AI generated

name: pdfs description: Reliable, workflow-driven PDF processing: render → verify → operate → re-render/verify, covering reading, inspection, extraction, editing, forms, OCR, redaction, conversion, and diffing. Prefer authoring in DOCX or PPTX (then converting to PDF) for text-heavy docs or slide-like layouts; use ReportLab here for programmatic PDF generation. PDF Skill (Read • Inspect • Extract • Edit • Render • Forms • OCR • Redact • Convert • Diff) This skill is designed for reliable, workflow-driven PDF work: render -> verify -> operate -> re-render verify. Before you touch PDFs: should this be DOCX/PPTX instead? Even if the user asks for a PDF deliverable, the best workflow is often: Text-heavy, business-doc layout (headings, TOC, long tables, rich lists) -> use the DOCX skill to author, then convert to PDF with lo_convert_to_pdf.py. Slide-like visual layout (charts, callouts, fixed positioning, figure captions) -> use the Slides skill (PPTX) to author, then export to PDF. Programmatic generation -> ReportLab (this skill) is fine. If you find yourself hand-tuning line breaks or typography in ReportLab, you probably picked the wrong authoring format. Core loop (always) Render to images python /home/oai/skills/pdfs/scripts/render_pdf.py input.pdf --out_dir /mnt/data/_renders/in --dpi 200 Inspect PNGs (tables/figures/layout are authoritative) Perform the edit/extract/create Re-render and compare python /home/oai/skills/pdfs/scripts/compare_renders.py before.pdf after.pdf --out_dir /mnt/data/_diff --dpi 200 Task index (progressive) Start with the smallest task that answers the user: Read / review tasks/read_review.md Extract (text/layout/tables/images/attachments/forms) tasks/extract.md tasks/coords.md (coordinate sanity) Edit (merge/split/rotate/crop/watermark/paginate/encrypt/repair) tasks/edit.md tasks/compare.md (visual regression) Forms Fillable forms: tasks/forms_annotations.md Debugging/introspection: tasks/forms_debugging.md Non-fillable / stamping workflow: tasks/forms_nonfillable.md OCR tasks/ocr.md Preflight / normalize tasks/preflight.md Redaction tasks/redact.md Renderer parity tasks/parity.md Batch processing tasks/batch.md Create / convert tasks/create.md tasks/convert.md tasks/js_tools.md (pdf-lib, pdfjs) Package map (where things live) This pack includes a manifest.txt that is a pure list of relative file paths used by download tooling. Quick map: tasks/ (what to do) read_review.md - render-first reading/review extract.md - extract text/layout/tables/images/attachments/forms coords.md - coordinate system cheatsheet (PDF pt vs image px) edit.md - merge/split/select/rotate/crop/watermark/paginate/encrypt/repair compare.md - visual diff workflow forms_annotations.md - fillable forms + appearance pitfalls + correctness checklist forms_debugging.md - widget-level introspection + acceptable values forms_nonfillable.md - stamp-by-boxes workflow for non-fillable forms ocr.md - OCR scanned PDFs to searchable preflight.md - quick triage + normalization guidance redact.md - true redaction workflows parity.md - render parity across engines batch.md - batch helpers for corpora create.md - choose reportlab/latex/html/docx/pptx pipeline convert.md - docx/pptx/html/markdown/latex to PDF conversion js_tools.md - pdf-lib/pdfjs helper CLIs scripts/ (run these) render_pdf.py - render to PNGs (pdfium or poppler) compare_renders.py - render-and-diff two PDFs (pixel diff) pdf_inspect.py - metadata/structure overview pdf_extract.py - text/words/chars/tables/images/attachments/annots/forms pdf_edit.py - editing toolkit (merge/split/select/rotate/crop/watermark/paginate/encrypt/repair/optimize) pdf_preflight.py - preflight/triage warnings pdf_redact.py - true redaction (remove underlying content) renderer_parity.py - diff pdftoppm vs pdfium renders batch_pdf.py - batch runner for common ops box_picker_html.py - generate interactive HTML to pick rectangles -> JSON in PDF coords place_text_by_boxes.py - stamp text/checkmarks into rectangles (non-fillable forms) ocr_pdf.py - OCR wrapper html_to_pdf.py, md_to_pdf.py, latex_to_pdf.py, lo_convert_to_pdf.py - conversion helpers js/ (Node helpers) install_deps.sh - installs pdf-lib + pdfjs-dist fill_form.mjs - fill + optional flatten (supports flags and positional args) extract_form_fields.mjs - list AcroForm fields extract_text_pdfjs.mjs - extract text via pdfjs-dist examples/ smoke_test.md - runnable smoke flows troubleshooting/ common.md - common pitfalls and fixes Final deliverable expectations No clipped text, overlaps, black squares, or broken glyphs in rendered PNGs. Verify in at least one renderer (pdfium or pdftoppm). For tricky forms, verify in two. Remove intermediate artifacts from the deliverable folder (keep only final PDF(s)). Avoid Unicode dashes that some renderers mishandle; prefer ASCII -.