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-2.y.z.jar Decrypt [OPTIONS] <inputfile> [outputfile]

Command-Line Parameter Description
-password Password to the PDF or certificate in 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.
-alias The alias to the certificate in the keystore.
inputfile The PDF file to decrypt.
outputfile The file to save the decrypted document to. If left blank then it will be the same as the input file.

Encrypt

This application will encrypt a PDF document.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-2.y.z.jar Encrypt [OPTIONS] <password> <inputfile>

Command-Line Parameter Default Description
-O The owner password to the PDF, ignored if -certFile is specified.
-U The user password to the PDF, ignored if -certFile is specified.
-certFile Path to X.509 cert file.
-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.
-canPrintDegraded true Set the print degraded permission.
-keyLength 40, 128 or 256 The number of bits for the encryption key. For 128 and above bits Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files must be installed.
inputfile The PDF file to encrypt.
outputfile The file to save the encrypted document to. If left blank then it will be the same as the input file.

ExtractImages

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

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-2.y.z.jar ExtractImages [OPTIONS] <inputfile>

Command-Line Parameter Default Description
-password The password to the PDF document.
-prefix PDF name Image prefix to use.
-directJPEG false Forces the direct extraction of JPEG images regardless of colorspace.

ExtractText

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

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-2.y.z.jar ExtractText [OPTIONS] <inputfile> [Text file]

Command-Line Parameter Default Description
-alwaysNext false Process next page (if applicable) despite IOException (ignored when -html)
-password The password to the PDF document.
-encoding default encoding The encoding type of the text file, e.g. ISO-8859-1, UTF-8, UTF-16BE.
-console false Send text to console instead of file.
-html false Output in HTML format instead of raw text.
-sort false Sort the text before writing.
-ignoreBeads false Disables the separation by beads.
-debug false Enables debug output about the time consumption of every stage.
-rotationMagic false Analyze each page for rotated/skewed text, rotate to 0° and extract separately (slower, and ignored when -html)
-startPage 1 The first page to extract, one based.
-endPage Integer.MAX_INT The last page to extract, one based.

OverlayPDF

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

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-2.y.z.jar OverlayPDF <input.pdf> [OPTIONS] <output.pdf>

Command-Line Parameter Default Description
inputfile The PDF file to be overlayed.
defaultOverlay.pdf Default overlay file.
-odd oddPageOverlay.pdf Overlay file used for odd pages.
-even evenPageOverlay.pdf Overlay file used for even pages.
-first firstPageOverlay.pdf Overlay file used for the first page.
-last lastPageOverlay.pdf Overlay file used for the last pages.
-page pageNumber specificPageOverlay.pdf overlay file used for the given page number, may occur more than once.
-position background Where to put the overlay, foreground or background.
outputfile The resulting pdf file.

Examples:

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-2.y.z.jar PDFDebugger [inputfile]

Command-Line Parameter Default Description
-password The password to the PDF document.
-viewstructure Activates the "view structure" view on startup.
inputfile the name of an optional PDF file to open.

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-2.y.z.jar PDFMerger <Source PDF files (2 ..n)> <Target PDF file>

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-2.y.z.jar PDFSplit [OPTIONS] <PDF file>

Command-Line Parameter Default Description
-password The password to the PDF document.
-split Number of pages of every splitted part of the pdf.
-startPage The page to start at.
-endPage The page to stop at.
--outputPrefix The prefix for the generated file name. The resulting name will be in the format <prefix>-<nr>.pdf

Examples:

PDFToImage

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

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-2.y.z.jar PDFToImage [OPTIONS] <PDF file>

Command-Line Parameter Default Description
-password The password to the PDF document.
-imageType jpg The image type to write to. Currently only jpg or png.
-outputPrefix Name of PDF document The prefix to the image file.
-startPage 1 The first page to convert, one based.
-endPage Integer.MAX_INT The last page to convert, one based.
-page The only page to extract (1-based).
-dpi detected from screen (or 96 if headless) DPI resolution of exported images.
-color rgb The color depth (valid: bilevel, gray, rgb, rgba).
-cropbox <int> <int> <int> <int> The page area to export.
-time Prints timing information to stdout.

PrintPDF

This application will send a pdf document to the printer.

You must have the correct permissions to print the document!

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-2.y.z.jar PrintPDF [OPTIONS] <inputfile>

Command-Line Parameter Default Description
-password The password to decrypt the PDF.
-silentPrint Print the PDF without prompting for a printer.
-printerName <name> Print to specified printer.
-orientation [auto | portrait | landscape] auto Print using orientation.
-border Print with border.
-dpi Render into intermediate image with specific dpi and then print.
inputfile The PDF file to print.

TextToPDF

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

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-2.y.z.jar TextToPDF [OPTIONS] <outputfile> <textfile>

Command-Line Parameter Default Description
-standardFont Helvetica The font to use for the text. Either this or -ttf should be specified but not both.
-ttf The TTF font to use for the text. Either this or -standardFont should be specified but not both.
-fontSize 10 The size of the font to use.

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

WriteDecodedDoc

An application to decompress PDF documents.

Usage: java -jar pdfbox-app-2.y.z.jar WriteDecodedDoc <input-file> <output-file>

Command-Line Parameter Default Description
-password The password to the PDF document.
input-file The PDF file to decompress
output-file The destination PDF file