v5.3

Kerim's PDF Tools

Version 5.3 - Stable Extended Edition (build 13.10.2026)

A complete offline PDF and media toolkit for Windows. Merge, split, encrypt, convert, watermark, repair, compare, archive and compress - 23 tools in one window, and nothing ever leaves your computer.

• Download: PDF-Compress-and-Merge-5.3.zip (about 385 MB) - or latest version
• SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/kerimspdftools/
• GitHub: https://github.com/Kerim4ik4/PDF-Compress-and-Merge
• User guide (English, Azərbaycanca, Русский): Kerims_PDF_Tools_Documentation_5_3.pdf

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Table of contents

1. Why Kerim's PDF Tools
2. Feature overview
3. Screenshots
4. Requirements
5. Installation and first run
6. Folder layout
7. The main window
8. Tool reference
9. Tips and shortcuts
10. Typical workflows
11. Troubleshooting
12. Privacy and security
13. Bundled tools and licences
14. Documentation
15. Credits

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Why Kerim's PDF Tools

• 100% offline. Every operation runs on your own computer. No uploads, no accounts, no telemetry, no analytics and no automatic update check.
• 23 tools, one window. Core PDF operations, Office conversions, page tools, media tools, analysis and archiving - each on its own tab with the same simple layout.
• Safe by design. Tools that change a PDF write a new file and leave the original untouched. Destructive actions (strip metadata, rename plan) are previewed or clearly labelled.
• Strong engines under the hood. Ghostscript, qpdf, PDFtk, FFmpeg and PSWriteOffice do the heavy lifting, with automatic fallbacks (for example qpdf to PDFtk) when a file needs it.
• Drag and drop everywhere. Drop files onto any input box or list, paste paths with Ctrl+V, or use the Browse buttons.
• Documentation in three languages. The PDF guide ships in English, Azerbaijani and Russian, and a searchable help tab is built into the app.

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Feature overview

Group	Tab	What it does
Core PDF	PDF Merge	Combine many PDFs in the exact order you choose, with optional post-merge compression (6 methods)
Core PDF	PDF Split	Split by custom ranges (1-3, 4-6, 7-10) or every N pages; one-click Auto-Split to single pages
Core PDF	PDF Encryption	AES-256 protection with a user (open) password, an owner (permissions) password, or both
Convert	IMG <-> PDF Convert	PDF to PNG / JPG / TIFF images, and folders of images to one PDF
Convert	Word to PDF	.doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt, .html, .htm, .md, .odt to PDF, single file or whole folder
Convert	PDF to Word	PDF to editable .docx with headings, paragraphs, lists, tables and images options
Convert	Excel/PPT to PDF	.xlsx, .xls, .xlsm, .pptx, .ppt, .ppsx to PDF, single file or whole folder
Modify PDFs	Negative PDF	Invert colours (text stays selectable) or convert to high-contrast black and white
Modify PDFs	Watermarking	Text or image watermark with size, colour, opacity, rotation and position
Modify PDFs	Page & Header Tools	Page numbers, headers and footers with text, images and {PAGE} / {TOTAL} / {DATE} placeholders
Modify PDFs	Page Management	Rotate or delete pages by range, with Odd / Even / All shortcuts
Modify PDFs	Crop / Resize	Fit every page to A4, A3, A5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid or Executive, optionally landscape
Modify PDFs	Grayscale	Colour to grayscale with JPEG quality, downsampling and contrast boost
Modify PDFs	Metadata View/Clean	Analyze (hashes, Info fields, IDs, encryption) and strip all metadata
Modify PDFs	Batch Rename	Rename every PDF in a folder from its first line of text, with a reviewable plan
Media	PDF to Video	PDF to MP4 slideshow, 720p to 4K, 24/30/60 FPS
Media	Video Compression	Shrink video with FFmpeg: H.264, H.265/HEVC, VP9, MP4 / MKV / WebM
Media	Video to PDF	Extract frames at an interval into a PDF contact sheet
Analysis & Archive	PDF Repair	Five-step escalating recovery of damaged PDFs with a colour-coded log
Analysis & Archive	PDF Diff	Compare two PDFs by SHA256, metadata and text content; export TXT or HTML report
Analysis & Archive	Visual Diff	Pixel-level page-by-page comparison with red difference overlay
Analysis & Archive	PDF/A & Linearize	Convert to PDF/A-1b, 2b or 3b for archiving; linearize for Fast Web View
Help	Help & Docs	Built-in searchable manual, tool versions, About dialog

