Save PDF attachments

Save files attached to a PDF

A PDF can carry other files: attached to the whole document (listed in the Bookmarks sidebar) or to a spot on a page (a paperclip or pushpin icon). Open or save them from SumatraPDF, or save them all from the command line.

Right-click the attachment and choose Save Attachment. At a glance:

Files attached to the document: listed at the end of the Bookmarks sidebar (F12); right-click → Save Attachment… or Open Attachment.
File attachment on a page: click the icon to open the file; right-click → Save Attachment.
Command line: sumatrapdf-tool extract file.pdf saves every attached file (plus images and fonts).
Command line, original names: a short run script, see below.

Save a file attached to the document #

Open the PDF and show the sidebar: F12, or View → Show Bookmarks. Attached files are listed after the table of contents, by file name. Hover one to see Attachment: ....
Right-click the file name and choose:
- Save Attachment… (CmdSaveAttachment): a save dialog opens with the attachment’s name in the PDF’s folder.
- Open Attachment (CmdOpenAttachment): opens it in a new tab. Shown only for .pdf attachments.

Clicking an attachment in the sidebar does nothing; use the right-click menu.

Note: the sidebar menu can also show Save Embedded File… (CmdSaveEmbeddedFile) and Open Embedded PDF (CmdOpenEmbeddedPDF), for bookmark entries that link to an embedded file. They work the same way.

Save a file attached to a page #

A file attachment annotation shows as an icon on the page, for example a paperclip or a pushpin.

Open it: click the icon. A file SumatraPDF can open (a PDF, an image, …) opens in a new tab (ver 3.7+). For other files, save them.
Save it: right-click the icon → Save Attachment, then pick where to save. The name defaults to the attachment’s name in the PDF’s folder.
In Edit PDF mode: click the annotation; its property row has Save Attachment (see Editing annotations).

To attach a file yourself, use the File Attachment annotation (see Editing annotations).

None of these commands are in the Command Palette: they act on the attachment you right-click.

Save attachments from the command line #

Available in pre-release 3.7

Save everything #

sumatrapdf-tool extract report.pdf

extracting file-0017.csv (data.csv)
extracting file-0019.txt (notes.txt)

Files attached to the document and to pages are both saved, as file-<object number>.<extension>. The original name is printed in parentheses.
Files go to the current folder, not the PDF’s folder.
extract also saves every image and font in the PDF. To save only one file, give its object number: sumatrapdf-tool extract report.pdf 17.

To find the object numbers of document attachments without extracting anything:

sumatrapdf-tool show report.pdf trailer/Root/Names/EmbeddedFiles/Names

[ (data.csv) 17 0 R ]

More options: sumatrapdf-tool extract.

Save attachments with their names #

This script saves document attachments and page attachments to the current folder, under their own names. Save it as save-attachments.js:

// usage: sumatrapdf-tool run save-attachments.js file.pdf
var doc = Document.openDocument(scriptArgs[0]);
function save(name, fs) {
    var buf = doc.getEmbeddedFileContents(fs);
    if (buf) {
        buf.save(name);
        print("saved " + name);
    }
}
var files = doc.getEmbeddedFiles();
for (var name in files) {
    save(name, files[name]);
}
for (var i = 0; i < doc.countPages(); i++) {
    doc.loadPage(i).getAnnotations().forEach(function (a) {
        if (a.getType() == "FileAttachment" && a.hasFilespec()) {
            var fs = a.getFilespec();
            save(doc.getFilespecParams(fs).filename, fs);
        }
    });
}

sumatrapdf-tool run save-attachments.js report.pdf

saved data.csv
saved notes.txt

A file with the same name is overwritten. Use SumatraPDF.exe instead of sumatrapdf-tool if you only have SumatraPDF installed (see Tools).

Tips #

Use sumatrapdf-tool extract in an empty folder: it can write many image and font files.
Use Batch process PDFs to run the script over a folder of PDFs.
If nothing is listed, the PDF has no attached files; a link to an outside file is not an attachment.