veraPDF CLI Quick Start Guide

The veraPDF command line interface is the best way of processing batches of PDF files. It’s designed for integrating with scripted workflows, or for shell invocation from programs.

We assume you’ve already downloaded and installed the software, if not please read the installation guide first.

Using the terminal

We’ve provided a quick primer on setting up and using the terminal on our supported platforms here.

Getting help

You can get the software to output its built in CLI usage message by typing verapdf.bat -h or verapdf --help, an online version is available here.

Configuring veraPDF

veraPDF is controlled by a set of configuration files, you can read a brief overview here.

How-tos

The following examples all make use of the veraPDF test corpus. This is available on GitHub.

Links to how-tos

• Using veraPDF for PDF/A and PDF/UA Validation:
  • listing built in validation profiles;
  • validating using a built in profile;
  • validating using automated profile selection;
  • defining validation report;
  • controlling console logs
  • validating multiple files in the folder;
  • validating PDFs from ZIP archives
  • optimizing the validation process;
• Extracting features (metadata) from PDFs:
  • extracting Information Dictionary metadata;
  • extracting XMP metadata;
  • extracting Font information; and
  • extracting image features.
• Enforcing institutional policy.
• Fixing metadata.