Several of my friends that do not consider themselves to be programmers have asked if I know of an easy way to merge multiple PDF files into one file. Of course, I instantly thought of using LEADTOOLS in PowerShell.

To get started, you need the LEADTOOLS assemblies and a license file. If you have not already purchased LEADTOOLS, you can download and request a 60-day evaluation license from our website. From there, all you need is a text editor to create your PS1 script file.

I have attached the complete PowerShell script to merge multiple PDF files into single file as well as launch.json file for VSCode. Below are some snippets so you can get an idea of how easy this is.

Admittedly, I am late to the party, but I have just started digging into PowerShell. The more I dig, the more I find that there is not much you cannot do in PowerShell.

Recently, I was browsing the forums and came across a post asking if it is possible to use LEADTOOLS in PowerShell to split multi-page PDF files into multiple single page PDF files. The answer is absolutely!

We have done several posts that uses the LEADTOOLS Document Converter to convert and merge multiple images and documents, including PDF. However, if all you need is to merge multiple PDF files into a single PDF file, LEADTOOLS has a PDFFile class that can combine PDF files with one-line of code.

The PDFFile class is available for .NET FX, .NET Core, and Java. In addition to PDF file merge, the PDFFile class provides much more including getting information about the file, getting PDF metadata, encrypting and decrypting PDFs, distilling PostScript to PDF, digital signing, bookmarking, annotating, and web optimizing.

In the “Merge PDF Files - C#, VB, and Java Code” article, we described how to use the PDFFile class from the PDF SDK to merge multiple PDF files into one with just a couple lines of code. Using the PDFFile class also makes PDF encryption, decryption, and password protection just as easy! The PDFFile class is available for .NET FX, .NET Core, and Java.

There are two types of PDF password protection:

Our support department recently responded to a request for a code sample to convert PDF to JPEG. The customer needed to leverage LEADTOOLS to split and convert thousands of PDF files into single page JPEGs.

JPEG images are universal and can be loaded by practically any client on any operating system. If the PDF files are photos, JPEG is the perfect universal image format for conversion. JPEG is designed specifically for photo images, supporting 24 bits per pixel color and 8 bits per pixel grayscale data.

If the PDF files are text based and need to be converted to a universal image format, PNG and GIF are more appropriate. PNG and GIF support fewer bits per pixel, including 1- and 4-bits and leverage lossless compressions. These factors result in less data to be compressed and clearer images of text and clip art. Typically, PNG results in smaller file sizes when compared to GIF.