img2pdf
IMG2PDF(1) User Commands IMG2PDF(1)
NAME
img2pdf - lossless conversion of raster images to pdfDESCRIPTION
usage: img2pdf [-h] [-v] [-V] [--from-file FILE] [-o out] [-C colorspace]
[-D] [--engine engine] [--first-frame-only] [--include-thumbnails] [--pillow-limit-break] [--pdfa [PDFA]] [-S LxL] [-s LxL] [-b L[:L]] [-f FIT] [-a] [-r ROT] [--crop-border
L[:L]] [--bleed-border L[:L]] [--trim-border L[:L]] [--art-border L[:L]] [--title title] [--author author] [--creator creator] [--producer producer] [--creationdate creation‐
date] [--moddate moddate] [--subject subject] [--keywords kw [kw ...]] [--viewer-panes PANES] [--viewer-initial-page NUM] [--viewer-magnification MAG] [--viewer-page-layout
LAYOUT] [--viewer-fit-window] [--viewer-center-window] [--viewer-fullscreen] [infile ...]
Losslessly convert raster images to PDF without re-encoding PNG, JPEG, and JPEG2000 images. This leads to a lossless conversion of PNG, JPEG and JPEG2000 images with the only added
file size coming from the PDF container itself. Other raster graphics formats are losslessly stored using the same encoding that PNG uses. For images with transparency, the alpha
channel will be stored as a separate soft mask. This is lossless, too.
The output is sent to standard output so that it can be redirected into a file or to another program as part of a shell pipe. To directly write the output into a file, use the -o or
--output option.OPTIONS positional arguments:
infile Specifies the input file(s) in any format that can be read by the Python Imaging Library (PIL). If no input images are given, then a single image is read from standard input.
The special filename "-" can be used once to read an image from standard input. To read a file in the current directory with the filename "-" (or with a filename starting with
"-"), pass it to img2pdf by explicitly stating its relative path like "./-". Cannot be used together with --from-file.options:
-h, --help
show this help message and exit
-v, --verbose
Makes the program operate in verbose mode, printing messages on standard error.
-V, --version
Prints version information and exits.
--from-file FILE
Read the list of images from FILE instead of passing them as positional arguments. If this option is used, then the list of positional arguments must be empty. The paths to
the input images in FILE are separated by NUL bytes. If FILE is "-" then the paths are expected on standard input. This option is useful if you want to pass more images than
the maximum command length of your shell permits. This option can be used with commands like `find -print0`.General output arguments:
Arguments controlling the output format.
-o, --output out
Makes the program output to a file instead of standard output.
-C, --colorspace colorspace
Forces the PIL colorspace. See the epilogue for a list of possible values. Usually the PDF colorspace would be derived from the color space of the input image. This option
overwrites the automatically detected colorspace from the input image and thus forces a certain colorspace in the output PDF /ColorSpace property. This is useful for JPEG 2000
images with a different colorspace than RGB.
-D, --nodate
Suppresses timestamps in the output and thus makes the output deterministic between individual runs. You can also manually set a date using the --moddate and --creationdate op‐
tions.
--engine engine
Choose PDF engine. Can be either internal, pikepdf or pdfrw. The internal engine does not have additional requirements and writes out a human readable PDF. The pikepdf engine
requires the pikepdf Python module and qpdf library, is most featureful, can linearize PDFs ("fast web view") and can compress more parts of it.The pdfrw engine requires the
pdfrw Python module but does not support unicode metadata (See https://github.com/pmaupin/pdfrw/issues/39) or palette data (See https://github.com/pmaupin/pdfrw/issues/128).
--first-frame-only
By default, img2pdf will convert multi-frame images like multi-page TIFF or animated GIF images to one page per frame. This option will only let the first frame of every
multi-frame input image be converted into a page in the resulting PDF.
--include-thumbnails
Some multi-frame formats like MPO carry a main image and one or more scaled-down copies of the main image (thumbnails). In such a case, img2pdf will only include the main image
and not create additional pages for each of the thumbnails. If this option is set, img2pdf will instead create one page per frame and thus store each thumbnail on its own page.