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Screenshots

Core PDF

PDF Split - ranges or fixed-size chunks, page count detected automatically

PDF Encryption - AES-256 with user and owner passwords

Convert

IMG <-> PDF Convert - PDF to images and images to PDF, with drag-and-drop ordering

Word to PDF

PDF to Word

Excel / PowerPoint to PDF

Modify PDFs

Negative PDF

Watermarking - visual colour picker, opacity, rotation and position

Page & Header Tools - page numbers, header and footer

Crop / Resize

Grayscale

Metadata View/Clean - full read-only analysis, then optional strip

Batch Rename - review the plan with a thumbnail preview before anything is renamed

Media

PDF to Video

Analysis and archive

PDF Diff

Visual Diff

PDF/A conversion

Linearize (Fast Web View)

Help

Help & Docs - searchable topic tree, colour-coded reading pane

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Requirements

• Operating system: Windows. The interface is a WinForms application running on Windows PowerShell 5.1.
• Bundled tools (placed in the LIBS folder next to the script):
• Ghostscript, qpdf and PDFtk - required for the PDF tools
• FFmpeg - optional, needed only for the video tools (PDF to Video, Video Compression, Video to PDF)
• PSWriteOffice - optional, needed only for Word / Excel / PowerPoint conversions
• Internet: not required. The application never contacts the internet.

If a required tool is missing the app reports Missing tools: ... and the tabs that depend on it will not work. See Folder layout.

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Installation and first run

1. Download PDF-Compress-and-Merge-5.3.zip from the v5.3 folder and extract it completely (do not run it from inside the zip).
2. Make sure the LIBS folder sits next to the application script and contains the tools listed under Folder layout.
3. Double-click START.bat.
4. If Windows Defender / SmartScreen shows a warning, this is standard for unsigned .bat scripts: click More info, then Run anyway.
5. The main window opens. A black PowerShell console stays open behind it - this is normal. It prints progress messages and diagnostics.

Do not close the black console window. Closing it terminates the application immediately.

To use the PDF guide from inside the app, copy it (for example Kerims_PDF_Tools_Documentation_5_3.pdf) into the same folder as the script and click Help & Docs > Open User Guide PDF. The app looks for KerimsPDFTools_Documentation.pdf or any file matching *Documentation*.pdf in the application folder and then in LIBS.

Updating a bundled tool

Copy the newer version of the tool into LIBS. No rebuild is required. Use Help & Docs > Bundled Tool Versions to confirm which version was detected.

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Folder layout

By default the app searches the LIBS folder next to the script:

<application folder>
|-- START.bat                         <- launcher, double-click this
|-- (application PowerShell script)
|-- Kerims_PDF_Tools_Documentation_5_3.pdf  <- optional, opened by the Help tab
`-- LIBS
    |-- gs\<version>\bin\gswin64c.exe        Ghostscript
    |-- qpdf\bin\qpdf.exe                    qpdf
    |-- PDFtk Server\bin\pdftk.exe           PDFtk
    |-- ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe                    FFmpeg (optional)
    `-- PSWriteOffice\PSWriteOffice.psd1     PSWriteOffice (optional)

Ghostscript is detected as gswin64c.exe or gswin32c.exe.

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The main window

Every tool lives on its own tab, and all tabs share the same layout:

1. Tab strip - 23 tabs in three rows. The active tab turns blue.
2. Option groups - input file, tool settings and output location, from top to bottom.
3. Action button - the large coloured button runs the operation (SPLIT PDF, ENCRYPT PDF (AES-256), COMPRESS VIDEO, ...).
4. Result line - progress, "Ready" and the outcome of the last run.
5. Bottom bar - a thin bar at the bottom of the window.

What works the same everywhere:

• Every file field has a Browse button and also accepts drag and drop.
• Long operations show a Please Wait dialog. Wait until it closes before clicking anything else.
• Tools that change a PDF write a new file and never modify the original.
• When an operation finishes, Explorer opens on the result file.

Where output files go

Operation	Output location
Merge / Compress	The path you choose
Split	The destination folder you set
Word / PDF conversions	Desktop by default
Modify operations	Same folder as the input, with a suffix added
Batch input	Original file names are kept, output goes to the folder you chose

Suffixes added by the modify tools include _encrypted, _negative, _decorated, _resized, _grayscale, _pdfa, _linearized and _repaired.

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Tool reference

PDF Merge

Combine many PDFs into one, in the exact order you choose (top of the list = first pages).

1. Click Add PDFs (multi-select) or Add Folder, or drag files into the list.
2. Reorder with Move Up / Move Down.
3. Optional: tick Compress after merge and pick a method, image quality and PDF version.
4. Click INSTANT MERGE, choose where to save.

