pdftops(1)

🎀 pdftops(1) · General Commands Manual 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

okay so the manual name here is pdftops, and it's a Portable Document Format (PDF) to PostScript converter 💖 this version is 3.03!

🧚 SYNOPSIS 🧚

pdftops [options] <PDF-file> [<PS-file>]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

bestie, pdftops turns PDF files into PostScript so they can actually get printed 🖨️✨

it reads the PDF you give it, PDF-file, and writes a PostScript file called PS-file. if you don't name a PS-file, it converts file.pdf into file.ps (or file.eps if you use the -eps option) 🌸 if you pass ´-' as the PS-file, the PostScript gets sent to stdout instead. and if you pass ´-' as the PDF-file, it reads the PDF from stdin 🫶

🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

• -f number — picks the first page you want to print 📄
• -l number — picks the last page you want to print 📄
• -level1 — generates Level 1 PostScript. ngl the files come out way bigger if there are images, but they'll print on Level 1 printers 🖨️ this also turns every image black and white 🩶 you can only use one of the PostScript level options (-level1, -level1sep, -level2, -level2sep, -level3, -level3sep) at a time, no cheating 🙅‍♀️
• -level1sep — generates Level 1 separable PostScript. all colors get converted to CMYK, and images get written with separate stream data for each of the four components 🌈
• -level2 — generates Level 2 PostScript. this one supports color images and image compression, and it's the default vibe 👑
• -level2sep — generates Level 2 separable PostScript. all colors become CMYK, and the PostScript separation convention operators handle custom (spot) colors 🎨
• -level3 — generates Level 3 PostScript. it turns on all the Level 2 features plus CID font embedding 🚀
• -level3sep — generates Level 3 separable PostScript. the separation handling is the same as -level2sep 💜
• -eps — generates an Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) file 🦢 an EPS file holds a single image, so if your PDF has multiple pages you have to use -f and -l to pick just one page 🙈 you can only use one of the mode options (-eps, -form) at a time
• -form — generates a PostScript form that software with form support can import 📋 a form holds one page, so same deal: with a multi-page PDF you need -f and -l to select a single page. -level1 can't be used with -form 🙅‍♀️ and again, only one mode option (-eps, -form) allowed
• -opi — generates OPI comments for all images and forms that have OPI info 🖼️ heads up, this one is only available if pdftops was compiled with OPI support
• -binary — writes binary data in Level 1 PostScript. by default pdftops writes hex-encoded data in Level 1, but binary is technically non-standard in Level 1 PostScript. the perk is a smaller file size, and it's handy when you only need Level 1 for its restricted set of PostScript operators 🤓
• -r number — sets the resolution in DPI for when pdftops rasterizes images with transparencies, or (for Level 1 PostScript) images with color masks 📐 by default it rasterizes to 300 DPI ✨
• -noembt1 — normally, any embedded Type 1 fonts in the PDF get copied into the PostScript file. this option makes pdftops swap in base fonts instead 🔤 embedded fonts make PostScript files bigger, but they might be needed for readable output
• -noembtt — normally, any embedded TrueType fonts in the PDF get copied into the PostScript file. this option makes pdftops swap in base fonts instead 🔤 embedded fonts make files bigger, but they might be needed for readable output. also, some PostScript interpreters don't have TrueType rasterizers, so keep that in mind 🙈
• -noembcidps — normally, any embedded CID PostScript fonts get copied into the PostScript file. this option turns that embedding off 🚫 and no attempt is made to substitute for non-embedded CID PostScript fonts
• -noembcidtt — normally, any embedded CID TrueType fonts get copied into the PostScript file. this option turns that embedding off 🚫 and no attempt is made to substitute for non-embedded CID TrueType fonts
• -passfonts — by default, references to non-embedded 8-bit fonts get swapped for the closest "Helvetica", "Times-Roman", or "Courier" font 🔁 this option passes those references straight through to the PostScript file instead
• -aaRaster yes | no — turns raster anti-aliasing on or off. it defaults to "no" 💅 pdftops might need to rasterize transparencies and pattern image masks. if the PostScript is going to get printed, leave -aaRaster off and set -r to your printer's resolution 🖨️ if it's going to get viewed on screen, turning -aaRaster on can make rasterized text easier to read 👀
