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.

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 reading 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.

   -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.

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

   -listenc
          Lits 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)

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Free and Open Source Software