Other buttons: SMART COMPRESS, Remove, Clear All, About. The PDF Preview shows the first page of the selected file and the Statistics box shows the file count and total size.

Compression method	Best for
Smart Auto (Recommended)	Inspects the file and picks the best method automatically
Image Optimized	Aggressive, 40-50% JPEG quality, best for scans
Font Subset (90%)	Text-heavy PDFs
Balanced	Moderate quality for text + images
Rebuild from Text	Keeps only text, layout is lost
Maximal + PDFtk Strip	Smallest possible file, slowest

Files protected by a user password cannot be merged. Remove or decrypt them first (see PDF Encryption).

PDF Split

Break one PDF into several smaller files.

1. Browse or drag the input PDF - the page count is detected automatically.
2. Choose a mode:
3. Custom ranges - type 1-3, 4-6, 7-10 or 1,3,5,7 or 1-5, 7, 9-12
4. Split every N pages - tick the box and enter N
5. Choose the destination folder and click SPLIT PDF.

Auto-Split All Pages fills the range box with every page number, producing one PDF per page.

PDF Encryption (AES-256)

• User (open) password - required to open the document at all.
• Owner password - required to change permissions. If only an owner password is set, the file opens without a prompt but the restrictions apply.

Standard permissions applied: printing, copying and accessibility allowed; editing, annotating and reassembly restricted. Tick Show to reveal the characters while typing.

There is no recovery. If you forget the user password the file cannot be opened. AES-256 cannot be cracked without the password.

IMG <-> PDF Convert

• PDF to Image: choose output folder, format (PNG / JPG / TIFF) and DPI (150 recommended), then EXTRACT IMAGES. Files are named page-1.png, page-2.png, ...
• Images to PDF: Load Folder or Add Files (or drag and drop), order with Move Up / Move Down, then COMPILE TO PDF. Each image becomes one full page scaled and centred on A4, JPEG-compressed at quality 92. Images are auto-sorted by any numeric suffix when a folder is loaded.

Word to PDF

Supported inputs: .doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt, .html, .htm, .md, .odt.

• Single File mode: pick the document and the output PDF, click CONVERT TO PDF.
• Batch (Folder) mode: pick the source and output folders; tick Overwrite existing to replace existing PDFs. The result list shows OK, FAILED or Skipped per file.

Very complex Word files with charts and embedded objects may differ from Word's own PDF export.

PDF to Word

Converts PDFs to editable .docx. Single File and Batch (Folder) modes. Import options: Headings, Paragraphs, Lists, Tables, Images (larger .docx) and Normalize PDF (fixes some LibreOffice-exported PDFs).

• There is a hard 1000-page / 512 MB limit in the converter. For bigger files, split first (PDF Split) and convert in chunks.
• Best results come from text-based PDFs. The tool has no built-in OCR, so run OCR first for scans.

Excel / PowerPoint to PDF

Supported inputs: .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm, .pptx, .ppt, .ppsx. Single File and Batch (Folder) modes; batch mode filters the folder for Excel and PowerPoint files only. Charts with live data or external links may render differently than in Office.

Negative PDF

Mode	Result
Invert All Colors (Recommended)	Inverts every colour in the file
Invert All Colors (Keep Text Selectable)	Same result, different Ghostscript path
High Contrast B/W	Pure grayscale, best for scans, greatly reduces scan file size

Text stays vector (selectable and searchable). DPI (150 recommended) only affects the raster fallback. Useful for dark-mode reading of scanned documents.

Watermarking

• Text watermark (for example CONFIDENTIAL, DRAFT, a name) or Image watermark (logo, stamp, photo).
• Opacity 0-1 (0.3 = faint, 1.0 = solid), Rotation in degrees (45 = classic diagonal), Size (font size in pt for text, target width in pt for images).
• Position: Center, one of 8 anchor points, or Custom X/Y. The anchor is the centre of the watermark.
• Pick the colour visually; right-click the colour button after picking to see the RGB values.

A standard A4 page is 595 x 842 pt, so the centre is 297.5, 421.

Page & Header Tools

Three independent sections, applied together with APPLY TO PDF:

• Page numbering - Arabic (1, 2, 3), Roman (I, II, III), "Page N of Total" and more; header or footer; left / centre / right; start number; font size and colour; margin; option to skip the first page.
• Header and Footer - three zones each (Left, Center, Right), each with text and/or an image; font size and colour; margin; optional horizontal line.

Placeholder	Meaning
{PAGE}	Current page number
{TOTAL}	Total pages
{DATE}	Current date (yyyy-MM-dd)
{TIME}	Current time (HH:mm)
{YEAR}	Current year
{FILENAME}	Source file base name

Rendering is done at 150 DPI, so very small fonts may look slightly soft in print.