--pillow-limit-break
img2pdf uses the Python Imaging Library Pillow to read input images. Pillow limits the maximum input image size to 89478485 pixels to prevent decompression bomb denial of ser‐
vice attacks. If your input image contains more pixels than that, use this option to disable this safety measure during this run of img2pdf
--pdfa [PDFA]
Output a PDF/A-1b compliant document. By default, this will embed either /usr/share/color/icc/sRGB.icc, /usr/share/color/icc/OpenICC/sRGB.icc or /usr/share/color/icc/col‐
ord/sRGB.icc as the color profile, whichever is found to exist first.Image and page size and layout arguments:
Every input image will be placed on its own page. The image size is controlled by the dpi value of the input image or, if unset or missing, the default dpi of 96.00. By de‐
fault, each page will have the same size as the image it shows. Thus, there will be no visible border between the image and the page border by default. If image size and page
size are made different from each other by the options in this section, the image will always be centered in both dimensions.
The image size and page size can be explicitly set using the --imgsize and --pagesize options, respectively. If either dimension of the image size is specified but the same
dimension of the page size is not, then the latter will be derived from the former using an optional minimal distance between the image and the page border (given by the --bor‐
der option) and/or a certain fitting strategy (given by the --fit option). The converse happens if a dimension of the page size is set but the same dimension of the image size
is not.
Any length value in below options is represented by the meta variable L which is a floating point value with an optional unit appended (without a space between them). The de‐
fault unit is pt (1/72 inch, the PDF unit) and other allowed units are cm (centimeter), mm (millimeter), and in (inch).
Any size argument of the format LxL in the options below specifies the width and height of a rectangle where the first L represents the width and the second L represents the
height with an optional unit following each value as described above. Either width or height may be omitted. If the height is omitted, the separating x can be omitted as well.
Omitting the width requires to prefix the height with the separating x. The missing dimension will be chosen so to not change the image aspect ratio. Instead of giving the
width and height explicitly, you may also specify some (case-insensitive) common page sizes such as letter and A4. See the epilogue at the bottom for a complete list of the
valid sizes.
The --fit option scales to fit the image into a rectangle that is either derived from the --imgsize option or otherwise from the --pagesize option. If the --border option is
given in addition to the --imgsize option while the --pagesize option is not given, then the page size will be calculated from the image size, respecting the border setting. If
the --border option is given in addition to the --pagesize option while the --imgsize option is not given, then the image size will be calculated from the page size, respecting
the border setting. If the --border option is given while both the --pagesize and --imgsize options are passed, then the --border option will be ignored.
The --pagesize option or the --imgsize option with the --border option will determine the MediaBox size of the resulting PDF document.
-S, --pagesize LxL
Sets the size of the PDF pages. The short-option is the upper case S because it is an mnemonic for being bigger than the image size.
-s, --imgsize LxL
Sets the size of the images on the PDF pages. In addition, the unit dpi is allowed which will set the image size as a value of dots per inch. Instead of a unit, width and
height values may also have a percentage sign appended, indicating a resize of the image by that percentage. The short-option is the lower case s because it is an mnemonic for
being smaller than the page size.
-b, --border L[:L]
Specifies the minimal distance between the image border and the PDF page border. This value Is overwritten by explicit values set by --pagesize or --imgsize. The value will be
used when calculating page dimensions from the image dimensions or the other way round. One, or two length values can be given as an argument, separated by a colon. One value
specifies the minimal border on all four sides. Two values specify the minimal border on the top/bottom and left/right, respectively. It is not possible to specify asymmetric
borders because images will always be centered on the page.
-f, --fit FIT
If --imgsize is given, fits the image using these dimensions. Otherwise, fit the image into the dimensions given by --pagesize. FIT is one of into, fill, exact, shrink and en‐
large. The default value is "into". See the epilogue at the bottom for a description of the FIT options.
-a, --auto-orient
If both dimensions of the page are given via --pagesize, conditionally swaps these dimensions such that the page orientation is the same as the orientation of the input image.
If the orientation of a page gets flipped, then so do the values set via the --border option.
-r, --rotation, --orientation ROT
Specifies how input images should be rotated. ROT can be one of auto, none, ifvalid, 0, 90, 180 and 270. The default value is auto and indicates that input images are rotated
according to their EXIF Orientation tag. The values none and 0 ignore the EXIF Orientation values of the input images. The value ifvalid acts like auto but ignores invalid
EXIF rotation values and only issues a warning instead of throwing an error. This is useful because many devices like Android phones, Canon cameras or scanners emit an invalid
Orientation tag value of zero. The values 90, 180 and 270 perform a clockwise rotation of the image.
