How to install pdftk on Mac OS X [closed]

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I want to install pdftk with MacPorts, but this command does not work:

 sudo apt-get install pdftk

Is it possible to install it on a Mac?

My system specifications are:

Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory:    8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics:  Intel HD Graphics 4000 768 MB

Feder answered 27/12, 2013 at 16:48 Comment(8)

apt-get is for linux, have you tried sudo port install pdftk? – Michelinamicheline 27/12, 2013 at 16:57

yes, you are right. i made mistake.Great! – Feder 27/12, 2013 at 19:24

PyPDF2 provides an alternative script pdfcat pythonhosted.org/PyPDF2/Easy%20Concatenation%20Script.html just in case people still get attracted here from google search result. – Ziska 17/3, 2015 at 22:39

You can install it from the official site pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-server – Assume 17/1, 2019 at 13:48

2021 Jan 12: Only thing that worked on macOS Big Sur was the link from this answer: https://mcmap.net/q/246368/-how-to-solve-quot-pdftk-bad-cpu-type-in-executable-quot-on-mac. Using the download link from the official website downloads an old installer and you get a zsh: bad CPU type in executable: pdftk error. – Cabriolet 12/1, 2021 at 15:58

2022 Update: This worked for me: pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/… – Dildo 10/6, 2022 at 7:52

2022 Sept 13 : original author of pdftk posted this PKG here : https://mcmap.net/q/47308/-pdftk-server-on-os-x-10-11 , and this worked on macOS Monterey (12.5.1). – Kannry 13/9, 2022 at 14:57

To install it using homebrew (as of october 2022), see this answer: https://mcmap.net/q/47308/-pdftk-server-on-os-x-10-11 – Sparry 13/10, 2022 at 15:59

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You can use the official installer from PDF Labs.

Edit: It’s now available through homebrew-cask too. If you have that installed, you can just run

brew cask install pdftk

to install pdftk.

There is no longer a Cask package available, so you will have to defer to the original solution or follow this workaround

Landin answered 27/12, 2013 at 16:57 Comment(14)

just adding something that came up to me - I needed run brew update && brew upgrade brew-cask – Nanice 20/5, 2014 at 17:23

@JonatasCD Thanks for the command. It worked after I updated and upgraded. – Fifth 1/7, 2014 at 15:34

An anonymous user points out that pdftk has temporarily been removed from homebrew-cask due to this issue. Follow that link for more information. – Landin 4/12, 2014 at 18:18

It is not working anymore. – Parttime 12/1, 2015 at 11:14

@Parttime I get an error trying to install also. What is the best way to install it? – Infrangible 17/2, 2015 at 0:44

@Infrangible In our project decided to use a pure Ubuntu VM through Vagrant as pdftk and other plugins have issues in Mac. – Parttime 17/2, 2015 at 9:50

@Infrangible Have you tried the PDF Labs installer I mentioned at the beginning of the answer? – Landin 17/2, 2015 at 14:37

Here's a step-by-step copy-paste brew cask install pdftk workaround -- worked perfectly for me. – Babb 15/4, 2015 at 11:4

@JoelPurra I forked the gist and added all the commands to a script. That can be run instead of doing 15 copy-pastes. – Macassar 18/5, 2015 at 10:16

@scottgwald: didn't have the time when I found the gist, so happy that you did it. Great, thanks! – Babb 18/5, 2015 at 13:9

@JoelPurra sure thing! time will tell how brittle all of those paths are, haha – Macassar 18/5, 2015 at 18:36

The official install does NOT work on 10.11 beta and any and all brew installs/work arounds that I've found do NOT work either. I've had pdftk working on 10.9 and 10.10 without issues. – Driven 10/9, 2015 at 21:11

In case anyone is still looking, this is the download link that works on El Capitan. https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/pdftk_server-2.02-mac_osx-10.11-setup.pkg – Superaltar 25/11, 2015 at 13:53

2021 Jan 12: Only thing that worked on macOS Big Sur was the link from this answer: https://mcmap.net/q/246368/-how-to-solve-quot-pdftk-bad-cpu-type-in-executable-quot-on-mac. Using the download link from the official website downloads an old installer and you get a zsh: bad CPU type in executable: pdftk error. – Cabriolet 12/1, 2021 at 15:58

