pdftohtml

converts PDF files to HTML, XML, or PNG format

TLDR

Convert PDF pages to HTML

$ pdftohtml [file.pdf] [output.html]

Produce one HTML file for the whole document

$ pdftohtml -s [file.pdf] [output.html]

Skip embedding images

$ pdftohtml -i [file.pdf] [output.html]

Emit XML instead of HTML

$ pdftohtml -xml [file.pdf] [output.xml]

SYNOPSIS

pdftohtml [options] pdffile [outputfile]

pdftohtml converts PDF files to HTML, XML, or PNG format. Part of the poppler-utils package, it attempts to preserve the visual layout of PDF pages in the resulting HTML output.By default, it generates one HTML file per page plus a frameset index. The -s option creates a single file containing all pages. Images are extracted as separate PNG files unless -i is specified.The XML output mode provides structured data about text positioning and formatting, useful for further processing or text extraction.

PARAMETERS

-i

Ignore images

-s

Generate single HTML file for all pages

-xml

Output as XML instead of HTML

-c

Generate complex output (more accurate layout)

-hidden

Force extraction of hidden text

-f _n_

First page to convert

-l _n_

Last page to convert

-zoom _factor_

Zoom factor (default: 1.5)

-noframes

Generate no frames (single page output)

-enc _encoding_

Output encoding (default: UTF-8)

INSTALL

sudo apt install poppler-utils

sudo dnf install poppler-utils

sudo apk add poppler-utils

brew install pdftohtml

nix profile install nixpkgs#poppler-utils

CAVEATS

Complex PDF layouts may not convert accurately. Scanned PDFs (images) require OCR and won't produce text output. Font embedding and unusual characters may cause display issues. Large PDFs generate many output files without -s option.

HISTORY

pdftohtml originated in the xpdf project and is now maintained as part of poppler-utils, a fork that provides shared library access to PDF rendering functionality on Linux systems.