pdftohtml(1)                General Commands Manual               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 com-
       mands.  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 ini-
              tial zoom level is controlled by the '-z' option.  Specifying  a
              larger '-r' value will allow the viewer to zoom in farther with-
              out 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 cur-
              rent 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 ex-
              tracts  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 en-
              tirely.

       -allinvisible
              Treat all text as invisible.  By default,  regular  (non-invisi-
              ble)  text  is not drawn in the background image, and is instead
              drawn with HTML on top of the image.  This option  tells  pdfto-
              html  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  ele-
              ments.  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 di-
              rectory.  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),  pdfde-
       tach(1), pdftoppm(1), pdftopng(1), pdfimages(1), xpdfrc(5)
       http://www.xpdfreader.com/



                                  14 Nov 2025                     pdftohtml(1)