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From quantiverge PR on brew:

brew install https://raw.github.com/quantiverge/homebrew-binary/pdftk/pdftk.rb

Codd answered 26/2, 2014 at 21:45 Comment(17)

Worked for me on Mavericks. Sadly compiling from source has so many dependencies that it takes forever, so this is a nice shortcut for the meantime. – Platinum 12/3, 2014 at 12:48

Still working on 10.9.5 – Lagas 11/11, 2014 at 17:20

Works on Yosemite (OS X 10.10) as well.. :) – Dejecta 24/12, 2014 at 7:36

We used the answer provided by Sean Leather, sorry couldn't find his @username it is the bottom answer on this post (as of this comment) – Infrangible 17/2, 2015 at 16:28

works on Yosemite 10.10.4 (y) – Placement 8/7, 2015 at 17:26

The official install does NOT work on 10.11 beta and any and all brew installs/work arounds that I've found do NOT work either. I've had pdftk working on 10.9 and 10.10 without issues. – Driven 10/9, 2015 at 21:12

Works on El Capitan 10.11 just fine! – Exultation 12/10, 2015 at 21:23

@Exultation I unfortunately had the same experience myself. Seems like it works and then just hangs. – Superaltar 20/10, 2015 at 0:2

Works on Sierra 10.12 – Chophouse 28/9, 2016 at 13:19

The formula doesn't work with current brew, use brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/youtux/homebrew-binary/pdftk/pdftk.rb from youtux's PR instead. – Organize 17/12, 2016 at 14:16

That just installs pdftk using the official pkg installer. – Vibraphone 23/4, 2017 at 19:56

Up-to-date version of this solution here: https://mcmap.net/q/47308/-pdftk-server-on-os-x-10-11 Command is: brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/turforlag/homebrew-cervezas/master/pdftk.rb – Ginkgo 27/6, 2017 at 21:3

Please note as of Aug 2017, none of the above works. The link posted by @JoshBuchea is the only thing that works. – Sweetsop 9/8, 2017 at 1:49

2018-06-12: @JoshBuchea's link worked for me: brew install raw.githubusercontent.com/turforlag/homebrew-cervezas/master/… – Flogging 12/6, 2018 at 14:56

Error: pdftk: undefined method `sha1' for #<Class:0x0000000101c9d270> – Ivonneivor 19/9, 2018 at 12:59

2021 Jan 12: Only thing that worked on macOS Big Sur was the link from this answer: https://mcmap.net/q/246368/-how-to-solve-quot-pdftk-bad-cpu-type-in-executable-quot-on-mac. Using the download link from the official website downloads an old installer and you get a zsh: bad CPU type in executable: pdftk error. – Cabriolet 12/1, 2021 at 15:58

Error: Non-checksummed download of pdftk formula file from an arbitrary URL is unsupported! `brew extract` or `brew create` and `brew tap-new` to create a formula file in a tap on GitHub instead.

– Centrist 28/9, 2023 at 13:17

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You can use the official installer from PDF Labs.

Edit: It’s now available through homebrew-cask too. If you have that installed, you can just run

brew cask install pdftk

to install pdftk.

There is no longer a Cask package available, so you will have to defer to the original solution or follow this workaround

Landin answered 27/12, 2013 at 16:57 Comment(14)

just adding something that came up to me - I needed run brew update && brew upgrade brew-cask – Nanice 20/5, 2014 at 17:23

@JonatasCD Thanks for the command. It worked after I updated and upgraded. – Fifth 1/7, 2014 at 15:34

An anonymous user points out that pdftk has temporarily been removed from homebrew-cask due to this issue. Follow that link for more information. – Landin 4/12, 2014 at 18:18

It is not working anymore. – Parttime 12/1, 2015 at 11:14

@Parttime I get an error trying to install also. What is the best way to install it? – Infrangible 17/2, 2015 at 0:44

@Infrangible In our project decided to use a pure Ubuntu VM through Vagrant as pdftk and other plugins have issues in Mac. – Parttime 17/2, 2015 at 9:50

@Infrangible Have you tried the PDF Labs installer I mentioned at the beginning of the answer? – Landin 17/2, 2015 at 14:37

Here's a step-by-step copy-paste brew cask install pdftk workaround -- worked perfectly for me. – Babb 15/4, 2015 at 11:4

@JoelPurra I forked the gist and added all the commands to a script. That can be run instead of doing 15 copy-pastes. – Macassar 18/5, 2015 at 10:16

