Executable script to run Quartz filters on a PDF file from the shell

README.md

This is a simple, should-be-drop-in replacement for the old /System/Library/Printers/Libraries/quartzfilter utility which went away circa OS X 10.8.

Usage:

chmod +x quartzfilter.js
./quartzfilter.js infile.pdf filter.qsfilter outfile.pdf

e.g.,

./quartzfilter.js my-big-pdf.pdf "/System/Library/Filters/Reduce File Size.qfilter" my-less-big-pdf.pdf

Built using direct calls into Quartz.framework from JavaScript for Automation (JSX).

quartzfilter.js

#!/usr/bin/env osascript -l JavaScript

ObjC.import("Foundation")
ObjC.import("Quartz")
ObjC.import("stdlib")

function save(inpath, filterpath, outpath) {
    inURL = $.NSURL.fileURLWithPath(inpath)
    inPDF = $.PDFDocument.alloc.initWithURL(inURL)

    filterURL = $.NSURL.fileURLWithPath(filterpath)
    filter = $.QuartzFilter.quartzFilterWithURL(filterURL)
    
    inPDF.writeToFileWithOptions(outpath, $({"QuartzFilter": filter}))
}

function run(argv) {
    if (argv.length != 3) {
        console.log("Usage: quartzfilter.js inPDF qsfilter outPDF")
        $.exit(-1)
    }
    save(argv[0], argv[1], argv[2])
}