{
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"text": "# pdftotext (man)\n\n## NAME\n\npdftotext - Portable Document Format (PDF) to text converter (version 3.03)\n\n## SYNOPSIS\n\npdftotext [options] [PDF-file [text-file]]\n\n## DESCRIPTION\n\nPdftotext converts Portable Document Format (PDF) files to plain text.\n\n## TLDR\n\n> Convert PDF files to plain text format.\n\n- Convert `filename.pdf` to plain text and print it to `stdout`:\n `pdftotext {{filename.pdf}} -`\n- Convert `filename.pdf` to plain text and save it as `filename.txt`:\n `pdftotext {{filename.pdf}}`\n- Convert `filename.pdf` to plain text and preserve the layout:\n `pdftotext -layout {{filename.pdf}}`\n- Convert `input.pdf` to plain text and save it as `output.txt`:\n `pdftotext {{input.pdf}} {{output.txt}}`\n- Convert pages 2, 3, and 4 of `input.pdf` to plain text and save them as `output.txt`:\n `pdftotext -f {{2}} -l {{4}} {{input.pdf}} {{output.txt}}`\n\n*Source: tldr-pages*\n\n## Sections\n\n- **NAME**\n- **SYNOPSIS**\n- **DESCRIPTION**\n- **OPTIONS** (25 subsections)\n- **BUGS**\n- **EXIT CODES**\n- **AUTHOR**\n- **SEE ALSO**\n\nUse structuredContent.sections for detailed options, examples, and full documentation.\n"
}
],
"structuredContent": {
"command": "pdftotext",
"section": "",
"mode": "man",
"summary": "pdftotext - Portable Document Format (PDF) to text converter (version 3.03)",
"synopsis": "pdftotext [options] [PDF-file [text-file]]",
"tldr_summary": "Convert PDF files to plain text format.",
"tldr_examples": [
{
"description": "Convert `filename.pdf` to plain text and print it to `stdout`",
"command": "pdftotext {{filename.pdf}} -"
},
{
"description": "Convert `filename.pdf` to plain text and save it as `filename.txt`",
"command": "pdftotext {{filename.pdf}}"
},
{
"description": "Convert `filename.pdf` to plain text and preserve the layout",
"command": "pdftotext -layout {{filename.pdf}}"
},
{
"description": "Convert `input.pdf` to plain text and save it as `output.txt`",
"command": "pdftotext {{input.pdf}} {{output.txt}}"
},
{
"description": "Convert pages 2, 3, and 4 of `input.pdf` to plain text and save them as `output.txt`",
"command": "pdftotext -f {{2}} -l {{4}} {{input.pdf}} {{output.txt}}"
}
],
"tldr_source": "official",
"flags": [
{
"flag": "-f",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Specifies the first page to convert."
},
{
"flag": "-l",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Specifies the last page to convert."
},
{
"flag": "-r",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Specifies the resolution, in DPI. The default is 72 DPI."
},
{
"flag": "-x",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Specifies the x-coordinate of the crop area top left corner"
},
{
"flag": "-y",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Specifies the y-coordinate of the crop area top left corner"
},
{
"flag": "-W",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Specifies the width of crop area in pixels (default is 0)"
},
{
"flag": "-H",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Specifies the height of crop area in pixels (default is 0)"
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "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."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Assume fixed-pitch (or tabular) text, with the specified character width (in points). This forces physical layout mode."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "formatting, etc. Use of raw mode is no longer recommended."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "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."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Generate a simple HTML file, including the meta information. This simply wraps the text in and
and prepends the meta headers."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": ""
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Generate an XHTML file containing bounding box information for each block, line, and word in the file."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Use the crop box rather than the media box with -bbox and -bbox-layout."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "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."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Sets the encoding to use for text output. This defaults to \"UTF-8\"."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Lists the available encodings"
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Sets the end-of-line convention to use for text output."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Don't insert page breaks (form feed characters) between pages."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Specify the owner password for the PDF file. Providing this will bypass all security restrictions."
},
{
"flag": "",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": "Specify the user password for the PDF file."