@scottgwald: didn't have the time when I found the gist, so happy that you did it. Great, thanks! – Babb 18/5, 2015 at 13:9

@JoelPurra sure thing! time will tell how brittle all of those paths are, haha – Macassar 18/5, 2015 at 18:36

The official install does NOT work on 10.11 beta and any and all brew installs/work arounds that I've found do NOT work either. I've had pdftk working on 10.9 and 10.10 without issues. – Driven 10/9, 2015 at 21:11

In case anyone is still looking, this is the download link that works on El Capitan. https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/pdftk_server-2.02-mac_osx-10.11-setup.pkg – Superaltar 25/11, 2015 at 13:53

2021 Jan 12: Only thing that worked on macOS Big Sur was the link from this answer: https://mcmap.net/q/246368/-how-to-solve-quot-pdftk-bad-cpu-type-in-executable-quot-on-mac. Using the download link from the official website downloads an old installer and you get a zsh: bad CPU type in executable: pdftk error. – Cabriolet 12/1, 2021 at 15:58

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I created a pdftk homebrew tap:

brew tap spl/pdftk
brew install pdftk

The current formula depends on a specific compiler (gcc48) with a specific build flag (enable-all-languages). This is only be a problem if you happen to already have gcc48 without the flag or if you have a different version of gcc. You can, of course, clone the formula and change it for your situation. But, unfortunately, nobody has answered my question about alternative dependencies, so I don't know how to resolve this.

Update 1 (2015-03-19): As of this change (described in my solution to alternative dependencies), the formula now supports multiple versions of gcc and different flags.

Update 2 (2016-01-12): For OS X 10.11 El Capitan users, the source build of pdftk does not seem to work. There is a .pkg available at https://mcmap.net/q/47308/-pdftk-server-on-os-x-10-11 . As of this date, PDF Labs has not yet released a source update that fixes the build.

Curium answered 12/2, 2014 at 6:53 Comment(12)

it takes forever on my pro late 2011 to install gcc, not my way – Taneka 8/4, 2015 at 20:26

I have found the same as @gaussblurinc. Mid 2011 iMac - taking an age to install the gcc dependency. Far more tempted to ditch pdftk and find a lighter alternative. – Layby 2/6, 2015 at 14:39

This took forever for me too. I used the answer below (install from raw.github.com and it's working fine) – Spradling 10/7, 2015 at 2:31

@Aaron, Does my Homebrew tap also not work? It installs from source and not from the .pkg. – Curium 11/9, 2015 at 10:34

I tried to install from Homebrew and the install worked on 10.11, yes -- but the actual executable just hangs anytime you try to run commands. Warning: I've been using pdftk for over a year and installed from Homebrew and from www.pdflabs.com at times, and things worked fine. After 10.11 nothing works no matter how you install it. So pdftk is broke on 10.11. Here's my SO question on the topic: https://mcmap.net/q/47308/-pdftk-server-on-os-x-10-11 – Driven 11/9, 2015 at 20:50

@Driven I've had the same broken experience myself so far. – Superaltar 20/10, 2015 at 0:2

@Coenosarc see: https://mcmap.net/q/47308/-pdftk-server-on-os-x-10-11 – Driven 2/12, 2015 at 15:29

@Driven Thanks! Yes, this worked for me: https://mcmap.net/q/47308/-pdftk-server-on-os-x-10-11 – Coenosarc 2/12, 2015 at 19:23

Thanks for the comments, folks. I've updated my answer to point to the other answer. If you discover a way to build a working (possibly patched) pdftk from source on El Capitan, please let me know (either here or on GitHub). – Curium 12/1, 2016 at 7:27

Thanks for the second update... the docmunch cask tap seems to be hanging on an OSX patch. But the link to the .pkg helped me get it installed. – Foresight 25/1, 2016 at 19:56

@SeanLeather the installation does not work anymore. It gets stuck at installing gcc 6.3.0 – Latoyialatreece 31/1, 2017 at 16:21

2021 Jan 12: Only thing that worked on macOS Big Sur was the link from this answer: https://mcmap.net/q/246368/-how-to-solve-quot-pdftk-bad-cpu-type-in-executable-quot-on-mac. Using the download link from the official website downloads an old installer and you get a zsh: bad CPU type in executable: pdftk error. – Cabriolet 12/1, 2021 at 15:58

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