XPDF

XPDF is a cross-platform suite of command-line PDF programs which allow you to view and convert PDF files.

Features

Converting to PNG

PDFtoPNG.exe will convert each page of the PDF into a PNG image with a DPI you specify. Example:

pdftopng.exe -r 72 mydocument.pdf x

This will convert every page of the PDF into a series of PNG images named x-000000.png, x-000001.png, etc., at 72 DPI.

Converting to Text

PDFtoText.exe is the best program I've seen at converting a PDF document into a plain text file because is has several features to help retain the original layout of the document. Example:

pdftotext.exe -table mydocument.pdf mytext.txt

This will convert the PDF document into a text file while trying to retain any tabular layouts.

Extracting Images

PDFImages.exe can extract all of the images from a PDF document. Unless specified to retain JPEG format, all images will be exported into PPM. Example:

pdfimages.exe -j mydocument.pdf x

This will extract all of the images from a PDF into a series of files named x-0000.ppm, x-0001.ppm, etc., while retaining all JPEGs.

Links

• foolabs.com/xpdf/home.html - Official.