pdftotext(1) - man - phpman

Che Dong

Convert PDF files to plain text format.

Convert `filename.pdf` to plain text and print it to `stdout`
pdftotext {{filename.pdf}} -
Convert `filename.pdf` to plain text and save it as `filename.txt`
pdftotext {{filename.pdf}}
Convert `filename.pdf` to plain text and preserve the layout
pdftotext -layout {{filename.pdf}}
Convert `input.pdf` to plain text and save it as `output.txt`
pdftotext {{input.pdf}} {{output.txt}}
Convert pages 2, 3, and 4 of `input.pdf` to plain text and save them as `output.txt`
pdftotext -f {{2}} -l {{4}} {{input.pdf}} {{output.txt}}

pdftotext(1)                           General Commands Manual                          pdftotext(1)



NAME
       pdftotext - Portable Document Format (PDF) to text converter (version 3.03)

SYNOPSIS
       pdftotext [options] [PDF-file [text-file]]

DESCRIPTION
       Pdftotext converts Portable Document Format (PDF) files to plain text.

       Pdftotext  reads  the PDF file, PDF-file, and writes a text file, text-file.  If text-file is
       not specified, pdftotext converts file.pdf to file.txt.  If text-file is  ´-',  the  text  is
       sent to stdout.  If PDF-file is ´-', it reads the PDF file from stdin.

OPTIONS
       -f number
              Specifies the first page to convert.

       -l number
              Specifies the last page to convert.

       -r number
              Specifies the resolution, in DPI.  The default is 72 DPI.

       -x number
              Specifies the x-coordinate of the crop area top left corner

       -y number
              Specifies the y-coordinate of the crop area top left corner

       -W number
              Specifies the width of crop area in pixels (default is 0)

       -H number
              Specifies the height of crop area in pixels (default is 0)

       -layout
              Maintain  (as best as possible) the original physical layout of the text.  The default
              is to ´undo' physical layout (columns, hyphenation, etc.) and output the text in read‐
              ing order.

       -fixed number
              Assume  fixed-pitch (or tabular) text, with the specified character width (in points).
              This forces physical layout mode.

       -raw   Keep the text in content stream order.  This is a hack  which  often  "undoes"  column
              formatting, etc.  Use of raw mode is no longer recommended.

       -nodiag
              Discard  diagonal  text (i.e., text that is not close to one of the 0, 90, 180, or 270
              degree axes). This is useful for skipping watermarks drawn on body text.

       -htmlmeta
              Generate a simple HTML file, including the meta information.  This  simply  wraps  the
              text in <pre> and </pre> and prepends the meta headers.

       -bbox  Generate an XHTML file containing bounding box information for each word in the file.

       -bbox-layout
              Generate  an  XHTML file containing bounding box information for each block, line, and
              word in the file.

       -cropbox
              Use the crop box rather than the media box with -bbox and -bbox-layout.

       -colspacing number
              Specifies how much spacing we allow after a word before considering adjacent  text  to
              be  a new column, measured as a fraction of the font size. Current default is 0.7, old
              releases had a 0.3 default.

       -enc encoding-name
              Sets the encoding to use for text output. This defaults to "UTF-8".

       -listenc
              Lists the available encodings

       -eol unix | dos | mac
              Sets the end-of-line convention to use for text output.

       -nopgbrk
              Don't insert page breaks (form feed characters) between pages.

       -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.

       -q     Don't print any messages or errors.

       -v     Print copyright and version information.

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

BUGS
       Some  PDF files contain fonts whose encodings have been mangled beyond recognition.  There is
       no way (short of OCR) to extract text from these files.

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 pdftotext software and documentation are copyright 1996-2011 Glyph & Cog, LLC.

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



                                           15 August 2011                               pdftotext(1)