Page Management

• Rotate: enter a range (1-5, 1,3,5, 2-10,15,20), choose 90 clockwise, 90 counter-clockwise or 180, click ROTATE PAGES.
• Delete: enter the pages to remove, click DELETE PAGES. Remaining pages keep their order, and a safety check prevents deleting every page.
• Use All Pages, Odd Pages and Even Pages are quick-fill buttons.

Every operation writes a new file; the original is never modified.

Crop / Resize

Scales every page to fit a standard paper size while preserving the aspect ratio, centred, with white margins where needed.

Sizes: A4, A3, A5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid, Executive. Tick Force Landscape for wide pages. Ideal before printing mixed-size PDFs.

Grayscale

Convert any colour PDF to grayscale (text stays vector). Options: JPEG Quality, Downsample images with a Target DPI (150 balanced, 300 print quality), and Boost contrast (S-curve that darkens text and lightens paper, good for scans).

Metadata View/Clean

• ANALYZE (read-only): path, size, created / modified / accessed times, page count, SHA256 and MD5, every Info dictionary field (Author, Title, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer, dates), PDF IDs, page sizes and encryption status.
• EXPORT REPORT: save the last analysis as a UTF-8 text file.
• STRIP METADATA: rewrites the file with all metadata wiped (qpdf removes XMP streams, pdftk blanks the Info dictionary). Irreversible.

Batch Rename

Rename every PDF in a folder based on its first line of text.

1. Pick the folder (optionally recursive, optional prefix and suffix).
2. Click SCAN / RESCAN to build the plan and review the Preview column.
3. APPLY RENAME to execute, or CANCEL PLAN to discard without touching any file.

Name conflicts are resolved automatically with _2, _3, ... so nothing is overwritten. Click a row for a thumbnail of page 1, double-click to open the PDF, right-click for Open / Open File Location / Export Rename Plan to TXT. A rename cannot be undone from inside the app.

PDF to Video

Turns a PDF into an MP4 slideshow. Set seconds per page (default 3), resolution (720p, 1080p, 1440p, 4K), FPS (24 / 30 / 60), background (Black, White, Dark Gray, Navy Blue) and quality preset (CRF 18 high, 23 standard, 28 smaller).

Each page is rendered at 200 DPI to PNG and FFmpeg encodes H.264 yuv420p with the faststart flag. A 100-page PDF at 3 s/page takes several minutes.

Video Compression

FFmpeg-based. Choose codec / container, quality (CRF), resolution, encoding preset and audio bitrate.

Option	Notes
MP4 (H.264)	Most compatible
MP4 (H.265 / HEVC)	Smaller files, slower, some old players cannot play it
MKV (H.264) / MKV (H.265)	Flexible container; H.265 gives the best quality per byte
WebM (VP9)	Open format, good for browsers

CRF: lower = better quality and larger file (18 near-lossless, 23 standard, 28 noticeably compressed, 32 smallest). Presets trade speed for size (medium is a good default). Rule of thumb: archive with H.265 / CRF 20; share on chat apps with H.264 / CRF 26 / 720p.

Video to PDF

Extracts frames into a PDF, one frame per page. Settings: seconds per frame (1.0 = one per second), JPEG quality (85 recommended), scale %, max pages (0 = unlimited). Great for contact sheets, key moments from recordings and printable handouts. A 1-hour video at 1 s/frame makes about 3600 pages - use 5-10 s intervals for summaries.

PDF Repair

Five escalating attempts, stopping at the first success:

1. Diagnose with qpdf --check
2. qpdf full rebuild
3. qpdf recovery (replace-input mode)
4. Ghostscript permissive rebuild
5. Text-only rescue (keeps text, loses layout and images)

A detailed colour-coded log shows which step worked; Save Log to File keeps the report. Use it before other tabs when a PDF fails to load.

PDF Diff

Compares two PDFs on hash (SHA256), file size, page count, every metadata field and text content (set-based similarity plus line-by-line diff with [-], [+], [=] markers). Results appear in three tabs - Summary, Metadata (SAME / DIFF / A ONLY / B ONLY) and Text Content - and can be exported as TXT or HTML.

Visual Diff

Pixel-level comparison page by page at 96 DPI (fast) or 150 DPI (detailed), up to a maximum page count (default 30). The list shows each page's % difference and status (DIFFERENT, SAME, ONLY IN A, ONLY IN B); the preview paints differences in red over a faded original. A pair that looks identical at 96 DPI may differ at 200 DPI because of anti-aliasing.

