Browse Command

The browse command is a unique feature of PDFSyntax. It generates a static HTML file that acts as a "Hyperlinked Hex Editor" for PDFs. It parses the raw PDF structure, pretty-prints the objects, and links references together.

Usage

pdfsyntax browse input.pdf > inspection.html

Open inspection.html in any web browser.

Features

The generated HTML view includes:

• Physical View: Objects are shown in the order they appear in the file bytes.
• Minimap: A sidebar navigation to jump between objects and revisions.
• Hyperlinks: Click on indirect references (e.g., 1 0 R) to jump to the definition of that object.
• Reverse Index: See which objects refer to the current object.
• Stream Inspection: Compressed streams are decoded and displayed (e.g., you can see the raw drawing commands of a page).
• Offset Highlighting: See file offsets and object generations.