ThePages

Version 0.1.0

PDF page editor for GNOME — edit individual pages in Inkscape with automatic extraction and reassembly.

C++20GTK4libadwaitaPopplerInkscapeWinUI — soonVibe Coded

Features

One-Click Page Editing

Click "Edit in Inkscape" on any page thumbnail. The app automatically extracts the page, converts it to SVG, opens Inkscape, and converts it back to PDF when you save.

Thumbnail Grid View

All pages displayed as thumbnails in a scrollable grid with async rendering. Visual status indicators show Original, Editing, or Modified state for each page.

Automatic Document Reassembly

On save, all pages are extracted and modified pages are swapped with their replacements, then united into the final PDF with pdfunite. No manual page management needed.

Smart Inkscape Detection

Finds Inkscape via native binary, Flatpak, distrobox-host-exec, or distrobox+Flatpak — works across container boundaries.

Drag and Drop

Drop a PDF file onto the window to open it. Thumbnails render asynchronously in the background.

Save and Save As

Overwrite the original PDF or save to a new file. After saving, modification markers are cleared and thumbnails reflect the saved state.

Use Cases

Editing Forms and Documents

Open a PDF form, edit a specific page to fill in or correct information using Inkscape vector editing tools, then save the updated document.

Annotating Specific Pages

Add annotations, highlights, or corrections to individual pages in a large PDF without affecting the rest of the document.

Creating Modified Document Versions

Edit one or more pages of a report, thesis, or contract and save as a new file — keeping the original untouched.

Replacing Manual Workflows

Eliminates the tedious extract → convert → edit → export → reassemble workflow that otherwise requires multiple command-line tools.

User Manual

Quick Start

Launch ThePages from GNOME Activities or terminal (the-pages)
Click Open or press Ctrl+O to open a PDF document
Browse pages as thumbnails in the grid
Click "Edit in Inkscape" below any thumbnail
Edit the page in Inkscape, press Ctrl+S to save, then close Inkscape
Click Save to write the final PDF with all modifications

Opening a Document

There are three ways to open a PDF:

Open button: Click the folder icon in the header bar or press Ctrl+O
Drag and drop: Drop a PDF file onto the window
Command line: the-pages document.pdf

ThePages displays all pages as thumbnails in a scrollable grid.

Editing a Page

Find the page in the thumbnail grid
Click "Edit in Inkscape" below the thumbnail
The status changes to "Editing..." while Inkscape is open
Edit the page in Inkscape as you normally would
Press Ctrl+S in Inkscape to save (normal SVG save, no export needed)
Close Inkscape

ThePages automatically converts your edits back to PDF. The thumbnail updates and the status changes to "Modified".

You can edit the same page again — ThePages uses the already-modified version.

Page Status Indicators

Status	Meaning
(no label)	Original page, not modified
Editing...	Page is currently open in Inkscape
Modified	Page has been edited and is ready to save

Saving

Save (disk icon) — overwrites the original PDF with all modifications
Save As (disk+ icon) — saves to a new file (suggested name: original_edited.pdf)

After saving, the modification markers are cleared. If no pages have been modified, Save shows a notification instead of writing.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+O`	Open PDF document

Requirements

ThePages requires these tools at runtime:

Dependency	Purpose	Install
Inkscape	Page editing (PDF ↔ SVG conversion)	`sudo dnf install inkscape`
poppler-utils	Page extraction and assembly (pdfseparate, pdfunite)	`sudo dnf install poppler-utils`