--crop-border L[:L]
Specifies the border between the CropBox and the MediaBox. One, or two length values can be given as an argument, separated by a colon. One value specifies the border on all
four sides. Two values specify the border on the top/bottom and left/right, respectively. It is not possible to specify asymmetric borders.
--bleed-border L[:L]
Specifies the border between the BleedBox and the MediaBox. One, or two length values can be given as an argument, separated by a colon. One value specifies the border on all
four sides. Two values specify the border on the top/bottom and left/right, respectively. It is not possible to specify asymmetric borders.
--trim-border L[:L]
Specifies the border between the TrimBox and the MediaBox. One, or two length values can be given as an argument, separated by a colon. One value specifies the border on all
four sides. Two values specify the border on the top/bottom and left/right, respectively. It is not possible to specify asymmetric borders.
--art-border L[:L]
Specifies the border between the ArtBox and the MediaBox. One, or two length values can be given as an argument, separated by a colon. One value specifies the border on all
four sides. Two values specify the border on the top/bottom and left/right, respectively. It is not possible to specify asymmetric borders.Arguments setting metadata:
Options handling embedded timestamps, title and author information.
--title title
Sets the title metadata value
--author author
Sets the author metadata value
--creator creator
Sets the creator metadata value
--producer producer
Sets the producer metadata value (default is: img2pdf 0.6.1)
--creationdate creationdate
Sets the UTC creation date metadata value in YYYY-MMDD or YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM or YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS format or any format understood by python dateutil module or any format under‐
stood by `date --date`
--moddate moddate
Sets the UTC modification date metadata value in YYYYMM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM or YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS format or any format understood by python dateutil module or any format
understood by `date --date`
--subject subject
Sets the subject metadata value
--keywords kw [kw ...]
Sets the keywords metadata value (can be given multiple times)PDF viewer arguments:
PDF files can specify how they are meant to be presented to the user by a PDF viewer
--viewer-panes PANES
Instruct the PDF viewer which side panes to show. Valid values are "outlines" and "thumbs". It is not possible to specify both at the same time.
--viewer-initial-page NUM
Instead of showing the first page, instruct the PDF viewer to show the given page instead. Page numbers start with 1.
--viewer-magnification MAG
Instruct the PDF viewer to open the PDF with a certain zoom level. Valid values are either a floating point number giving the exact zoom level, "fit" (zoom to fit whole page),
"fith" (zoom to fit page width) and "fitbh" (zoom to fit visible page width).
--viewer-page-layout LAYOUT
Instruct the PDF viewer how to arrange the pages on the screen. Valid values are "single" (display single pages), "onecolumn" (one continuous column), "twocolumnright" (two
continuous columns with odd number pages on the right) and "twocolumnleft" (two continuous columns with odd numbered pages on the left), "twopageright" (two pages with odd num‐
bered page on the right) and "twopageleft" (two pages with odd numbered page on the left)
--viewer-fit-window
Instruct the PDF viewer to resize the window to fit the page size
--viewer-center-window
Instruct the PDF viewer to center the PDF viewer window
--viewer-fullscreen
Instruct the PDF viewer to open the PDF in fullscreen modeColorspace:
Currently, the colorspace must be forced for JPEG 2000 images that are not in the RGB colorspace. Available colorspace options are based on Python Imaging Library (PIL) short
handles.
RGB RGB color
L Grayscale
1 Black and white (internally converted to grayscale)
CMYK CMYK color
CMYK;I CMYK color with inversion (for CMYK JPEG files from Adobe)Paper sizes:
You can specify the short hand paper size names shown in the first column in the table below as arguments to the --pagesize and --imgsize options. The width and height they
are mapping to is shown in the second column. Giving the value in the second column has the same effect as giving the short hand in the first column. Appending ^T (a
caret/circumflex followed by the letter T) turns the paper size from portrait into landscape. The postfix thus symbolizes the transpose. Note that on Windows cmd.exe the caret
symbol is the escape character, so you need to put quotes around the option value. The values are case insensitive.
