6 pdftops - Portable Document Format (PDF) to PostScript
7 converter (version 3.02)
10 pdftops [options] [PDF-file [PS-file]]
13 Pdftops converts Portable Document Format (PDF) files to
14 PostScript so they can be printed.
16 Pdftops reads the PDF file, PDF-file, and writes a
17 PostScript file, PS-file. If PS-file is not specified,
18 pdftops converts file.pdf to file.ps (or file.eps with the
19 -eps option). If PS-file is '-', the PostScript is sent
23 Pdftops reads a configuration file at startup. It first
24 tries to find the user's private config file, ~/.xpdfrc.
25 If that doesn't exist, it looks for a system-wide config
26 file, typically /usr/local/etc/xpdfrc (but this location
27 can be changed when pdftops is built). See the xpdfrc(5)
31 Many of the following options can be set with configura-
32 tion file commands. These are listed in square brackets
33 with the description of the corresponding command line
37 Specifies the first page to print.
40 Specifies the last page to print.
43 Generate Level 1 PostScript. The resulting
44 PostScript files will be significantly larger (if
45 they contain images), but will print on Level 1
46 printers. This also converts all images to black
47 and white. No more than one of the PostScript
48 level options (-level1, -level1sep, -level2,
49 -level2sep, -level3, -level3Sep) may be given.
50 [config file: psLevel]
53 Generate Level 1 separable PostScript. All colors
54 are converted to CMYK. Images are written with
55 separate stream data for the four components.
56 [config file: psLevel]
59 Generate Level 2 PostScript. Level 2 supports
60 color images and image compression. This is the
61 default setting. [config file: psLevel]
64 Generate Level 2 separable PostScript. All colors
65 are converted to CMYK. The PostScript separation
66 convention operators are used to handle custom
67 (spot) colors. [config file: psLevel]
70 Generate Level 3 PostScript. This enables all
71 Level 2 features plus CID font embedding and masked
72 image generation. [config file: psLevel]
75 Generate Level 3 separable PostScript. The separa-
76 tion handling is the same as for -level2Sep. [con-
79 -eps Generate an Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) file. An
80 EPS file contains a single image, so if you use
81 this option with a multi-page PDF file, you must
82 use -f and -l to specify a single page. No more
83 than one of the mode options (-eps, -form) may be
86 -form Generate a PostScript form which can be imported by
87 software that understands forms. A form contains a
88 single page, so if you use this option with a
89 multi-page PDF file, you must use -f and -l to
90 specify a single page. The -level1 option cannot
93 -opi Generate OPI comments for all images and forms
94 which have OPI information. (This option is only
95 available if pdftops was compiled with OPI sup-
96 port.) [config file: psOPI]
99 By default, any Type 1 fonts which are embedded in
100 the PDF file are copied into the PostScript file.
101 This option causes pdftops to substitute base fonts
102 instead. Embedded fonts make PostScript files
103 larger, but may be necessary for readable output.
104 [config file: psEmbedType1Fonts]
107 By default, any TrueType fonts which are embedded
108 in the PDF file are copied into the PostScript
109 file. This option causes pdftops to substitute
110 base fonts instead. Embedded fonts make PostScript
111 files larger, but may be necessary for readable
112 output. Also, some PostScript interpreters do not
113 have TrueType rasterizers. [config file: psEm-
117 By default, any CID PostScript fonts which are
118 embedded in the PDF file are copied into the
119 PostScript file. This option disables that embed-
120 ding. No attempt is made to substitute for non-
121 embedded CID PostScript fonts. [config file: psEm-
122 bedCIDPostScriptFonts]
125 By default, any CID TrueType fonts which are embed-
126 ded in the PDF file are copied into the PostScript
127 file. This option disables that embedding. No
128 attempt is made to substitute for non-embedded CID
129 TrueType fonts. [config file: psEmbedCIDTrueType-
133 Convert PDF forms to PS procedures, and preload
134 image data. This uses more memory in the
135 PostScript interpreter, but generates significantly
136 smaller PS files in situations where, e.g., the
137 same image is drawn on every page of a long docu-
141 Set the paper size to one of "letter", "legal",
142 "A4", or "A3". This can also be set to "match",
143 which will set the paper size to match the size
144 specified in the PDF file. [config file: psPaper-
148 Set the paper width, in points. [config file:
152 Set the paper height, in points. [config file:
156 By default, output is cropped to the CropBox speci-
157 fied in the PDF file. This option disables crop-
158 ping. [config file: psCrop]
161 Expand PDF pages smaller than the paper to fill the
162 paper. By default, these pages are not scaled.
163 [config file: psExpandSmaller]
166 Don't scale PDF pages which are larger than the
167 paper. By default, pages larger than the paper are
168 shrunk to fit. [config file: psShrinkLarger]
171 By default, PDF pages smaller than the paper (after
172 any scaling) are centered on the paper. This
173 option causes them to be aligned to the lower-left
174 corner of the paper instead. [config file: psCen-
178 Treat the CropBox as the PDF page size. By
179 default, the MediaBox is used as the page size.
182 Set the Duplex pagedevice entry in the PostScript
183 file. This tells duplex-capable printers to enable
184 duplexing. [config file: psDuplex]
187 Specify the owner password for the PDF file. Pro-
188 viding this will bypass all security restrictions.
191 Specify the user password for the PDF file.
193 -q Don't print any messages or errors. [config file:
197 Read config-file in place of ~/.xpdfrc or the sys-
198 tem-wide config file.
200 -v Print copyright and version information.
202 -h Print usage information. (-help and --help are
206 The Xpdf tools use the following exit codes:
210 1 Error opening a PDF file.
212 2 Error opening an output file.
214 3 Error related to PDF permissions.
219 The pdftops software and documentation are copyright
220 1996-2007 Glyph & Cog, LLC.
223 xpdf(1), pdftotext(1), pdfinfo(1), pdffonts(1),
224 pdftoppm(1), pdfimages(1), xpdfrc(5)
225 http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/
229 27 February 2007 pdftops(1)