Evals / pdf / Organize pages

Trim page margins

Cut 15mm off every side of the pages of paper.pdf and save the result as tight.pdf.

normalsingledeft pdf crop

The task

The reference answer shows the job can be done with deft. It is not an agent run.

deft pdf crop paper.pdf --margin 15mm -o tight.pdf

Input

paper.pdf 992.5 KB · 14 pages
Page 1Page 2Page 3

Reference output

page.png 31.6 KB · 527x707
page.png
tight.pdf 936.0 KB · 14 pages
Page 1Page 2Page 3
How a result is judged (1 check)
  • python: code = "import subprocess\nfrom PIL import Image\nsubprocess.check_call(['gs', '-q', '-dSAFER', '-dBATCH', '-dNOPAUSE', '-dUseCropBox', '-sDEVICE=png16m', '-r72', '-dFirstPage=1', '-dLastPage=1', '-sOutputFile=page.png', 'tight.pdf'])\nw, h = Image.open('page.png').size\nassert abs(w - 527) <= 3 and abs(h - 707) <= 3, (w, h)\n"

Runs

CodexWithout deftPassed2026-11-07

Time
42s
New tokens
10.1k
Total input
142.0k
Output tokens
1.3k
Commands
8
Failed
2

Trace

  1. I’ll check the PDF page dimensions and crop each edge inward by 15 mm, then save the result as `tight.pdf` in the current directory.

  2. rg --files -g 'pages.pdf' -g 'AGENTS.md' -g 'pages.pdf' (exit 1)
  3. rg --files
    output
    paper.pdf
  4. python3 -c \"import importlib.util; print({m: bool(importlib.util.find_spec(m)) for m in ['pypdf','PyPDF2','fitz']})\"
    output
    {'pypdf': False, 'PyPDF2': False, 'fitz': False}
  5. which pdfinfo pdftk qpdf gs mutool; file paper.pdf
    output
    pdfinfo not found
pdftk not found
qpdf not found
/usr/local/bin/gs
mutool not found
paper.pdf: PDF document, version 1.4, 6 pages
  6. python3 -m pip install --user pypdf (exit 1)
    output
    WARNING: Retrying (Retry(total=4, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by 'NewConnectionError('<pip._vendor.urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x104e99b80>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known')': /simple/pypdf/
WARNING: Retrying (Retry(total=3, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by 'NewConnectionError('<pip._vendor.urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x104ecc710>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known')': /simple/pypdf/
WARNING: Retrying (Retry(total=2, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by 'NewConnectionError('<pip._vendor.urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x1051a6000>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known')': /simple/pypdf/
WARNING: Retrying (Retry(total=1, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by 'NewConnectionError('<pip._vendor.urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x1051a61b0>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known')': /simple/pypdf/
WARNING: Retrying (Retry(total=0, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by 'NewConnectionError('<pip._vendor.urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x1051a63c0>: Failed to es
… 238 more characters
  7. gs -q -dNOSAFER -dNODISPLAY -c "(paper.pdf) (r) file runpdfbegin pdfpagecount = 1 pdfgetpage /MediaBox get == quit"
    output
    14
[0 0 612 792]
  8. gs -q -dNOSAFER -dNODISPLAY -c "(paper.pdf) (r) file runpdfbegin 1 1 pdfpagecount { dup pdfgetpage /MediaBox get == } for quit"
    output
    [0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
[0 0 612 792]
  9. gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dSAFER -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=tight.pdf -c "[ /CropBox [42.519685 42.519685 569.480315 749.480315] /PAGES pdfmark" -f paper.pdf
    output
    GPL Ghostscript 9.55.0 (2021-09-27)
Copyright (C) 2021 Artifex Software, Inc.  All rights reserved.
This software is supplied under the GNU AGPLv3 and comes with NO WARRANTY:
see the file COPYING for details.
Processing pages 1 through 14.
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14

  10. Done. I cropped 15 mm from each edge of all 14 pages and saved the result as [tight.pdf](tight.pdf).

Output

page.png 31.6 KB · 527x707
page.png
tight.pdf 741.4 KB · 14 pages
Page 1Page 2Page 3

