PDFusion — Python PDF Merger with GUI

A lightweight desktop application for merging multiple PDF files with full control over page size, orientation, and output quality — all through a clean, user-friendly graphical interface. No command-line knowledge required.

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🖼️ Features

• 📂 Folder-based file picker — select a folder and all PDFs inside are loaded automatically
• 🔀 Drag-and-drop reordering — drag files into your preferred merge order directly in the list
• ▲ ▼ Move buttons — fine-tune order with Move Up / Move Down controls
• 📐 Page size selection — choose from A3, A4, A5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid, or keep original sizes
• 🔄 Orientation control — set output to Portrait or Landscape
• 🗜️ Compression / quality options — three quality presets to control output file size:
  • High Quality — no changes, preserves original quality
  • Medium Quality — compresses streams and re-encodes images at 60% JPEG quality
  • Low Quality — maximum compression, images re-encoded at 25% JPEG quality
• 📊 Live progress bar — visual feedback during merge and compression
• 📋 Output summary — success dialog shows page size, orientation, quality, and final file size

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🛠️ Requirements

Python Version

Python 3.8 or higher is required.

Dependencies

Package	Purpose	Required
pypdf	Core PDF reading, writing, and merging	✅ Yes
Pillow	Image re-encoding for Medium / Low quality compression	⚠️ Optional
tkinter	GUI framework (ships with Python standard library)	✅ Yes (built-in)

Note: tkinter is included with most Python installations. On some Linux distributions you may need to install it separately:

sudo apt-get install python3-tk

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📦 Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/abiodun360/pdfusion.git
cd pdfusion

2. Install required dependencies

pip install pypdf

3. (Optional) Install Pillow for image compression support

pip install Pillow

Without Pillow, Medium and Low quality modes still compress text and vector streams — only image re-encoding is skipped.

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▶️ Usage

Run the application with:

python pdf_merger.py

Step-by-step

1. Click 📂 Browse Folder and select the folder containing your PDF files
2. All PDFs in the folder are loaded into the list automatically
3. Reorder the files by dragging rows or using the ▲ / ▼ buttons
4. Use ✕ Remove to exclude any files you don't want merged
5. In the Output Settings panel:
   • Choose a Page Size (or keep originals)
   • Set Orientation — Portrait or Landscape
   • Select a Quality preset
6. Click 🔗 Merge PDFs, choose where to save, and you're done

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📁 Project Structure

pdfusion/
│
├── pdf_merger.py     # Main application — run this file
└── README.md         # Project documentation

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🔧 Page Size Reference

Option	Dimensions
Original (keep as-is)	Preserves each page's existing size
A5	148 × 210 mm
A4	210 × 297 mm
A3	297 × 420 mm
Letter	8.5 × 11 in
Legal	8.5 × 14 in
Tabloid	11 × 17 in

When a page size is selected, content is uniformly scaled and centred to fit — the aspect ratio is always preserved.

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🗜️ Compression Details

Quality Preset	Content Streams	Image Re-encoding	Best For
High Quality	Unchanged	Unchanged	Archival, print-ready
Medium Quality	Compressed	JPEG 60%	General sharing / email
Low Quality	Compressed	JPEG 25%	Web upload, minimal size

Image compression requires Pillow to be installed. Content stream compression works without it.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and feature suggestions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add your feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/your-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — free to use, modify, and distribute.

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💡 Acknowledgements

Built with:

• pypdf — PDF processing
• Pillow — image compression
• tkinter — GUI framework