PDF Destinator

An interactive GUI tool to add named destinations and clickable link regions to PDF files - without expensive software like Adobe Acrobat.

Features

• Visual PDF navigation with zoom and page controls
• Click to set destination positions for internal navigation
• Drag to create link regions pointing to destinations or external URLs
• Load/save destinations - preserves existing destinations in PDF
• Hover-to-delete link regions with visual feedback
• Mouse wheel scrolling with automatic page changes at boundaries
• Keyboard shortcuts for efficient workflow
• JSON configuration support for batch workflows
• Diagnose mode to inspect existing PDF structure
• PDF outline/TOC generation for reader sidebar navigation

Installation

pip install pdf-destinator

System Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• tkinter (GUI toolkit)

Windows: tkinter is included with the standard Python installer - no extra steps needed.

Linux: Install tkinter separately:

sudo apt-get install python3-tk # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dnf install python3-tkinter # Fedora

macOS: Included with python.org installer. If using Homebrew Python:

brew install python-tk

Usage

Basic Usage

Open a PDF and add destinations interactively:

pdf-destinator document.pdf

With Pre-defined Titles

Pre-populate the destination list with titles:

pdf-destinator document.pdf --titles "Introduction""Chapter 1""Chapter 2""Conclusion"

With JSON Configuration

Load destinations from a JSON file:

pdf-destinator document.pdf --json destinations.json

JSON format:

[
{
"pdfFile": "document.pdf",
"destinations": [
{ "id": "intro", "title": "Introduction" },
{ "id": "chapter-1", "title": "Chapter 1" },
{ "id": "https://example.com", "title": "External Link", "type": "url" }
]
}
]

Diagnose Mode

Inspect existing destinations and links in a PDF:

pdf-destinator document.pdf --diagnose

Generate PDF Outline/TOC

Generate a PDF outline (table of contents) that appears in PDF reader sidebars (like Evince, Adobe Reader, ReadEra, etc.).

Note: Link annotations (clickable regions on pages) are different from the PDF outline. The outline is what PDF readers display in their navigation sidebar. This feature creates that outline structure.

Command-line options:

# From named destinations in the PDF
pdf-destinator document.pdf --toc
# From links on specific TOC pages (extracts link text as titles)
pdf-destinator document.pdf --toc-from-links 3 5
# Both methods combined
pdf-destinator document.pdf --toc --toc-from-links 3 5

GUI options:

Use the "TOC" dropdown in the action bar before saving:

Option	Description
None	No TOC generation (default)
From destinations	Create TOC from all positioned destinations
From page links	Extract TOC from links on specified pages
Both	Combine both methods

When "From page links" or "Both" is selected, enter the page range in the "Pages" field:

• 3-5 - pages 3 to 5
• 1,3,5 - specific pages
• 2-4,7 - combination

Workflow

1. Open PDF - Run pdf-destinator with your PDF file
2. Navigate - Use arrow keys or buttons to browse pages, or click the page indicator to jump to a specific page
3. Click - Click on the page to set a destination position
4. Drag - Drag a rectangle to create a clickable link region
5. Delete - Hover over a link region (cursor changes to X) and click to delete
6. TOC - Optionally select TOC generation mode before saving
7. Save - Click "Save and quit" when done

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Left/Right	Navigate pages
Up/Down	Navigate destinations
Mouse wheel	Scroll page (changes pages at boundaries)

Page Navigation

Click the page indicator button (e.g., "Page 1 / 10") to open a dialog where you can jump directly to any page number.

Mouse Actions

Action	Result
Click	Set destination position at click location
Drag	Create link region pointing to current destination
Hover + Click on link	Delete the link region

Status Indicators

In the destination list:

• [x] - Destination has a position set
• [o] - Destination exists in PDF (loaded)
• [ ] - Destination needs a position
• [URL] - External URL (no position needed)

Use Cases

• Create table of contents links in newsletters or reports
• Add navigation to long PDF documents
• Link external resources from PDF pages
• Fix or update existing PDF destinations
• Batch processing with JSON configuration
• Generate PDF outline/TOC so destinations appear in reader sidebars

Python API

You can also use pdf-destinator programmatically:

frompdf_destinatorimportPDFDestinationPickerdestinations= [
{"id": "intro", "title": "Introduction"},
{"id": "chapter-1", "title": "Chapter 1"},
]
app=PDFDestinationPicker("document.pdf", destinations)
app.run()

Dependencies

• PyMuPDF - PDF rendering and link annotations
• pypdf - Named destinations
• Pillow - Image processing for display

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or pull request on GitHub.

Acknowledgments

Created with the help of Claude (Anthropic) as a free alternative to expensive PDF editing tools.