diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index f3f9d4a7e3a06de28207dbbafbd6a8753e356495..e6c731203bf5bc57302ff439de096d3b72839dc9 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -81,6 +81,10 @@ package-debian-job:
     # copy project files to be packaged
     - mkdir -p "${DEB_BUILD_DIR}/${INSTALL_PATH_VERAPDF_DEB}"
     - cp -r "${INSTALL_PATH_VERAPDF_DEB}" "${DEB_BUILD_DIR}/${INSTALL_PATH_VERAPDF_DEB}/.."
+    # create symlinks for easy-of-use
+    - mkdir -p "${DEB_BUILD_DIR}/usr/local/bin"
+    - ln -s "${INSTALL_PATH_VERAPDF_DEB}/verapdf" "${DEB_BUILD_DIR}/usr/local/bin/verapdf"
+    - ln -s "${INSTALL_PATH_VERAPDF_DEB}/verapdf-gui" "${DEB_BUILD_DIR}/usr/local/bin/verapdf-gui"
     # create deb control file from template
     - sed "s#VERSION_PLACEHOLDER#${VERAPDF_VERSION}-${REVISION}#g" gitlab-ci/verapdf.control > "${DEB_BUILD_DIR}/DEBIAN/control"
     # add checksums