PDF to PDF / Ruby Examples

This page contains various examples of using the PDF to PDF API in Ruby. The examples are complete and fully functional. Read more about how to convert PDF to PDF in Ruby.

Basic examples
PDF manipulation examples
Rails examples

Basic examples

Multiple PDFs to PDF file

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/cover.pdf")
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf")
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/price.pdf")
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/contact.pdf")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertToFile("offer.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Multiple PDFs to in-memory PDF

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/cover.pdf")
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf")
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/price.pdf")
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/contact.pdf")

    # Run the conversion and store the result in the `pdf` variable.
    pdf = client.convert()

    # at this point the "pdf" variable contains PDF raw data and
    # can be sent in an HTTP response, saved to a file, etc.

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Multiple PDFs to PDF stream

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/cover.pdf")
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf")
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/price.pdf")
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/contact.pdf")

    # Create an output stream for the conversion result
    output_stream = open("offer.pdf", "wb")

    # run the conversion and write the result to the output stream.
    client.convertToStream(output_stream)

    # Close the output stream.
    output_stream.close()

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Multiple in-memory PDFs to PDF file

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/cover.pdf', 'rb').read())
    client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/proposal.pdf', 'rb').read())
    client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/price.pdf', 'rb').read())
    client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/contact.pdf', 'rb').read())

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertToFile("offer.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Join 2 in-memory PDFs together with 2 local PDF files to PDF file

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/cover.pdf', 'rb').read())
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf")
    client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/price.pdf', 'rb').read())
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/contact.pdf")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertToFile("offer.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Watermark a PDF file

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf")
    client.setPageWatermark("/path/to/watermark.pdf")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertToFile("company_offer.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Linearize a PDF file

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/not_linearized.pdf")
    client.setLinearize(true)

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertToFile("linearized.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Get info about the current conversion

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setDebugLog(true)
    client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/cover.pdf', 'rb').read())
    client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/proposal.pdf', 'rb').read())

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertToFile("offer.pdf")
    
    # print URL pointing to the debug log for this request.
    puts "Debug log url: #{client.getDebugLogUrl()}"
    
    # print number of conversion credits remaining in your account.
    puts "Remaining credit count: #{client.getRemainingCreditCount()}"
    
    # print number of credits consumed for this conversion.
    puts "Consumed credit count: #{client.getConsumedCreditCount()}"
    
    # print unique identifier assigned to this conversion job.
    puts "Job id: #{client.getJobId()}"
    
    # print total number of pages in the output document.
    puts "Page count: #{client.getPageCount()}"
    
    # print size of the output data in bytes.
    puts "Output size: #{client.getOutputSize()}"

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

PDF manipulation examples

Extract page 3 and all pages from 7 to the end from the PDF file

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/your-path-to/pdfs/13_pages.pdf")
    client.setAction("extract")
    client.setPageRange("3,7-")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertToFile("output.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Delete the first 3 pages and the 10th page from the PDF file

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/your-path-to/pdfs/13_pages.pdf")
    client.setAction("delete")
    client.setPageRange("1-3,10")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertToFile("output.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Split the PDF file into two separate files at the 10th page

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")
    client.addPdfFile("/your-path-to/pdfs/13_pages.pdf")
    client.setAction("extract")
    client.setPageRange("1-10")
    client.convertToFile("pages1-10.pdf")
    client.setPageRange("11-")
    client.convertToFile("pages11-end.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error:
    raise
end

Rails examples

Multiple PDFs to PDF in Rails

require "pdfcrowd"

class DemoController < ApplicationController
    def convert
        # The recommended method is POST.
        # may be restricted by ":via => :post" in your routes.rb
        if ! request.post?
            return render text: "POST is allowed only", status: 400
        end

        begin
            # Create an API client instance.
            client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

            # Configure the conversion.
            client.addPdfFile("/path/to/cover.pdf")
            client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf")
            client.addPdfFile("/path/to/price.pdf")
            client.addPdfFile("/path/to/contact.pdf")

            # Run the conversion and store the result in the `pdf` variable.
            pdf = client.convert()

            # Send the result and set HTTP response headers.
            send_data pdf,
                      :type => "application/pdf",
                      :disposition => "attachment; filename*=UTF-8''#{ERB::Util.url_encode('offer.pdf')}"
        rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
            # Send the error in the HTTP response.
            render plain: why, status: why.getCode()
        end
    end
end

Multiple in-memory PDFs to PDF in Rails

require "pdfcrowd"

class DemoController < ApplicationController
    def convert
        # The recommended method is POST.
        # may be restricted by ":via => :post" in your routes.rb
        if ! request.post?
            return render text: "POST is allowed only", status: 400
        end

        begin
            # Create an API client instance.
            client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

            # Configure the conversion.
            client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/cover.pdf', 'rb').read())
            client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/proposal.pdf', 'rb').read())
            client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/price.pdf', 'rb').read())
            client.addPdfRawData(open('/path/to/contact.pdf', 'rb').read())

            # Run the conversion and store the result in the `pdf` variable.
            pdf = client.convert()

            # Send the result and set HTTP response headers.
            send_data pdf,
                      :type => "application/pdf",
                      :disposition => "attachment; filename*=UTF-8''#{ERB::Util.url_encode('offer.pdf')}"
        rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
            # Send the error in the HTTP response.
            render plain: why, status: why.getCode()
        end
    end
end