PDF/A & Linearize

• PDF/A conversion (ISO 19005, long-term archiving): fonts embedded, device-independent colour, encryption and JavaScript removed, interactive elements flattened. Levels: PDF/A-1b (most compatible), PDF/A-2b (recommended), PDF/A-3b (adds embedded files).
• Linearize ("Fast Web View"): reorders the PDF so the first page renders before the whole file downloads. Use it before publishing a PDF on a website.

Help & Docs

A built-in searchable manual: type to filter the topic tree (names and text), press Esc to clear, right-click the reading pane for Copy All to Clipboard / Select All. Buttons: Open User Guide PDF, Open LIBS Folder, About This App, Bundled Tool Versions.

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Tips and shortcuts

• Drag and drop onto any input box or list; no need to browse.
• Ctrl+V pastes file paths from the clipboard.
• Right-click any file list for Open, Open File Location, Delete, Clear, Export List to TXT and Import List from TXT.
• Press Delete to remove selected items from a list.
• The Statistics panel on the Merge tab shows live file count and total size.
• In Batch Rename, double-click a row to open that PDF in your viewer.
• Use {FILENAME} in headers and footers to stamp the source name on every page.

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Typical workflows

Prepare a report for sharing - PDF Merge (Smart Auto compression) > Page & Header Tools (page numbers, {FILENAME}) > Watermarking (CONFIDENTIAL) > PDF Encryption.

Rescue a damaged PDF - PDF Repair > repeat the failed operation on the repaired file.

Publish a PDF on a website - Metadata View/Clean (strip author and software details) > PDF/A & Linearize (Linearize).

Archive a document - PDF Repair if needed > PDF/A & Linearize (PDF/A-2b).

Convert a very large PDF to Word - PDF Split into chunks (for example 500 pages) > PDF to Word for each chunk.

Branded slideshow video - Watermarking or Page & Header Tools > PDF to Video > Video Compression.

Compare two versions - PDF Diff for hash, metadata and text > Visual Diff at 96 DPI, then re-check flagged pages at 150-200 DPI.

Print mixed-size scans - Crop / Resize to one paper size > Grayscale (boost contrast for scans).

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Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to do
Missing tools: PDFtk, Ghostscript, QPDF	Put the tools in the LIBS folder next to the script (see Folder layout) and restart the app
Ghostscript: Unrecoverable error	The input PDF is malformed or partly corrupted. Run PDF Repair first, then retry
Merge takes a very long time	qpdf probably fell back to the slower pdftk because at least one PDF is password-protected. Remove such files from the list or decrypt them in PDF Encryption
Word / Excel / PowerPoint conversion fails	Confirm PSWriteOffice is present in LIBS\PSWriteOffice\, check the console window for the exact error, and try a smaller file first
Turkish or Azerbaijani text looks garbled after PDF to Word	This should not happen (text is read as UTF-8 everywhere). Please report it together with the exact input PDF
Out of memory on very large PDFs	Split into about 500-page chunks, process each, merge the results back
The window freezes for a while	A long operation is running; a Please Wait dialog should be visible. Do not click other buttons until it disappears
Windows Defender / SmartScreen warning	Normal for unsigned .bat scripts: More info > Run anyway. The app never contacts the internet

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Privacy and security

• Everything is processed locally. No data is transmitted to any server.
• No telemetry, no analytics, no automatic update check.
• Encryption uses AES-256, the strongest PDF encryption available. Passwords cannot be recovered.
• Metadata View/Clean can remove Author, Creator, Producer, Title, Subject, Keywords, creation / modification dates and XMP streams from your PDFs.

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Bundled tools and licences

Kerim's PDF Tools is free for personal use. For commercial use, check the licences of the bundled tools:

Tool	Role	Licence
Ghostscript	PDF rendering and rewriting	AGPL
qpdf	Fast, safe structural PDF operations	Apache 2.0
PDFtk	Fallback processor and stamping	GPL (personal use)
FFmpeg	Audio / video encoding	LGPL / GPL
PSWriteOffice	Word / Excel / PowerPoint conversion	MIT

Technology stack: PowerShell 5.1 on Windows with a WinForms (System.Windows.Forms) interface.

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Documentation

• PDF user guide - Kerims_PDF_Tools_Documentation_5_3.pdf, one chapter per tab with screenshots, in English, Azərbaycanca and Русский.
• Built-in help - the Help & Docs tab, searchable, always matches the installed version.
• Bundled Tool Versions button - shows the exact version and path of every detected tool.

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Credits

Coded by Tural (with the help of AI).

Dedicated to my son Kerim. (c) 2026

Project pages: SourceForge - GitHub