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 out, --output out

Makes the program output to a file instead of standard output.

-C colorspace, --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 options.

--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.

--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 service 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 /usr/share/color/icc/sRGB.icc as the color profile.

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 default, 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 --border 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 default 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 LxL, --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 LxL, --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 L[:L], --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 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 enlarge. 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 ROT, --rotation ROT, --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 0.4.4)

--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 understood 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 numbered 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 mode

Colorspace:¶

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. 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

11inx17in

Fit 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 imagemagick. 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 preserved 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.