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qpdf vs mutool (MuPDF): catalog facts
qpdf	mutool (MuPDF)
Free Free and open source under the Apache licence.	Free Listed as open source, distributed with the MuPDF project.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
Rewrites PDF structure losslessly, which makes it ideal in pipelines Can dump and rebuild a PDF as JSON for scripted editing	Lightweight CLI for batch PDF extraction, cleaning and merging Cross-platform on Linux, macOS and Windows
No rendering or text extraction; those need other tools Command line only	Command-line only, with no graphical interface for casual users Documentation targets developers integrating MuPDF rather than end users
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: AGPL-3.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.