"This was purchased by John Doe john.doe@email.com #ordernumber - if you are not John Doe, please dob in the person you got this from to company@example.com so we can sick our lawyers on them"

sorta footer on every single page.

Obviously for privacy reasons (and because I don't actually want lawyers sicked onto me), I need to remove this footer.

These are often complex PDFs with more than a hundred pages and multiple layers.

I managed to successfully remove the editing password (not user/viewing password, just can't edit without password) with qpdf --decrypt. But removing that footer has left me at a dead end. I have even tried manually removing every single instance of those footers using Master PDF Editor but saving the file flattened it and you are no longer able to show/hide layers which is essential for correct printing. (Please don't ask me how many different PDF editors I have tried because it has been so so SO many I have lost count).

Not that I really want to have to manually edit this out on what could amount to over a thousand pages but searching for a command to remove a certain phrase has come up empty. Even Master PDF Editor doesn't seem to have a bulk remove or search and replace function (just search).

I use Linux btw.

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[–] Grumpy@sh.itjust.works -2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

My best answer at this point would be that you need to make your own program to find and remove by content. Because no other manual pdf editor would reasonably have such a feature since it's so niche.

Also vibe coding with AI tends to be very good for singular tasks like this.

I wouldn't recommend converting the pdf to anything else since that would remove the layer info unless it's to more complicated formats like EPS, illustrator, etc.