pdftoppm

converts PDF document pages to image formats

TLDR

Specify the range of pages to convert (n - first page, m - last page)

$ pdftoppm -f [n] -l [m] [path/to/file.pdf] [image_name_prefix]

Convert only the first page of a PDF

$ pdftoppm -singlefile [path/to/file.pdf] [image_name_prefix]

Generate a monochrome PBM file (instead of color PPM)

$ pdftoppm -mono [path/to/file.pdf] [image_name_prefix]

Generate a grayscale PGM file (instead of color PPM)

$ pdftoppm -gray [path/to/file.pdf] [image_name_prefix]

Generate a PNG file instead of PPM

$ pdftoppm -png [path/to/file.pdf] [image_name_prefix]

SYNOPSIS

pdftoppm [options] pdffile imageroot

pdftoppm converts PDF document pages to image formats (PPM, PGM, PBM, PNG, JPEG, TIFF). Part of the poppler-utils package, it renders each page as a raster image at the specified resolution.Output files are named with the provided prefix followed by a page number (e.g., image-001.png). Use -singlefile for a single page without numbering.The tool is commonly used for creating thumbnails, preparing PDFs for OCR, or converting documents for image-based workflows.

PARAMETERS

-f _n_

First page to convert

-l _n_

Last page to convert

-singlefile

Write only the first page, don't add page number suffix

-mono

Generate monochrome PBM output

-gray

Generate grayscale PGM output

-png

Generate PNG output

-jpeg

Generate JPEG output

-tiff

Generate TIFF output

-r _dpi_

Resolution in DPI (default: 150)

-rx _dpi_

X resolution

-ry _dpi_

Y resolution

-scale-to _size_

Scale to specified size

INSTALL

sudo apt install poppler-utils

sudo dnf install poppler-utils

sudo apk add poppler-utils

nix profile install nixpkgs#poppler-utils

CAVEATS

High DPI settings produce large files and require more memory. Processing many pages can be slow. Vector graphics are rasterized, losing scalability. Part of poppler-utils package.