DEV Community: Youssef Adly The latest articles on DEV Community by Youssef Adly (@youssefadly237). https://dev.to/youssefadly237 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F2776752%2F65aae93e-4109-48d8-9b2c-d2052e903ce6.jpeg DEV Community: Youssef Adly https://dev.to/youssefadly237 en pdftk is GOAT Youssef Adly Sun, 08 Feb 2026 05:37:34 +0000 https://dev.to/youssefadly237/pdftk-is-goat-3eo1 https://dev.to/youssefadly237/pdftk-is-goat-3eo1 <p>I am not aware of FOSS pdf editor for Linux (I really need one), and I had free subscription for Foxit Editor, sso I used to boot Windows just to edit PDF bookmarks (my dumb uni can't seem to add them), even though I daily-drive Linux.</p> <p>I did a quick search, and I found <a href="https://gitlab.com/pdftk-java/pdftk" rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>pdftk</code></a>, an absolute masterpiece</p> <ol> <li>Dump PDF metadata out </li> </ol> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="c"># input the pdf</span> pdftk random.pdf dump_data_utf8 output output.txt </code></pre> </div> <ol> <li>Edit them</li> </ol> <p>in <code>output.txt</code> grep for <code>BookmarkBegin</code> and start editing, if it is missing just append it at the end of the pdf (one block per bookmark)<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>BookmarkBegin BookmarkTitle: Bookmark Title BookmarkLevel: 1 BookmarkPageNumber: 1 </code></pre> </div> <p>save your file</p> <ol> <li>apply the new metadata </li> </ol> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>pdftk random.pdf update_info_utf8 output.txt output output.pdf </code></pre> </div> <p>this so much more faster than old workflow tbh</p> pdf opensource idk Youssef Adly Sun, 08 Feb 2026 05:23:47 +0000 https://dev.to/youssefadly237/idk-4h49 https://dev.to/youssefadly237/idk-4h49 <p>0b1001000 0b1100101 0b1101100 0b1101100 0b1101111 0b101100 0b100000 0b1010111 0b1101111 0b1110010 0b1101100 0b1100100 0b100001</p>