CodexWith deft, skill installedPassedRead the skillUsed deft2026-11-07

Time
23s
New tokens
7.6k
Total input
72.3k
Output tokens
0.4k
Commands
4
Failed
0

Trace

  1. I’ll crop 15 mm from each edge of `paper.pdf` and save the cropped PDF as `tight.pdf` in the current directory.

  2. cat .agents/skills/deft/SKILL.md
    output
    ---
name: deft
description: "Use deft instead of writing a script for file jobs: PDF merge/split/compress/watermark, image resize/convert/compress, video and audio trim/convert/compress, spreadsheets, Markdown to PDF/HTML, and YouTube downloads and subtitles."
---

# deft

One local command for file jobs. Prefer it over writing Python or shell scripts.

Syntax: `deft <group> <command> [inputs] [-o output] [--options]`

Groups:
- `pdf`: Merge, split, compress, encrypt, forms, OCR, compare, convert
- `image`: Resize, crop, convert, compress, filters, montage, OCR
- `video`: Trim, crop, speed, convert, compress, GIF, frames (ffmpeg)
- `audio`: Convert, trim, merge, fade, speed, tag, normalize (ffmpeg)
- `doc`: Word/ODT/RTF: to text, Markdown, HTML, PDF; find and replace
- `slides`: PowerPoint: extract text, Markdown outline, PDF handout
- `data`: JSON/YAML/TOML/XML: convert, query with jq syntax, merge, diff
- `sheet`: Excel/CSV/ODS tables: filter, sort, join, pivot, convert
- `md`: Markdown to PDF, HTML, Word, EPUB; table of contents
- `html`: HTML to Markdown, text, Word, PDF; screenshots
- `epub`: E-books: info, to text, Markdown and PDF
- `email`: EML files: headers, text, attachments
- `contact`: VCF address books: to and from CSV
- `calendar`: ICS calendars: to and from CSV
- `gps`: GPX and KML tracks: convert, distance and time
- `youtube`: Info, download, audio, subtitles, thumbnail (yt-dlp)
- `file`: Any file: hash, duplicates, batch rename, base64, encoding
- `qr`: Cre
… 728 more characters
  3. deft pdf
    output
    deft pdf - commands (input -> output)
  info            pdf -> report       Pages, size, metadata, fonts, images
  compare         pdf... -> report    Compare two PDFs: text and pixels
  compress        pdf -> pdf          Make smaller: --level, --target-size 2MB
  crop            pdf -> pdf          Trim pages: --margin, --box, --auto
  decrypt         pdf -> pdf          Remove a password you know
  delete          pdf -> pdf          Remove pages: --pages 2,5-7
  encrypt         pdf -> pdf          Protect with a password (AES-256)
  extract-images  pdf -> image...     Save embedded pictures, unchanged
  extract-sheets  pdf -> csv|xlsx...  Save each table apart [beta]
  fields          pdf -> report       List form fields
  fill            pdf -> pdf          Fill a form from JSON: --data values.json
  flatten         pdf -> pdf          Bake forms into pages
  from-images     image... -> pdf     One page per image
  from-md         md -> pdf           Typeset Markdown as PDF
  grayscale       pdf -> pdf          Remove colour (Ghostscript)
  merge           pdf... -> pdf       Join PDFs in the given order
  meta            pdf -> pdf          Read or set metadata and bookmarks
  number          pdf -> pdf          Add page numbers: --format
  ocr             pdf -> pdf|txt      Make a scan searchable
  redact          pdf -> pdf          Black out for good: --box or --text
  repair          pdf -> pdf          Rebuild a damaged PDF (Ghostscript)
  resize          pdf -> p
… 892 more characters
  4. deft pdf crop --help
    output
    deft pdf crop - Trim pages: --margin, --box, --auto

Usage: deft pdf crop <pdf>... [-o <pdf|dir>] [options]
In: pdf (each handled separately)   Out: pdf (default <name>.cropped.<ext>)
--box is x,y,width,height in points from the top-left of the page.
--auto cuts to the visible content; --margin then keeps that much around it.

