/usr/bin/pdftotext --help — Chainguard OS Manuals

From poppler-utils 26.11.0-r0 (os), captured 2026-11-06 by running pdftotext --help (exit 0). permalink

pdftotext version 26.11.0
Copyright 2005-2026 The Poppler Developers - http://poppler.freedesktop.org
Copyright 1996-2011, 2022 Glyph & Cog, LLC
Usage: pdftotext [options] <PDF-file> [<text-file>]
  -f <int>                : first page to convert
  -l <int>                : last page to convert
  -r <fp>                 : resolution, in DPI (default is 72)
  -x <int>                : x-coordinate of the crop area top left corner
  -y <int>                : y-coordinate of the crop area top left corner
  -W <int>                : width of crop area in pixels (default is 0)
  -H <int>                : height of crop area in pixels (default is 0)
  -layout                 : maintain original physical layout
  -fixed <fp>             : assume fixed-pitch (or tabular) text
  -raw                    : keep strings in content stream order
  -remove-hyphens <string>: end-of-line hyphen handling: none, soft, or all (default: all)
  -nodiag                 : discard diagonal text
  -htmlmeta               : generate a simple HTML file, including the meta information
  -tsv                    : generate a simple TSV file, including the meta information for bounding boxes
  -enc <string>           : output text encoding name
  -listenc                : list available encodings
  -eol <string>           : output end-of-line convention (unix, dos, or mac)
  -nopgbrk                : don't insert page breaks between pages
  -urls                   : print the URL of each link next to its link text
  -bbox                   : output bounding box for each word and page size to html. Sets -htmlmeta
  -bbox-layout            : like -bbox but with extra layout bounding box data.  Sets -htmlmeta
  -cropbox                : use the crop box rather than media box
  -colspacing <fp>        : how much spacing we allow after a word before considering adjacent text to be a new column, as a fraction of the font size (default is 0.7, old releases had a 0.3 default)
  -opw <string>           : owner password (for encrypted files)
  -upw <string>           : user password (for encrypted files)
  -q                      : don't print any messages or errors
  -v                      : print copyright and version info
  -h                      : print usage information
  -help                   : print usage information
  --help                  : print usage information
  -?                      : print usage information

Options (31)

Option	Description	Source
`-f` int	Specifies the first page to convert.	help + man
`-l` int	Specifies the last page to convert.	help + man
`-r` fp	: resolution, in DPI (default is 72)	help + man
`-x` int	Specifies the x-coordinate of the crop area top left corner	help + man
`-y` int	Specifies the y-coordinate of the crop area top left corner	help + man
`-W` int	Specifies the width of crop area in pixels (default is 0)	help + man
`-H` int	Specifies the height of crop area in pixels (default is 0)	help + man
`-layout`	Maintain (as best as possible) the original physical layout of the text.	help + man
`-fixed` fp	Assume fixed-pitch (or tabular) text, with the specified character width (in points).	help + man
`-raw`	: keep strings in content stream order	help + man
`-nodiag`	Discard diagonal text (i.e., text that is not close to one of the 0, 90, 180, or 270 degree axes).	help + man
`-htmlmeta`	: generate a simple HTML file, including the meta information	help + man
`-tsv`	Generate a TSV file containing the bounding box information for each block, line, and word in the file.	help + man
`-enc` string	Sets the encoding to use for text output.	help + man
`-listenc`	Lists the available encodings	help + man
`-eol` string	Sets the end-of-line convention to use for text output.	help + man
`-nopgbrk`	Don't insert page breaks (form feed characters) between pages.	help + man
`-urls`	Print the URL of each link next to its link text, enclosed in square brackets at the end of the line (or line fragment) that contains the linked text.	help + man
`-bbox`	Generate an XHTML file containing bounding box information for each word in the file.	help + man
`-bbox-layout`	Generate an XHTML file containing bounding box information for each block, line, and word in the file.	help + man
`-cropbox`	Use the crop box rather than the media box with -bbox and -bbox-layout.	help + man
`-colspacing` fp	: how much spacing we allow after a word before considering adjacent text to be a new column, as a fraction of the font size (default is 0.7, old releases had a 0.3 default)	help + man
`-opw` string	Specify the owner password for the PDF file.	help + man
`-upw` string	Specify the user password for the PDF file.	help + man
`-q`	: don't print any messages or errors	help + man
`-v`	Print copyright and version information.	help + man
`-h`	: print usage information	help + man
`-help`	: print usage information	help
`--help`	: print usage information	help
`-?`	: print usage information	help
`-remove-hyphens` mode	Controls end-of-line hyphen handling. (in the manual page but not in --help)	man

Exit status (5) from the manual page

`0`	No error.
`1`	Error opening a PDF file.
`2`	Error opening an output file.
`3`	Error related to PDF permissions.
`99`	Other error.

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.