pdfinfo
Extract metadata from PDF files
TLDR
Print PDF file information
Specify user password for PDF file to bypass security restrictions
Specify owner password for PDF file to bypass security restrictions
SYNOPSIS
pdfinfo [options]
PARAMETERS
-f
First page to print.
-l
Last page to print.
-p
Print just the specified page.
-o
Output text to a file (instead of stdout).
-d
Print debugging messages.
-enc
Output text encoding name.
-listenc
List available encodings.
-meta
Output only document meta data.
-rawdates
Output the unformatted date strings.
-nofonts
Don't extract font information.
-box
Print the page box bounding box.
-struct
Output document structure information.
-js
Output JavaScript information.
-isodates
Use ISO 8601 date format.
-version
Print copyright and version info.
-h
Print usage information.
-help
Print usage information.
-v
Print copyright and version info.
The name of the PDF file to analyze.
If not provided, pdfinfo reads from standard input.
DESCRIPTION
The `pdfinfo` command is a command-line utility used to extract metadata and information from Portable Document Format (PDF) files. It analyzes a given PDF file and displays a comprehensive report including details such as the PDF version, file size, number of pages, encryption status, creator, producer, title, author, subject, keywords, creation date, modification date, tagged status, form status, javascript status, file structure optimization, page size and rotation, and more. This information is valuable for assessing the properties of a PDF document, identifying its origins, and understanding its characteristics.
The command is part of the Poppler PDF rendering library, a widely used open-source project for working with PDF documents.
The tool provides a quick and easy way to obtain crucial details about a PDF without opening the file in a PDF viewer, making it useful for scripting and automation.
CAVEATS
Some information, such as the producer and creator applications, may be intentionally omitted or obfuscated by the PDF author. The accuracy of date information also depends on the PDF's creation process.
EXIT CODES
Pdfinfo exits with the following status code:
0: No error.
>0: An error occurred.
HISTORY
The `pdfinfo` command is part of the Poppler library, a free software utility for rendering PDF documents. Poppler was initially derived from the xpdf project but evolved into its own independent codebase. `pdfinfo` has been actively maintained and improved over the years along with the Poppler library, becoming a standard tool for extracting information from PDF files across various Linux distributions and other operating systems.