A0 841mmx1189mm
A1 594mmx841mm
A2 420mmx594mm
A3 297mmx420mm
A4 210mmx297mm
A5 148mmx210mm
A6 105mmx148mm
B0 1000mmx1414mm
B1 707mmx1000mm
B2 500mmx707mm
B3 353mmx500mm
B4 250mmx353mm
B5 176mmx250mm
B6 125mmx176mm
JB0 1030mmx1456mm
JB1 728mmx1030mm
JB2 515mmx728mm
JB3 364mmx515mm
JB4 257mmx364mm
JB5 182mmx257mm
JB6 128mmx182mm
Legal 8.5inx14in
Letter 8.5inx11in
Tabloid
11inx17inFit options:
The img2pdf options for the --fit argument are shown in the first column in the table below. The function of these options can be mapped to the geometry operators of image‐
magick. For users who are familiar with imagemagick, the corresponding operator is shown in the second column. The third column shows whether or not the aspect ratio is pre‐
served for that option (same as in imagemagick). Just like imagemagick, img2pdf tries hard to preserve the aspect ratio, so if the --fit argument is not given, then the default
is "into" which corresponds to the absence of any operator in imagemagick. The value of the --fit option is case insensitive.
into | | Y | The default. Width and height values specify maximum | | | values.
---------+---+---+----------------------------------------------------------
fill | ^ | Y | Width and height values specify the minimum values.
---------+---+---+----------------------------------------------------------
exact | ! | N | Width and height emphatically given.
---------+---+---+----------------------------------------------------------
shrink
| > | Y | Shrinks an image with dimensions larger than the given | | | ones (and otherwise behaves like "into").
---------+---+---+----------------------------------------------------------
enlarge | < | Y | Enlarges an image with dimensions smaller than the given
| | | ones (and otherwise behaves like "into").Argument parsing:
Argument long options can be abbreviated to a prefix if the abbreviation is unambiguous. That is, the prefix must match a unique option.
Beware of your shell interpreting argument values as special characters (like the semicolon in the CMYK;I colorspace option). If in doubt, put the argument values in single
quotes.
If you want an argument value to start with one or more minus characters, you must use the long option name and join them with an equal sign like so:
$ img2pdf --author=--test--
If your input file name starts with one or more minus characters, either separate the input files from the other arguments by two minus signs:
$ img2pdf -- --my-file-starts-with-two-minuses.jpg
Or be more explicit about its relative path by prepending a ./:
$ img2pdf ./--my-file-starts-with-two-minuses.jpg
The order of non-positional arguments (all arguments other than the input images) does not matter.EXAMPLES
Lines starting with a dollar sign denote commands you can enter into your terminal. The dollar sign signifies your command prompt. It is not part of the command you type.
Convert two scans in JPEG format to a PDF document.
$ img2pdf --output out.pdf page1.jpg page2.jpg
Use a custom dpi value for the input images:
$ img2pdf --output out.pdf --imgsize 300dpi page1.jpg page2.jpg
Convert a directory of JPEG images into a PDF with printable A4 pages in landscape mode. On each page, the photo takes the maximum amount of space while preserving its aspect
ratio and a print border of 2 cm on the top and bottom and 2.5 cm on the left and right hand side.
$ img2pdf --output out.pdf --pagesize "A4^T" --border 2cm:2.5cm *.jpg
On each A4 page, fit images into a 10 cm times 15 cm rectangle but keep the original image size if the image is smaller than that.
$ img2pdf --output out.pdf -S A4 --imgsize 10cmx15cm --fit shrink *.jpg
Prepare a directory of photos to be printed borderless on photo paper with a 3:2 aspect ratio and rotate each page so that its orientation is the same as the input image.
$ img2pdf --output out.pdf --pagesize 15cmx10cm --auto-orient *.jpg
Encode a grayscale JPEG2000 image. The colorspace has to be forced as img2pdf cannot read it from the JPEG2000 file automatically.
$ img2pdf --output out.pdf --colorspace L input.jp2AUTHOR
Written by Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues <josch@mister-muffin.de>REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs at https://gitlab.mister-muffin.de/josch/img2pdf/issuesimg2pdf 0.6.1 April 2025 IMG2PDF(1)