FAQ
- What is pdfsam?
- Why two versions?
- So do I have to pay for the enhanced version?
- Why should i donate?
- How to get the enhanced version
- I want to donate through SourceForge
- Language?
- Noo… i meant human language!
- Some more detail?
- How to run the main GUI?
- Still trouble?
- Got an OutOfMemory?
- What is the console?
- How to run the console?
- Why a console?
- Tweak?
- Cannot find javaw.exe
What is pdfsam?
PDF Split and Merge is a very simple, easy to use, free, open source utility to split and merge pdf files. It’s released in two versions: basic and enhanced. Includes a console and a GUI interface.
Why two versions?
Basic version is very simple and stable. It’s completely free and it covers most of your needs.
Enhanced version is open source and has more features than the basic version. It’s “almost” free, you can download the source code, compile and use it or, if you think it’s worth it, you can make a donation.
So do I have to pay for the enhanced version?
Yes and no. Enhanced version has no fixed price.. The source code is available for download therefore you can compile it and use it. With a single donation of any amount (1$, 10$, 100$… as much as you wish) you’ll gain unlimited access to compiled code, win32 installer plus the access to the support forums and to the features request section.
Why should i donate?
By donating you provide support to an open source project. There’s no big company behind this project, just me and my spare time. I’ve been working on pdfsam for more than three years now. I believe in open source and I believe pdfsam is a valuable and useful software. If you think my efforts and pdfsam are not worth 1€ …well.. just download the source code, compile it and use it. If you believe in open source, in shared culture and you think pdfsam is useful, donate and you’ll have pdfsam enhanced and all the related benefits. The donated money will be used to take care of pdfsam and its users, to make it better and better and to add the features you request. Therefore you are not paying for a software but you are supporting open source and free culture.
How to get the enhanced version
To download the enhanced version you need to have a forum account (register here) and donate at least 1€ here. Than you can download enhanced version here.
I want to donate through SourceForge
Perfect, just remember to add your forum username in the donation comment otherwise I wont be able to know who you are on pdfsam forum.
Language?
pdfsam is written in Java Swing and tested on Java(TM) 2 SDK, Standard Edition, Version 1.4.2.
Noo… i meant human language!
ohh.. sorry 
… yes, pdfsam now supports multilanguage. Language is specified in the file config.xm by the “i18n” tag, and can be set using the settings section of pdfsam. Language library is updated at every release with the latest translations available, check here if you want to translate pdfsam.
Some more detail?
pdfsam is basically a GUI to iText library. It’s made of some main components.
- A main GUI written in Java Swing
- A merge plugin to merge pdf documents, written in Java Swing
- A split plugin to split pdf documents, written in Java Swing
- An alternate mix plugin to mix two pdf documents, written in Java Swing
- A rotate plugin to rotate pdf documents written, in Java Swing
- Two visual plugins to visually modify pdf documents, both written in Java Swing
- A console written in Java
The main GUI loads every plugin in “plugins” directory and shows them as node of a selection tree. A plugin sends a list of arguments to the console that executes the proper command.
How to run the main GUI?
Double click the file pdfsam-CURRENT_VERSION.jar or type java -jar /PATH_TO_PDFSAM/pdfsam-CURRENT_VERSION.jar
Still trouble?
Check you have installed a working Java Virtual Machine 1.4.2 or higher for the branch 1 and a 1.6 or higher for the branch 2.
Check the provided tutorial into the “doc” subdirectory.
Got an OutOfMemory?
Default memory size for the JVM is 64MB and you are probably handling bigger pdf documents. Try running pdfsam with more memory typing “java -Xmx128m -jar /PATH_TO_PDFSAM/pdfsam-CURRENT_VERSION.jar” to run pdfsam with 128MB (you can change the -Xmx value up to 2048 for 32bit JVM).
What is the console?
pdfsam-console is a command line application. It uses jcmdline to parse input parameters and than it executes the proper command.
How to run the console?
in “bin” subdirectory there’s a bat script for win32 and a sh script *nix systems.
Why a console?
A command line console could be usefull for batch jobs, server jobs…
Tweak?
If you have some trouble loading plugins try this:
- Open the file config.xml with good editor (Notepad++..)
- Fill the tag “plugs_absolute_dir” with the absolute path to your plugins direcotry
- Save
pdfsam tries to find plugins directory but, if there’s some trouble, you can specify the absolute path as described.
Cannot find javaw.exe
If, when you double click the pdfsam.exe, an error window shows the message “Cannot find javaw.exe”, it means that it cannot find a working java installation. To solve this problem try installing (or reinstalling) a working Java Runtime Environment (version 1.4.2 or above for the branch 1, version 1.6 or above for the branch 2).
