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layout: documentation title: Command-Line Tools eleventyNavigation: order: 5

Command-Line Tools

PDFBox comes with a series of command-line utilities. They are available as standard Java applications.

See the Dependencies page for instructions on how to set your classpath in order to run PDFBox tools as Java applications.

Decrypt

This application will decrypt a PDF document.

NOTE: You must have the owner password to decrypt the document!

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar decrypt [OPTIONS] -i=<infile>

Command-Line Parameter	Description
-alias=	The alias to the certificate in the keystore.
-h, --help	Show help message and exit.
-i, --input=<infile>	The PDF file to decrypt.
-keyStore=<keyStore>	Path to keystore that holds certificate to decrypt the document. This is only required if the document is encrypted with a certificate, otherwise only the password is required.
-o, --output=<outfile>	The file to save the decrypted document to. If left blank then it will be the same as the input file.
-password=[<password>]	Password to the PDF or certificate in keystore.
-V, --version	Print version information and exit.

Encrypt

This application will encrypt a PDF document.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar encrypt [OPTIONS] -i=<infile>

Command-Line Parameter	Default	Description
-canAssemble	true	Set the assemble permission.
-canExtractContent	true	Set the extraction permission.
-canExtractForAccessibility	true	Set the extraction permission.
-canFillInForm	true	Set the fill in form permission.
-canModify	true	Set the modify permission.
-canModifyAnnotations	true	Set the modify annots permission.
-canPrint	true	Set the print permission.
-canPrintFaithful	true	Set the print faithful permission.
-certFile=<certFile>		Path to X.509 cert file.
-h, --help		Show help message and exit.
-i, --input=<infile>		The PDF file to encrypt.
-keyLength	256	Key length in bits (valid values: 40, 128 or 256)
-o, --output=<outfile>		the encrypted PDF file. If omitted the original file is overwritten.
-O=[<ownerPassword>]		set the owner password (ignored if certFile is set)
-U=[<userPassword>]		set the user password (ignored if certFile is set)
-V, --version		Print version information and exit.

ExtractImages

This application will extract all images from the given PDF document.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar export:images [OPTIONS] -i=<infile>

Command-Line Parameter	Description
-h, --help	Show help message and exit.
-i, --input=<infile>	The PDF file to decrypt.
-noColorConvert	Images are extracted with their original colorspace if possible.
-password=[<password>]	Password for the PDF or certificate in keystore.
-prefix=<prefix>	the image prefix (default to pdf name).
-useDirectJPEG	Forces the direct extraction of JPEG/JPX images regardless of colorspace or masking.
-V, --version	Print version information and exit.

ExtractText

This application will extract all text from the given PDF document.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar export:text [OPTIONS] -i=<infile>

Command-Line Parameter	Default	Description
-alwaysNext	false	Process next page (if applicable) despite IOException (ignored when -html)
-console	false	Send text to console instead of file.
-debug	false	Enables debug output about the time consumption of every stage.
-encoding=<encoding>	UTF-8	The encoding type of the text file, e.g. UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE, etc.
-endPage=<endPage>	Integer.MAX_INT	The last page to extract (1 based, inclusive)
-h, --help		Show help message and exit.
-html	false	Output in HTML format instead of raw text.
-i, --input=<infile>		The PDF file to encrypt.
-ignoreBeads	false	Disables the separation by beads.
-o, --output=<outfile>		the exported text file.
-password=[<password>]		Password for the PDF or certificate in keystore.
-rotationMagic	false	Analyze each page for rotated/skewed text, rotate to 0° and extract separately (slower, and ignored when -html)
-sort	false	Sort the text before writing.
-startPage=<startPage>	1	The first page to start extraction (1 based, inclusive)
-V, --version		Print version information and exit.

OverlayPDF

This application will overlay one document with the content of another document

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar overlayPDF [OPTIONS] -i=<infile> -o=<outfile>

Command-Line Parameter	Default	Description
-default=<defaultOverlay>		the default overlay file.
-even=<evenPageOverlay>		overlay file used for even pages.
-first=<firstPageOverlay		overlay file used for the first page.
-h, --help		Show help message and exit.
-i, --input=<infile>		the PDF file to be overlayed.
-last=<lastPageOverlay>		Overlay file used for the last pages.
-o, --output=<outfile>		the resulting PDF file.
-odd=<oddPageOverlay>		overlay file used for odd pages.
-page=<Integer=specificPageOverlay>		overlay file used for the given page number, may occur more than once.
-position=<position>	background	Where to put the overlay, foreground or background.
-useAllPages=<useAllPagesOverlay		overlay file used for overlay, all pages are used by simply repeating them
-V, --version		Print version information and exit.

Examples:

overlayPDF -i=input.pdf -default=overlay.pdf -o=output.pdf
overlayPDF -i=input.pdf -default=defaultOverlay.pdf -page=“10=overlayForPage10.pdf” -position=foreground -o=output.pdf
overlayPDF -i=input.pdf -odd=oddOverlay.pdf -even=evenOverlay.pdf -o=output.pdf

PDFDebugger

This application will take an existing PDF document and allows to analyze and inspect the internal structure. It is used as replacement for the PDFReader which was removed in 2.0.0.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar debug [inputfile]

Command-Line Parameter	Description
inputfile	the name of an optional PDF file to open.
-h, --help	Show help message and exit.
-password=[<password>]	password to derypt the PDF.
-viewstructure	Activates the “view structure” view on startup.

