A desktop PDF toolkit for editing, inspecting, validating, and automating PDF workflows.
Download · Platform support · Project guide · Build from source
New install? Get Frisket-PDF from the official GitHub releases. Windows and Linux are supported for V1; macOS source builds are best-effort only.
- Edit and inspect PDFs with annotations, forms, attachments, optional content, text layout analysis, and document-structure tools.
- Protect documents with encryption, certificate management, signature validation, and digital signing.
- Optimize and compare files with compression, rendering, page operations, document comparison, and image/text extraction.
- Automate PDF work with PdfTool for batch pipelines, reporting, preflight checks, rendering, redaction, and more.
| Tool | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Pdf4QtEditor | The primary interactive workspace for editing, inspection, and editor plugins. |
| PdfTool | Scripted and batch workflows in CI or from the command line. Run PdfTool help for commands. |
| Pdf4QtPageMaster | Batch page geometry, assembly, and export. |
| Pdf4QtViewer | Quick, read-only viewing. |
| Pdf4QtDiff | Comparing two PDF documents. |
Use Frisket’s own release artifacts, not upstream PDF4QT packages.
- Windows (x64): portable ZIP and MSI packaging are supported.
- Linux (x64):
.deb, AppImage, and Flatpak packaging are available through the project’s release workflows. - macOS: not supported for V1. There is no official package, notarization, or macOS CI coverage.
See platform support for supported configurations, package layouts, and current validation notes.
Frisket-PDF requires a C++20 compiler, Qt 6.11.1 or newer, and vcpkg. Windows and Linux are the supported development targets.
git clone https://github.com/mberrys/Frisket-pdf.git
cd Frisket-pdf
git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git
./vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.sh -disableMetrics
export VCPKG_ROOT="$PWD/vcpkg"
cmake -B build -S . \
-DPDF4QT_INSTALL_QT_DEPENDENCIES=0 \
-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE="$VCPKG_ROOT/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake" \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build buildOn Windows, use Visual Studio 2022 or MinGW. For the full set of build options and packaging requirements, consult CMakeLists.txt and the platform guide.
- Platform support and packaging
- Repository map and upstream policy
- Preflight tool documentation
- Packaging and licensing guide
- Contributor and architecture guidance
Contributions, testing, feedback, and bug reports are welcome. Please read AGENTS.md and the repository map before starting work, especially when changing the forked PDF4QT codebase or syncing upstream.
Frisket-PDF is based on PDF4QT and is currently distributed under the MIT License. The license is subject to change at any time. It includes third-party components with their own license obligations, including Qt, FreeType, OpenJPEG, OpenSSL, Little CMS, zlib, libjpeg, and Blend2D. Review the packaging and licensing guide before distributing a build.
Copyright © 2026 Michael Berry. Portions are copyright © 2019 The FreeType Project.