Options:
  --margin <length>            Amount to cut from each side
  --box <text>                 Region to keep: x,y,width,height
  --auto                       Cut to the content
  --pages <pages>              Pages to crop (default all)
  --password <text>            Password of an encrypted input
Common: -o --force --dry-run --json -j   (deft help common)

Examples:
  deft pdf crop report.pdf --margin 10mm -o tight.pdf
  deft pdf crop report.pdf --auto --margin 5mm -o fit.pdf

Result fields: cropped
  5. deft pdf crop paper.pdf --margin 15mm -o tight.pdf
    output
    ok pdf.crop paper.pdf -> tight.pdf  14 pages  0.01s

  6. Cropped 15 mm from each edge of all 14 pages and saved the result as [tight.pdf](tight.pdf).

Output

page.png 31.6 KB · 527x707
page.png
tight.pdf 936.0 KB · 14 pages
Page 1Page 2Page 3

Claude Opus 5.5Without deftPassed2026-11-07

Time
26s
New tokens
11.6k
Total input
90.1k
Output tokens
1.5k
Commands
0
Failed
0

Trace

    Output

    page.png 31.6 KB · 527x707
    page.png
    tight.pdf 743.8 KB · 14 pages
    Page 1Page 2Page 3

    Claude Opus 5.5With deft, skill installedPassedRead the skillUsed deft2026-11-07

    Time
    12s
    New tokens
    9.9k
    Total input
    59.6k
    Output tokens
    0.4k
    Commands
    0
    Failed
    0

    Trace

      Output

      .claude/skills/deft/SKILL.md 2.1 KB
      ---
name: deft
description: "Use deft first for any simple, direct operation on local files, whatever the type: convert, read, extract, edit, compress, merge, split, compare or inspect. Try it before writing a script or one-liner. If unsure, run deft find; if it says no command does this, use another tool. Not for programming work: to read, write or change source code, skip it."
---

# deft

One local command for file jobs. Prefer it over writing Python or shell scripts.

Syntax: `deft <group> <command> [inputs] [-o output] [--options]`

Groups:
- `pdf`: Merge, split, compress, encrypt, forms, OCR, compare, convert
- `image`: Resize, crop, convert, compress, adjust, montage, OCR
- `video`: Trim, merge, convert, compress, subtitles, GIF, frames (ffmpeg)
- `audio`: Convert, trim, normalize, denoise, cut silence (ffmpeg)
- `doc`: Word/ODT/RTF: to text, Markdown, HTML, PDF; find and replace
- `slides`: PowerPoint: extract text, Markdown outline
- `sheet`: Excel/CSV/ODS tables: SQL query, pivot, merge, split, convert
- `json`: JSON: convert, format, merge, diff, validate
- `toml`: TOML: convert, format, merge, diff, validate
- `xml`: XML: convert, format, merge, diff, validate
- `yaml`: YAML: convert, format, merge, diff, validate
- `md`: Markdown to PDF, HTML, Word, EPUB; table of contents
- `html`: HTML to Markdown, text, Word and PDF
- `epub`: E-books: info, to text, Markdown and PDF
- `gps`: GPX and KML tracks: convert, distance and time
- `qr`: Create QR codes and barcodes; read QR codes

How to use it:
1. Run `deft <group>` to list commands, or `deft find "<what you want>"` to search. If it says `no command does this`, use another tool.
2. Run `deft <group> <command> --help` for options and examples.
3. `deft convert <in> -o <out.ext>` converts between formats by extension.
4. Results are one line starting with `ok`, `partial` or `error`; add `--json` to parse them. Errors include a `hint:` with the fix.

Inputs are never overwritten; pass `--force` or `--in-place` to allow it. Globs and directories work as inputs; several inputs run in parallel.

If `deft` is not installed, ask the user, then follow https://github.com/firstprayer/deft/blob/main/docs/INSTALL.md
      page.png 31.6 KB · 527x707
      page.png
      tight.pdf 936.0 KB · 14 pages
      Page 1Page 2Page 3

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