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MacOS Installation Guide for Stirling PDF

Stirling PDF can be run on macOS via the dedicated app found here, or the JAR file which can be found here.

Prerequisites:​

  • Java 17 or 21 (21 preferred)
    • Install via Homebrew: brew install openjdk@21

Running Stirling PDF​

  1. Open Terminal
  2. Navigate to the folder containing the JAR: 
    cd /path/to/folder/containing/jar
  3. Run the JAR file: 
    java -jar Stirling-PDF.jar

For convenience, you can create a simple script:

  1. Create a file named run-stirling.sh and add the following contents: 
    #!/bin/bash    
    cd /path/to/folder/containing/jar
    java -jar Stirling-PDF.jar
  2. Make it executable: 
    chmod +x run-stirling.sh
  3. Run it with: 
    ./run-stirling.sh

Optional Dependencies​

Install these via Homebrew to enable additional features like advanced document conversion or PDF compression:

# Install Homebrew if needed
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

# Install dependencies as needed
brew install openjdk@21          # Required
brew install qpdf                # PDF compression
brew install --cask libreoffice  # Document conversion
brew install tesseract           # OCR functionality
brew install tesseract-lang      # Additional OCR languages
brew install poppler             # PDF to HTML conversion
pip3 install weasyprint          # URL to PDF conversion

For Tesseract OCR, add to config/settings.yml (generated once you first run the jar):

system:
  tessdataDir: /usr/local/share/tessdata

Quick Troubleshooting​

  • Java not found? Add to ~/.zshrc: 
    export PATH="/usr/local/opt/openjdk@21/bin:$PATH"
  • Verify installations with: [command] --version (e.g., java --version)
  • LibreOffice issues? Ensure no LibreOffice processes are running
  • Need help? Visit GitHub Issues