Is the command line executable "quartzfilter" gone forever in Sierra?

Question

I'd like to use the pdf size reduction filters I've found, but from a script. Opening Preview and doing it manually is driving me nuts. The filters work very well, but I'd rather invoke the from the terminal.

In 2010, someone wrote a post on another site about an executable located at:

/System/Library/Printers/Libraries/quartzfilter

It is no longer at that location, or at any that I can figure out (though, I don't discount that it may be hidden in a bundle). It may be renamed.

Does anyone have any idea where to find this?

I've used "find" on the command line, with sudo... still nada.

Answer 1

It is gone forever, or hidden so well that you might as well give up.

A suitable substitute can be found at the following location:

https://gist.github.com/jrk/7eb26c9a868039c70bb9

This implements a short 24-line script that you can mark executable and use with the same argument set.

Answer 2

There's a python implementation here:

https://github.com/benwiggy/PDFsuite/tree/master/Shell_Scripts