pdftotext(1)                                                      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.

CONFIGURATION FILE
       Pdftotext  reads  a  configuration  file at startup.  It first tries to
       find the user's private config file, ~/.xpdfrc.  If that doesn't exist,
       it looks for a system-wide config file, typically /usr/local/etc/xpdfrc
       (but this location can be changed when pdftotext is  built).   See  the
       xpdfrc(5) man page for details.

OPTIONS
       Many  of  the following options can be set with configuration file com-
       mands.  These are listed in square brackets with the description of the
       corresponding command line option.

       -f number
              Specifies the first page to convert.

       -l number
              Specifies the last page to convert.

       -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 charac-
              ter 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.

       -enc encoding-name
              Sets the encoding to use for  text  output.   The  encoding-name
              must  be  defined  with  the unicodeMap command (see xpdfrc(5)).
              The encoding name is case-sensitive.  This defaults to  "Latin1"
              (which is a built-in encoding).  [config file: textEncoding]

       -eol unix | dos | mac
              Sets the end-of-line convention to use for text output.  [config
              file: textEOL]

       -nopgbrk
              Don't insert page breaks (form feed characters)  between  pages.
              [config file: textPageBreaks]

       -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.  [config file: errQuiet]

       -cfg config-file
              Read config-file in place of ~/.xpdfrc or the system-wide config
              file.

       -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
       xpdf(1),    pdftops(1),    pdfinfo(1),    pdffonts(1),    pdfdetach(1),
       pdftoppm(1), pdfimages(1), xpdfrc(5)
       http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/



                                15 August 2011                    pdftotext(1)
