pdfimages(1) - man - phpman

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TLDR: pdfimages (tldr-pages)

Utility for extracting images from PDFs.

  • Extract all images from a PDF file and save them as PNGs
    pdfimages -png {{path/to/file.pdf}} {{filename_prefix}}
  • Extract images from pages 3 to 5
    pdfimages -f {{3}} -l {{5}} {{path/to/file.pdf}} {{filename_prefix}}
  • Extract images from a PDF file and include the page number in the output filenames
    pdfimages -p {{path/to/file.pdf}} {{filename_prefix}}
  • List information about all the images in a PDF file
    pdfimages -list {{path/to/file.pdf}}
pdfimages(1)
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS EXIT CODES AUTHOR SEE ALSO
pdfimages(1)                           General Commands Manual                          pdfimages(1)



NAME
       pdfimages - Portable Document Format (PDF) image extractor (version 3.03)

SYNOPSIS
       pdfimages [options] PDF-file image-root

DESCRIPTION
       Pdfimages  saves  images from a Portable Document Format (PDF) file as Portable Pixmap (PPM),
       Portable Bitmap (PBM), Portable Network Graphics (PNG),  Tagged  Image  File  Format  (TIFF),
       JPEG, JPEG2000, or JBIG2 files.

       Pdfimages  reads the PDF file PDF-file, scans one or more pages, and writes one file for each
       image, image-root-nnn.xxx, where nnn is the image number and xxx is  the  image  type  (.ppm,
       .pbm,  .png, .tif, .jpg, jp2, jb2e, or jb2g).  If PDF-file is ´-', it reads the PDF file from
       stdin.

       The default output format is PBM (for monochrome images) or PPM for non-monochrome. The  -png
       or -tiff options change to default output to PNG or TIFF respectively. If both -png and -tiff
       are specified, CMYK images will be written as TIFF and all other images will  be  written  as
       PNG.  In  addition the -j, -jp2, and -jbig2 options will cause JPEG, JPEG2000, and JBIG2, re‐
       spectively, images in the PDF file to be written in their native format.

OPTIONS
       -f number
              Specifies the first page to scan.

       -l number
              Specifies the last page to scan.

       -png   Change the default output format to PNG.

       -tiff  Change the default output format to TIFF.

       -j     Write images in JPEG format as JPEG files instead of the default format. The JPEG file
              is identical to the JPEG data stored in the PDF.

       -jp2   Write  images  in  JPEG2000 format as JP2 files instead of the default format. The JP2
              file is identical to the JPEG2000 data stored in the PDF.

       -jbig2 Write images in JBIG2 format as JBIG2 files instead of the default format. JBIG2  data
              in  PDF  is  of the embedded type. The embedded type of JBIG2 has an optional separate
              file containing global data. The embedded data is written with the extension .jb2e and
              the  global  data (if available) will be written to the same image number with the ex‐
              tension .jb2g. The content of both these files is identical to the JBIG2 data  in  the
              PDF.

       -ccitt Write  images  in CCITT format as CCITT files instead of the default format. The CCITT
              file is identical to the CCITT data stored in the PDF. PDF  files  contain  additional
              parameters specifying how to decode the CCITT data. These parameters are translated to
              fax2tiff input options and written to a .params file with the same image  number.  The
              parameters are:

              -1     1D Group 3 encoding

              -2     2D Group 3 encoding

              -4     Group 4 encoding

              -A     Beginning of line is aligned on a byte boundary

              -P     Beginning of line is not aligned on a byte boundary

              -X n   The image width in pixels

              -W     Encoding uses 1 for black and 0 for white

              -B     Encoding uses 0 for black and 1 for white

              -M     Input data fills from most significant bit to least significant bit.

       -all   Write  JPEG,  JPEG2000, JBIG2, and CCITT images in their native format. CMYK files are
              written as TIFF files. All other images are written as PNG files.  This is  equivalent
              to specifying the options -png -tiff -j -jp2 -jbig2 -ccitt.

       -list  Instead of writing the images, list the images along with various information for each
              image. Do not specify an image-root with this option.

              The following information is listed for each image:

              page   the page number containing the image

              num    the image number

              type   the image type:

                     image - an opaque image
                     mask - a monochrome mask image
                     smask - a soft-mask image
                     stencil - a monochrome mask image used for painting a color or pattern

              Note: Tranparency in images is represented in PDF using a separate image for the image
              and the mask/smask.  The mask/smask used as part of a transparent image always immedi‐
              ately follows the image in the image list.

              width  image width (in pixels)

              height image height (in pixels)

              Note: the image width/height is the size of the embedded image, not the size the image
              will be rendered at.

              color  image color space:

                     gray - Gray
                     rgb - RGB
                     cmyk - CMYK
                     lab - L*a*b
                     icc - ICC Based
                     index - Indexed Color
                     sep - Separation
                     devn - DeviceN

              comp   number of color components

              bpc    bits per component

              enc    encoding:

                     image  - raster image (may be Flate or LZW compressed but does not use an image
                     encoding)
                     jpeg - Joint Photographic Experts Group
                     jp2 - JPEG2000
                     jbig2 - Joint Bi-Level Image Experts Group
                     ccitt - CCITT Group 3 or Group 4 Fax

              interp "yes" if the interpolation is to be performed when scaling up the image

              object ID
                     the image dictionary object ID (number and generation)

              x-ppi  The horizontal resolution of the image (in pixels per inch)  when  rendered  on
                     the pdf page.

              y-ppi  The  vertical resolution of the image (in pixels per inch) when rendered on the
                     pdf page.

              size   The size of the embedded image in the pdf  file.  The  following  suffixes  are
                     used: 'B' bytes, 'K' kilobytes, 'M' megabytes, and 'G' gigabytes.

              ratio  The compression ratio of the embedded image.

       -opw password
              Specify  the owner password for the PDF file.  Providing this will bypass all security
              restrictions.

       -upw password
              Specify the user password for the PDF file.

       -p     Include page numbers in output file names.

       -q     Don't print any messages or errors.

       -v     Print copyright and version information.

       -h     Print usage information.  (-help and --help are equivalent.)

EXIT CODES
       The Xpdf tools use the following exit codes:

       0      No error.

       1      Error opening a PDF file.

       2      Error opening an output file.

       3      Error related to PDF permissions.

       99     Other error.

AUTHOR
       The pdfimages software and documentation are copyright 1998-2011 Glyph & Cog, LLC.

SEE ALSO
       pdfdetach(1), pdffonts(1), pdfinfo(1), pdftocairo(1), pdftohtml(1), pdftoppm(1),  pdftops(1),
       pdftotext(1) pdfseparate(1), pdfsig(1), pdfunite(1)



                                           15 August 2011                               pdfimages(1)

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