PDFMerger

This application will take a list of pdf documents and merge them, saving the result in a new document.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar merge [-hV] -o=outfile -i=<infile> [-i=<infile>]

Command-Line Parameter	Description
-h, --help	Show help message and exit.
-i, --input=<infile>	the PDF files to merge
-o, --output=<outfile>	the merged PDF file.
-V, --version	Print version information and exit.

PDFSplit

This application will take an existing PDF document and split it into a number of new documents.

Per default the resulting files will be named after the original filenmame with -<nr> appended before the suffix. To override the filename use the outputPrefix option.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar split [OPTIONS] -i=<infile>

Command-Line Parameter	Description
-endPage=<endPage>	end page.
-h, --help	Show help message and exit.
-i, --input=<infile>	the PDF file to split
--outputPrefix=<outputPrefix>	the filename prefix for split files.
-password=[<password>]	Password to the PDF.
-split=<split>	split after this many pages (default 1, if startPage and endPage are unset).
-startPage=<startPage>	start page.
-endPage	The page to stop at.
-V, --version	Print version information and exit.

Examples:

PDFSplit -split=2 -i=sample_with_13_pages.pdf will split the pdf in pieces of 2 pages each except the last which will contain 1 page only.
PDFSplit -startPage=5 -i=sample_with_13_pages.pdf will provide a pdf containing all pages of the source pdf starting at page 5
PDFSplit -startPage=5 -endPage=10 -i=sample_with_13_pages.pdf will provide a pdf containing all pages from 5 to 10 of the source pdf
PDFSplit -split=2 -startPage=5 -endPage=10 -isample_with_13_pages.pdf will provide 3 pdfs containing all pages from 5 to 10 of the source pdf 2 pages each

PDFToImage

This application will create an image for every page in the PDF document.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar render [OPTIONS] -i=<infile>

Command-Line Parameter	Default	Description
-color=<imageType>	rgb	The color depth (valid: BINARY, GRAY, RGB, ARGB, BGR)
-cropbox=<int> <int> <int> <int>		The page area to export.
-dpi, -resolution=<dpi>	detected from screen (or 96 if headless)	the DPI of the output image
-endPage=<endPage>	Integer.MAX_INT	The last page to convert, (one based, inclusive).
-format=<imageFormat>	jpg	The image file format.
-h, --help		Show help message and exit.
-i, --input=<infile>		the PDF file to convert.
-page=<page>		The only page to extract (1-based).
-password=[<password>]		Password for the PDF.
-prefix, -outputPrefix=<outputPrefix>	Name of PDF document	the filename prefix for image files
-quality=<quality>	0 for PNG and 1 for other formats	the quality to be used when compressing the image (0 <= quality <= 1).
-startPage=<startPage>	1	the first page to start extraction (one based)
-subSampling		activate subsampling (for PDFs with huge images)
-time		print timing information to stdout.
-V, --version		print version information and exit.

PrintPDF

This application will send a pdf document to the printer.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar print [OPTIONS] -i=<infile>

Command-Line Parameter	Default	Description
-border		Print with border.
-dpi=<dpi>		render into intermediate image with specific dpi and then print
-duplex=<duplex>	DOCUMENT	print using duplex (SIMPLEX, DUPLEX, TUMBLE, DOCUMENT).
-h, --help		Show help message and exit.
-i, --input=<infile>		the PDF file to print.
-mediaSize=<mediaSize>		print using media size name.
-noColorOpt		disable color optimizations (useful when printing barcodes).
-orientation	AUTO	print using orientation (AUTO, LANDSCAPE, PORTRAIT).
-password=[<password>]		Password for the PDF.
-printerName=<printerName>		print to specified printer.
-silentPrint		print without printer dialog box.
-tray=<tray>		print using tray.
-V, --version		print version information and exit.

TextToPDF

This application will create a PDF document from a text file.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar fromText [OPTIONS] -i=<infile> -o=<outfile>

Command-Line Parameter	Default	Description
-charset=<charset>	UTF-8	the charset to use.
-fontSize=<fontSize>	10	the size of the font to use.
-h, --help		Show help message and exit.
-i, --input=<infile>		the text file to convert.
-landscape		set orientation to landscape.
-o, --output=<outfile>		the generated PDF file.
-pageSize=<pageSize>	LETTER	the page size to use (LETTER, LEGAL, A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6).
-standardFont=<standardFont>	Helvetica	The font to use for the text. Either this or -ttf should be specified but not both.
-ttf=<ttfFile>		The TTF font to use for the text. Either this or -standardFont should be specified but not both.
-V, --version		print version information and exit.

The following font names can be used for the parameter standardFont:

Courier
Courier-Bold
Courier-Oblique
Courier-BoldOblique
Helvetica
Helvetica-Bold
Helvetica-Oblique
Helvetica-BoldOblique
Symbol
Times-Bold
Times-Roman
Times-Italic
Times-BoldItalic
ZapfDingbats

WriteDecodedDoc

An application to decompress PDF documents.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-3.y.z.jar decode [OPTIONS] <input-file> <output-file>

Command-Line Parameter	Description
input-file	the PDF document to decompress
output-file	the PDF file top save to
-h, --help	Show help message and exit.
-password=[<password>]	Password for the PDF.
-skipImages	don't uncompress images
-V, --version	print version information and exit.