PDF Chain
The facts below are what the maker publishes about PDF Chain, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From PDF Chain's own pricing page, checked 12 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Free download · requires PDFtk installed separately |
The facts
Each one read from PDF Chain's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Additional tools
- Listed tools include extracting attachments, compression and decompression, dumping data and form fields, updating document info, generating FDF, filling forms, flattening, and dropping XFA.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Compatibility
- The installation page maps PDF Chain versions 0.55–0.123 to PDFtk 1.40–1.43, versions 0.3.1–0.3.5 to PDFtk 1.44, and versions from 0.4.0 to PDFtk 1.45.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Dependency
- PDF Chain requires PDFtk to be installed on the system to generate and execute its commands.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Latest listed release
- The SourceForge files page lists pdfchain-0.4.4.tar.gz as the latest version and dates the 0.4.4.2 directory to 2015-12-18.checked 12 Oct 2026
- License
- The maker says the source code is released under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3).checked 12 Oct 2026
- Merge PDFs
- It can concatenate selected pages from multiple PDF documents, including page ranges, even or odd pages, rotation, and shuffling.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Other PDF actions
- It can add a background or stamp, attach files, and set output permissions, passwords, and encryption.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Project status
- The SourceForge project listing labels PDF Chain status Alpha and lists its latest update as 2022-11-27.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- PDF Chain is a graphical interface for PDF Toolkit (PDFtk) that generates and executes PDFtk commands from GUI settings.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Security controls
- PDF output permissions can include user and/or owner passwords, no encryption or 40-bit or 128-bit encryption, and allowing or restricting features.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Split PDFs
- It can burst a PDF document into single pages.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Support and warranty
- The maker states that PDF Chain comes without any warranty.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Supported system family
- The maker describes PDF Chain as a program for Unix-like systems.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Text editing
- Nochecked 20 Sep 2026
Money
- Free plan
- Yeschecked 20 Sep 2026
Where it runs
- Linux installation
- The maker documents installation through Ubuntu PPA and Arch User Repository, as well as compiling from source.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Supported platforms
- Linuxchecked 20 Sep 2026
Alternatives to PDF Chain
- 1
Smallpdf
Free planAndroidiOSWebWindows8.9From $10 a month - 2
LightPDF
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.8From $15.99 a year - 3
PDF2Go
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.7$6.42 usage-based - 4
Foxit PDF Editor
AndroidiOSWebmacOS8.6 - 5
WPS PDF Editor
Free planAndroidiOSWebExtension8.5From $3 a year - 6
PDF Candy
Free planAndroidiOSWebLinux8.5From $4 a year