Question: I've downloaded configuration file in a PDF format. I do not have GUI installed on remote Linux / UNIX server. How do I convert a PDF (Portable Document Format) file to a text format using command line so that I can view file over remote ssh session?
Answer: Use pdftotext utility to convert Portable Document Format (PDF) files to plain text. It reads the PDF file, and writes a text file. If text file is not specified, pdftotext converts file.pdf to file.txt. If text-file is -, the text is sent to stdout.
Install pdftotext under RedHat / RHEL / Fedora / CentOS Linux
pdftotext is installed using poppler-utils package under various Linux distributions:
# yum install poppler-utils
OR use the following under Debian / Ubuntu Linux
$ sudo apt-get install poppler-utils
pdftotext syntax
pdftotext {PDF-file} {text-file}
How do I convert a pdf to text?
Convert a pdf file called hp-manual.pdf to hp-manual.txt, enter:
$ pdftotext hp-manual.pdf hp-manual.txt
Specifies the first page 5 and last page 10 (select 5 to 10 pages) to convert, enter:
$ pdftotext -f 5 -l 10 hp-manual.pdf hp-manual.txt
Convert a pdf file protected and encrypted by owner password:
$ pdftotext -opw 'password' hp-manual.pdf hp-manual.txt
Convert a pdf file protected and encrypted by user password:
$ pdftotext -upw 'password' hp-manual.pdf hp-manual.txt
Sets the end-of-line convention to use for text output. You can set it to unix, dos or mac. For UNIX / Linux oses, enter:
$ pdftotext -eol unix hp-manual.pdf hp-manual.txt
Further readings:
- man page pdftotext
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
this is the simplest way, being simple means not perfect. try:
$ less file.pdf@virus,
You need to take help of lesspipe and they it may work out
eval "$(lesspipe)"less file.pdf
I’m very glad to have found this tip since I’ve been looking for a way to index the contents of PDF files. “pdftotext” works on text in foreign languages and character sets, too, and outputs the text as UTF-8, which is excellent.