev:all

Other commands:

bun run setup         # Setup backend + frontend dependencies only
bun run dev:ui        # Run UI only
bun run dev:backend   # Run backend CLI

Install a global pdfzen command (macOS/Linux/Windows):

bun run install:global

Then reload your shell and run from anywhere:

pdfzen

Features

• Merge PDFs: Combine multiple PDF files into one
• Split PDF: Split a PDF into multiple files by pages, ranges, or intervals
• Compress PDF: Reduce PDF file size with image optimization
• Rotate PDF: Rotate pages in a PDF document
• Delete Pages: Remove specific pages from a PDF
• Protect PDF: Add password protection and permissions
• Decrypt PDF: Remove password protection from PDFs
• PDF to Images: Convert PDF pages to PNG/JPG images
• Images to PDF: Combine images into a single PDF

Keyboard Shortcuts

Navigation

• Tab / Shift+Tab - Navigate between UI elements
• ↑ / ↓ - Navigate up/down through elements
• j / k - Vim-style navigation (down/up)
• Enter - Execute focused action (press button, submit input)

General

• Ctrl+D - Toggle debug panel to view application state
• ESC (double press) - Return to main menu from a tool

File List Actions

When navigating file lists, you can tab through:

• Move Up (↑) - Reorder file up in the list
• Move Down (↓) - Reorder file down in the list
• Remove (X) - Remove file from the list

Adding Files

• Click on the file list area to open file picker
• Drag & drop files into the terminal