},
{
"flag": "-q",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": ""
},
{
"flag": "-v",
"long": null,
"arg": null,
"description": ""
},
{
"flag": "-h",
"long": "--help",
"arg": null,
"description": ""
}
],
"examples": [],
"see_also": [
{
"name": "pdfdetach",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdfdetach/1/json"
},
{
"name": "pdffonts",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdffonts/1/json"
},
{
"name": "pdfimages",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdfimages/1/json"
},
{
"name": "pdfinfo",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdfinfo/1/json"
},
{
"name": "pdftocairo",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdftocairo/1/json"
},
{
"name": "pdftohtml",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdftohtml/1/json"
},
{
"name": "pdftoppm",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdftoppm/1/json"
},
{
"name": "pdftops",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdftops/1/json"
},
{
"name": "pdfseparate",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdfseparate/1/json"
},
{
"name": "pdfsig",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdfsig/1/json"
},
{
"name": "pdfunite",
"section": "1",
"url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdfunite/1/json"
}
],
"section_outline": [
{
"name": "NAME",
"lines": 2,
"subsections": []
},
{
"name": "SYNOPSIS",
"lines": 2,
"subsections": []
},
{
"name": "DESCRIPTION",
"lines": 6,
"subsections": []
},
{
"name": "OPTIONS",
"lines": 1,
"subsections": [
{
"name": "-f",
"lines": 2,
"flag": "-f"
},
{
"name": "-l",
"lines": 2,
"flag": "-l"
},
{
"name": "-r",
"lines": 2,
"flag": "-r"
},
{
"name": "-x",
"lines": 2,
"flag": "-x"
},
{
"name": "-y",
"lines": 2,
"flag": "-y"
},
{
"name": "-W",
"lines": 2,
"flag": "-W"
},
{
"name": "-H",
"lines": 2,
"flag": "-H"
},
{
"name": "-layout",
"lines": 4
},
{
"name": "-fixed",
"lines": 3
},
{
"name": "-raw",
"lines": 2
},
{
"name": "-nodiag",
"lines": 3
},
{
"name": "-htmlmeta",
"lines": 3
},
{
"name": "-bbox",
"lines": 1
},
{
"name": "-bbox-layout",
"lines": 3
},
{
"name": "-cropbox",
"lines": 2
},
{
"name": "-colspacing",
"lines": 4
},
{
"name": "-enc",
"lines": 2
},
{
"name": "-listenc",
"lines": 2
},
{
"name": "-eol",
"lines": 2
},
{
"name": "-nopgbrk",
"lines": 2
},
{
"name": "-opw",
"lines": 3
},
{
"name": "-upw",
"lines": 2
},
{
"name": "-q",
"lines": 1,
"flag": "-q"
},
{
"name": "-v",
"lines": 1,
"flag": "-v"
},
{
"name": "-h -help --help",
"lines": 1,
"flag": "-h",
"long": "--help"
}
]
},
{
"name": "BUGS",
"lines": 3,
"subsections": []
},
{
"name": "EXIT CODES",
"lines": 12,
"subsections": []
},
{
"name": "AUTHOR",
"lines": 2,
"subsections": []
},
{
"name": "SEE ALSO",
"lines": 6,
"subsections": []
}
],
"sections": {
"NAME": {
"content": "pdftotext - Portable Document Format (PDF) to text converter (version 3.03)\n",
"subsections": []
},
"SYNOPSIS": {
"content": "pdftotext [options] [PDF-file [text-file]]\n",
"subsections": []
},
"DESCRIPTION": {
"content": "Pdftotext converts Portable Document Format (PDF) files to plain text.\n\nPdftotext reads the PDF file, PDF-file, and writes a text file, text-file. If text-file is\nnot specified, pdftotext converts file.pdf to file.txt. If text-file is ´-', the text is\nsent to stdout. If PDF-file is ´-', it reads the PDF file from stdin.\n",
"subsections": []
},
"OPTIONS": {
"content": "",
"subsections": [
{
"name": "-f",
"content": "Specifies the first page to convert.\n",
"flag": "-f"
},
{
"name": "-l",
