Converting PDF files with a free tool

 

I was getting crazy to convert pdf into images and html until i found this free tool.  I know there are millions of applications out there to do this and that the problem you can get crazy triyng to find one that actualy works.

The only problem is that it is a bit tricky to understand how to make it work but once you do you will love it.

1- Download and install xpdf

http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html
ftp://ftp.foolabs.com/pub/xpdf/xpdfbin-win-3.04.zip

2- Open a console and navigate to the the folder you have the different xpdf applications
(you can add the applications to your system path if you want)
in my case:
C:open-ecommerce0_toolspdf-convertionsbin64pdf

3- Run the command lines from the console

4- You will see all options for each application in the doc folder

Command line samples:

To get info about the file like pages, author etc
pdfinfo filename.pdf

To convert pdf to html
pdftohtml -f 1 filename.pdf myhtmlfolder
-the option -f 1 it mandate to start from the first page
-the myhtmlfolder where the exports goes

to convert pdf to png
pdftopng -f 1 filename.pdf prefixfilename
-the option -f 1 it mandate to start from the first page
-the prefixfilename how the png exported filenames will start.

 

About the author
Eduardo Silva was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has being living in London for the past 15 years. With a background in psychology he is a IT developer and the co-founder of open-ecommerce.org, a digital content social enterprise. His passion is digital story-telling and has created short films and documentaries to help people promote there ideas.