Download pikepdf – Python Library for Reading and Writing PDF Files

pikepdf is a free, open-source Python library for reading, writing, and manipulating PDF files. Built on top of the QPDF C++ library, it exposes a Pythonic API that makes working with PDF internals accessible to Python developers without requiring deep knowledge of the PDF specification.

With pikepdf, developers can open and inspect PDF objects, merge and split documents, decrypt password-protected files, remove or apply encryption, linearize PDFs for web optimization, and repair corrupted documents. It fully supports the PDF object model, allowing direct manipulation of pages, streams, dictionaries, and cross-reference tables.

pikepdf is widely used in document processing pipelines, data extraction workflows, and PDF generation automation. It integrates naturally with other Python tools like Pillow for image handling and is installable via pip, making it easy to include in any Python project. Excellent documentation and active maintenance make it a reliable choice for PDF automation tasks.

Key Features

• Full PDF object model access – Read and write PDF dictionaries, arrays, streams, and name objects directly in Python.
• Merge and split PDFs – Combine multiple PDFs into one or extract specific page ranges programmatically.
• Encryption and decryption – Open password-protected PDFs and apply or remove encryption with fine-grained permissions.
• PDF linearization – Optimize PDFs for fast web delivery (byte-range serving) using the underlying QPDF engine.
• PDF repair – Attempt to recover and repair structurally damaged PDF files that other tools cannot open.
• Image extraction – Extract embedded images from PDF pages for further processing with Pillow or OpenCV.
• Easy pip installation – pip install pikepdf installs the library with bundled QPDF binaries on all major platforms.

How to Install

1. Install pikepdf via pip: pip install pikepdf — QPDF is bundled and no separate installation is required.
2. Import pikepdf in your Python script: import pikepdf
3. Open a PDF: pdf = pikepdf.open("input.pdf") and inspect pages with pdf.pages.
4. Perform operations such as merging, splitting, or modifying PDF objects as needed.
5. Save the result: pdf.save("output.pdf") to write the modified PDF to disk.