"content": "Specifies the last page to convert.\n",
"flag": "-l"
},
{
"name": "-r",
"content": "Specifies the resolution, in DPI. The default is 72 DPI.\n",
"flag": "-r"
},
{
"name": "-x",
"content": "Specifies the x-coordinate of the crop area top left corner\n",
"flag": "-x"
},
{
"name": "-y",
"content": "Specifies the y-coordinate of the crop area top left corner\n",
"flag": "-y"
},
{
"name": "-W",
"content": "Specifies the width of crop area in pixels (default is 0)\n",
"flag": "-W"
},
{
"name": "-H",
"content": "Specifies the height of crop area in pixels (default is 0)\n",
"flag": "-H"
},
{
"name": "-layout",
"content": "Maintain (as best as possible) the original physical layout of the text. The default\nis to ´undo' physical layout (columns, hyphenation, etc.) and output the text in read‐\ning order.\n"
},
{
"name": "-fixed",
"content": "Assume fixed-pitch (or tabular) text, with the specified character width (in points).\nThis forces physical layout mode.\n"
},
{
"name": "-raw",
"content": "formatting, etc. Use of raw mode is no longer recommended.\n"
},
{
"name": "-nodiag",
"content": "Discard diagonal text (i.e., text that is not close to one of the 0, 90, 180, or 270\ndegree axes). This is useful for skipping watermarks drawn on body text.\n"
},
{
"name": "-htmlmeta",
"content": "Generate a simple HTML file, including the meta information. This simply wraps the\ntext in and
and prepends the meta headers.\n"
},
{
"name": "-bbox",
"content": ""
},
{
"name": "-bbox-layout",
"content": "Generate an XHTML file containing bounding box information for each block, line, and\nword in the file.\n"
},
{
"name": "-cropbox",
"content": "Use the crop box rather than the media box with -bbox and -bbox-layout.\n"
},
{
"name": "-colspacing",
"content": "Specifies how much spacing we allow after a word before considering adjacent text to\nbe a new column, measured as a fraction of the font size. Current default is 0.7, old\nreleases had a 0.3 default.\n"
},
{
"name": "-enc",
"content": "Sets the encoding to use for text output. This defaults to \"UTF-8\".\n"
},
{
"name": "-listenc",
"content": "Lists the available encodings\n"
},
{
"name": "-eol",
"content": "Sets the end-of-line convention to use for text output.\n"
},
{
"name": "-nopgbrk",
"content": "Don't insert page breaks (form feed characters) between pages.\n"
},
{
"name": "-opw",
"content": "Specify the owner password for the PDF file. Providing this will bypass all security\nrestrictions.\n"
},
{
"name": "-upw",
"content": "Specify the user password for the PDF file.\n"
},
{
"name": "-q",
"content": "",
"flag": "-q"
},
{
"name": "-v",
"content": "",
"flag": "-v"
},
{
"name": "-h -help --help",
"content": "",
"flag": "-h",
"long": "--help"
}
]
},
"BUGS": {
"content": "Some PDF files contain fonts whose encodings have been mangled beyond recognition. There is\nno way (short of OCR) to extract text from these files.\n",
"subsections": []
},
"EXIT CODES": {
"content": "The Xpdf tools use the following exit codes:\n\n0 No error.\n\n1 Error opening a PDF file.\n\n2 Error opening an output file.\n\n3 Error related to PDF permissions.\n\n99 Other error.\n",
"subsections": []
},
"AUTHOR": {
"content": "The pdftotext software and documentation are copyright 1996-2011 Glyph & Cog, LLC.\n",
"subsections": []
},
"SEE ALSO": {
"content": "pdfdetach(1), pdffonts(1), pdfimages(1), pdfinfo(1), pdftocairo(1), pdftohtml(1),\npdftoppm(1), pdftops(1), pdfseparate(1), pdfsig(1), pdfunite(1)\n\n\n\n15 August 2011 pdftotext(1)",
"subsections": []
}
}
}
}