• -rasterize always | never | whenneeded — by default pdftops rasterizes pages as needed, like when they contain transparencies 🖼️ set it to "always" to force rasterization, which is the way to eliminate fonts 🫠 set it to "never" to stop rasterization completely, but heads up, this may produce files that display incorrectly ⚠️
• -processcolorformat MONO8 | CMYK8 | RGB8 — sets the process color format used during rasterization and transparency reduction 🎨 the default depends on your other settings: for -level1 it's MONO8, for -level{1,2,3}sep or -overprint it's CMYK8, and in every other case it's RGB8. if you give -processcolorprofile, then -processcolorformat gets inferred from that ICC profile 🧠
• -processcolorprofile filename — sets the ICC profile that gets assumed during rasterization and transparency reduction 🎀
• -defaultgrayprofile defaultgrayprofilefile — if poppler was compiled with colour management support, this sets the DefaultGray color space to the ICC profile stored in defaultgrayprofilefile 🩶
• -defaultrgbprofile defaultrgbprofilefile — if poppler was compiled with colour management support, this sets the DefaultRGB color space to the ICC profile stored in defaultrgbprofilefile ❤️
• -defaultcmykprofile defaultcmykprofilefile — if poppler was compiled with colour management support, this sets the DefaultCMYK color space to the ICC profile stored in defaultcmykprofilefile 💛
• -optimizecolorspace — by default, bitmap images pass through to the output PostScript in their original color space, which gives predictable results ✨ this option converts RGB and CMYK images into Gray images when every pixel has equal components 🪄 it can fix problems when doing color separations on PDFs with embedded black and white images that are encoded as RGB
• -preload — preloads images and forms 📦
• -paper size — sets the paper size to one of "letter", "legal", "A4", or "A3" 📄 it can also be set to "match", which sets each page's paper size to match the size in the PDF file 🪞 if none of -paper, -paperw, or -paperh are specified, the default is to match the paper size
• -paperw size — sets the paper width, in points 📏
• -paperh size — sets the paper height, in points 📏
• -origpagesizes — same thing as -paper match 🪞
• -nocrop — by default, the output gets cropped to the CropBox in the PDF file ✂️ this option turns cropping off
• -expand — expands PDF pages that are smaller than the paper so they fill it 🪄 by default these pages don't get scaled
• -noshrink — stops scaling PDF pages that are larger than the paper 🙅‍♀️ by default, pages bigger than the paper get shrunk to fit
• -nocenter — by default, PDF pages smaller than the paper (after any scaling) get centered on the paper 🎯 this option aligns them to the lower-left corner instead
• -duplex — sets the Duplex pagedevice entry in the PostScript file, which tells duplex-capable printers to turn duplexing on 🖨️🔁
• -opw password — specifies the owner password for the PDF file 🔑 > providing this bypasses all security restrictions, so use it wisely 🚨
• -upw password — specifies the user password for the PDF file 🔐
• -overprint — enables overprint emulation during rasterization 🌀 when -processcolorformat is CMYK8 and the language level is higher than 2, this option is set to true by default. note: this option requires -processcolorformat to be CMYK8 🎨
• -q — don't print any messages or errors 🤫
• -v — prints copyright and version information 📜
• -h — prints usage information 🧾 (-help and --help are equivalent, iykyk 🙈)

🚨 EXIT CODES 🚨

the Xpdf tools use these exit codes, so keep them in your back pocket 🫶

1. 0 — no error, slay 👑
2. 1 — error opening a PDF file 🥲
3. 2 — error opening an output file 😭
4. 3 — error related to PDF permissions 🔒
5. 99 — other error 💀

🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

the pdftops software and documentation are copyright 1996-2011 Glyph & Cog, LLC. main character creators, honestly 💜

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

bestie, these are the related pages you should check out next 🦋 pdfdetach(1), pdffonts(1), pdfimages(1), pdfinfo(1), pdftocairo(1), pdftohtml(1), pdftoppm(1), pdftotext(1), pdfseparate(1), pdfsig(1), pdfunite(1) 🧚

ok that's the whole tea 🫶 this is the pdftops(1) page from the General Commands Manual, dated 15 August 2011 🌸 stay iconic and keep printing 💖✨