pdftoppm - Man Page

• Specify the range of pages to convert (N-first page, M-last page): pdftoppm -f N -l M path/to/file.pdf image_name_prefix
• Convert only the first page of a PDF: pdftoppm -singlefile path/to/file.pdf image_name_prefix
• Generate a monochrome PBM file (instead of a color PPM file): pdftoppm -mono path/to/file.pdf image_name_prefix
• Generate a grayscale PGM file (instead of a color PPM file): pdftoppm -gray path/to/file.pdf image_name_prefix
• Generate a PNG file instead a PPM file: pdftoppm -png path/to/file.pdf image_name_prefix

tldr.sh

pdftoppm [options] PDF-file PPM-root

Pdftoppm converts Portable Document Format (PDF) files to color image files in Portable Pixmap (PPM) format, grayscale image files in Portable Graymap (PGM) format, or monochrome image files in Portable Bitmap (PBM) format.

Pdftoppm reads the PDF file, PDF-file, and writes one PPM file for each page, PPM-root-number.ppm, where number is the page number.  If PDF-file is ´-', it reads the PDF file from stdin.

-f number

Specifies the first page to convert.

-l number

Specifies the last page to convert.

-o

Generates only the odd numbered pages.

-e

Generates only the even numbered pages.

-singlefile

Writes only the first page and does not add digits.

-r number

Specifies the X and Y resolution, in DPI.  The default is 150 DPI.

-rx number

Specifies the X resolution, in DPI.  The default is 150 DPI.

-ry number

Specifies the Y resolution, in DPI.  The default is 150 DPI.

-scale-to number

Scales the long side of each page (width for landscape pages, height for portrait pages) to fit in scale-to pixels. The size of the short side will be determined by the aspect ratio of the page.

-scale-to-x number

Scales each page horizontally to fit in scale-to-x pixels. If scale-to-y is set to -1, the vertical size will determined by the aspect ratio of the page.

-scale-to-y number

Scales each page vertically to fit in scale-to-y pixels. If scale-to-x is set to -1, the horizontal size will determined by the aspect ratio of the page.

-scale-dimension-before-rotation

Swaps horizontal and vertical size for a rotated (landscape) pdf before scaling instead of after.

-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)

-sz number

Specifies the size of crop square in pixels (sets W and H)

-cropbox

Uses the crop box rather than media box when generating the files

-hide-annotations

Do not show annotations

-mono

Generate a monochrome PBM file (instead of a color PPM file).

-gray

Generate a grayscale PGM file (instead of a color PPM file).

-displayprofile displayprofilefile

If poppler is compiled with colour management support, this option sets the display profile to the ICC profile stored in displayprofilefile.

-defaultgrayprofile defaultgrayprofilefile

If poppler is compiled with colour management support, this option sets the DefaultGray color space to the ICC profile stored in defaultgrayprofilefile.

-defaultrgbprofile defaultrgbprofilefile

If poppler is compiled with colour management support, this option sets the DefaultRGB color space to the ICC profile stored in defaultrgbprofilefile.

-defaultcmykprofile defaultcmykprofilefile

If poppler is compiled with colour management support, this option sets the DefaultCMYK color space to the ICC profile stored in defaultcmykprofilefile.

-png

Generates a PNG file instead a PPM file.

-jpeg

Generates a JPEG file instead a PPM file.

-jpegopt jpeg-options

When used with -jpeg, takes a list of options to control the jpeg compression. See Jpeg Options for the available options.

-tiff

Generates a TIFF file instead a PPM file.

-tiffcompression none | packbits | jpeg | lzw | deflate

Specifies the TIFF compression type.  This defaults to "none".

-freetype yes | no

Enable or disable FreeType (a TrueType / Type 1 font rasterizer). This defaults to "yes".

-thinlinemode none | solid | shape

Specifies the thin line mode. This defaults to "none".

"solid":

adjust lines with a width less than one pixel to pixel boundary  and paint it with a width of one pixel.

"shape":

adjust lines with a width less than one pixel to pixel boundary  and paint it with a width of one pixel but with a shape in proportion to its width.

-aa yes | no

Enable or disable font anti-aliasing.  This defaults to "yes".

-aaVector yes | no

Enable or disable vector anti-aliasing.  This defaults to "yes".

-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.

-progress

Print progress info as each page is generated.  Three space-separated fields are printed to STDERR: the number of the current page, the number of the last page that will be generated, and the path to the file written to.

-sep char

Specify single character separator between name and page number, default - .

-forcenum

Force page number even if there is only one page.

-v

Print copyright and version information.

-h

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

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.

When JPEG output is specified, the -jpegopt option can be used to control the JPEG compression parameters. It takes a string of the form "<opt>=<val>[,<opt>=<val>]". Currently the available options are:

quality

Selects the JPEG quality value. The value must be an integer between 0 and 100.

progressive

Select progressive JPEG output. The possible values are "y", "n", indicating progressive (yes) or non-progressive (no), respectively.

optimize

Sets whether to compute optimal Huffman coding tables for the JPEG output, which will create smaller files but make an extra pass over the data. The value must be "y" or "n", with "y" performing optimization, otherwise the default Huffman tables are used.

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

pdfdetach(1), pdffonts(1), pdfimages(1), pdfinfo(1), pdftocairo(1), pdftohtml(1), pdftops(1), pdftotext(1) pdfseparate(1), pdfsig(1), pdfunite(1)

ltximg(1), pdfattach(1), pdfdetach(1), pdffonts(1), pdfimages(1), pdfinfo(1), pdfseparate(1), pdfsig(1), pdftocairo(1), pdftohtml(1), pdftopng(1), pdftops(1), pdftotext(1), pdfunite(1), xpdf(1), xpdfrc(5).