unpause

Remove ‘pause’ frames from a slide deck

Usage

pdftl <input> unpause [dpi=<val>] [ink=<val>|auto] [survival=<val>] output <file>

Details

The unpause operation removes intermediate animation frames from PDF slide decks, such as those produced by LaTeX Beamer with \pause or \uncover directives.

The algorithm renders each page at low resolution and checks whether all ink pixels from the previous page are still present on the current page. If they are, the previous page is considered an intermediate animation frame and is discarded. Only pages where ink disappears or moves are kept, plus the final page.

The dpi=<val> argument controls render resolution for comparison (default: 72). Higher values are slower but more accurate for fine detail.

The ink=<val> argument is the pixel darkness threshold (0-255) below which a pixel is considered ink (default: auto). In auto mode, Otsu’s method is used per page.

The survival=<val> argument is the minimum fraction (0.0-1.0) of ink pixels from the previous page that must survive on the current page for it to be considered a continuation (default: 0.98). Genuine Beamer transitions produce survival=1.00; new slides typically produce <0.20.

Examples

Remove animation frames from a Beamer PDF

pdftl slides.pdf unpause output stripped.pdf

Use stricter survival threshold

pdftl slides.pdf unpause survival=0.99 output stripped.pdf

Higher resolution comparison for fine detail

pdftl slides.pdf unpause dpi=150 output stripped.pdf

Tags: pages, images, slides

Source: pdftl.operations.unpause

Read online: https://pdftl.readthedocs.io/en/latest/operations/unpause.html

Type: Operation