pdftohtml(1)

NAME
pdftohtml - Portable Document Format (PDF) to HTML converter (version 4.06)

SYNOPSIS
pdftohtml [options] PDF-file HTML-dir

DESCRIPTION
Pdftohtml converts Portable Document Format (PDF) files to HTML.

Pdftohtml reads the PDF file, PDF-file, and places an HTML file for each page, along with auxiliary images in the directory, HTML-dir. The HTML directory will be created; if it already exists, pdftohtml will report an error.

CONFIGURATION FILE
Pdftohtml 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 /etc/xpdfrc (but this location can be changed when pdftohtml is built). See the xpdfrc(5) man page for details.

OPTIONS
Many of the following options can be set with configuration file commands. 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.

-z number
    Specifies the initial zoom level. The default is 1.0, which means 72dpi, i.e., 1 point in the PDF file will be 1 pixel in the HTML. Using '-z 1.5', for example, will make the initial view 50% larger.

-r number
    Specifies the resolution, in DPI, for background images. This controls the pixel size of the background image files. The initial zoom level is controlled by the '-z' option. Specifying a larger '-r' value will allow the viewer to zoom in farther without upscaling artifacts in the background.

-noframe
    The default is to generate an 'index.html' page with a sidebar listing all of the pages and a viewing area containing the current page in an HTML iframe. This option switches back to the older (pre-4.06) behavior of generating a very simple index page that just has links to the pages.

-vstretch number
    Specifies a vertical stretch factor. Setting this to a value greater than 1.0 will stretch each page vertically, spreading out the lines. This also stretches the background image to match.

-embedbackground
    Embeds the background image as base64-encoded data directly in the HTML file, rather than storing it as a separate file.

-nofonts
    Disable extraction of embedded fonts. By default, pdftohtml extracts TrueType and OpenType fonts. Disabling extraction can work around problems with buggy fonts.

-embedfonts
    Embeds any extracted fonts as base64-encoded data directly in the HTML file, rather than storing them as separate files.

-skipinvisible
    Don't draw invisible text. By default, invisible text (commonly used in OCR'ed PDF files) is drawn as transparent (alpha=0) HTML text. This option tells pdftohtml to discard invisible text entirely.

-allinvisible
    Treat all text as invisible. By default, regular (non-invisible) text is not drawn in the background image, and is instead drawn with HTML on top of the image. This option tells pdftohtml to include the regular text in the background image, and then draw it as transparent (alpha=0) HTML text.

-formfields
    Convert AcroForm text and checkbox fields to HTML input elements. This also removes text (e.g., underscore characters) and erases background image content (e.g., lines or boxes) in the field areas.

-meta
    Include PDF document metadata as 'meta' elements in the HTML header.

-table
    Use table mode when performing the underlying text extraction. This will generally produce better output when the PDF content is a full-page table. NB: This does not generate HTML tables; it just changes the way text is split up.

-overwrite
    By default pdftohtml will not overwrite the specified output directory. If the directory already exists, pdftohtml will exit with an error. This option tells pdftohtml to instead overwrite the existing directory.

-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.

-verbose
    Print a status message (to stdout) before processing each page. [config file: printStatusInfo]

-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.

98  Out of memory.

99  Other error.

AUTHOR
The pdftohtml software and documentation are copyright 1996-2025 Glyph & Cog, LLC.

SEE ALSO
xpdf(1), pdftops(1), pdftotext(1), pdfinfo(1), pdffonts(1), pdfdetach(1), pdftoppm(1), pdftopng(1), pdfimages(1), xpdfrc(5)
http://www.xpdfreader.com/