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.
Table of Contents
Decrypt
Encrypt
ExtractText
OverlayPDF
PDFDebugger
PDFMerger
PDFSplit
PDFToImage
PrintPDF
TextToPDF
WriteDecodedDoc
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. |
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. |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| -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. |
| -force | false | Enables pdfbox to ignore corrupt objects. |
| -debug | false | Enables debug output about the time consumption of every stage. |
| -startPage | 1 | The first page to extract, one based. |
| -endPage | Integer.MAX_INT | The last page to extract, one based. |
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:
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. |
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>
This application will take an existing PDF document and split it into a number of other documents
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. |
Examples:
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. |
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 | Description |
|---|---|
| -password | The password to decrypt the PDF. |
| -silentPrint | Print the PDF without prompting for a printer. |
| inputfile | The PDF file to print. |
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:
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. | |
| The PDF file to decompress | ||
| The destination PDF file |