freedesktop/poppler
Toolpoppler-utils - pdftotext, pdfinfo, and pdffonts for checking a PDF's pages, fonts, and text layer
check: pdftotext https://poppler.freedesktop.org
poppler-utils are the standard command-line tools for inspecting PDFs: pdftotext extracts the text layer (what an applicant tracking system or a search index reads), pdfinfo reports pages and page size, and pdffonts lists fonts and whether they are embedded. The tap uses them to verify exported resumes, proposals, and decks before they are sent.
Key Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
pdftotext -layout file.pdf - | Text with the page layout preserved |
pdftotext file.pdf - | Text in reading order, as parsers see it |
pdfinfo file.pdf | Pages, page size, producer, metadata |
pdffonts file.pdf | Fonts, type, and emb (embedded) per font |
pdftoppm -png -r 80 file.pdf page | Page previews as PNG |
Common Usage
pdfinfo resume.pdf | grep Pages # length check
pdftotext resume.pdf - | head -40 # does the text come out in a sensible order?
pdffonts proposal.pdf # every font embedded (emb = yes)?