Some qpdf commands

Split pdf pages into separate files:

qpdf --split-pages=1 i.pdf out-%d.pdf

1 being 1 page per file

Delete pages:

qpdf i.pdf --pages . 1-3,6 -- out.pdf

Merge pdfs into a single pdf:

qpdf --empty --pages a.pdf b.pdf c.pdf -- out.pdf
qpdf --empty --pages *.pdf -- out.pdf

# Take only the 1st page of a.pdf
qpdf --empty --pages a.pdf 1 b.pdf c.pdf -- out.pdf

# Another method, yields: b1, a3, c2
qpdf a.pdf --pages b.pdf 1 . 3 c.pdf 2 -- out.pdf

Page ranges:

• stated in order (e.g. 1,6,4)
• ranges are inclusive (e.g. 3-7)
• can iterate backwards (e.g. 7-3)
• z: last page (e.g. 1,z ; 1-z ; z-1)
• rX: Xth last page, e.g. r1: last page, r2: second last
• r3-r1: last 3 pages
• r1-r3: last 3 pages, reverse order
• :even, :odd: selects from resulting range (5,7-9,12:odd,7,9:even)
• 1,3,5-9,15-12,z,r3-r1:odd

Some other options/flags:

• --remove-page-labels: exclude page labels (explicit page numbers)
• --optimize-images: docs
• pdf analysis options

docs

Not qpdf, but blank one-page pdf:

magick xc:none -page Letter blank.pdf