xpdfrc(5) manual page

Name

xpdfrc - configuration file for Xpdf tools (version 2.03)

All of the Xpdf tools read a single configuration file. If you have a .xpdfrc file in your home directory, it will be read. Otherwise, a system-wide configuration file will be read from /usr/local/etc/xpdfrc, if it exists. (This is its default location; depending on build options, it may be placed elsewhere.) On Win32 systems, the xpdfrc file should be placed in the same directory as the executables.

The xpdfrc file consists of a series of configuration options, one per line. Blank lines and lines starting with a '#' (comments) are ignored.

The following sections list all of the configuration options, sorted into functional groups. There is an examples section at the end.

Include Files

include config-file: Includes the specified config file. The effect of this is equivalent to inserting the contents of config-file directly into the parent config file in place of the include command. Config files can be nested arbitrarily deep.

Character Mapping

nameToUnicode map-file

Specifies a file with the mapping from character names to Unicode. This is used to handle PDF fonts that have valid encodings but no ToUnicode entry. Each line of a nameToUnicode file looks like this:

hex-string name

The hex-string is the Unicode (UCS-2) character index, and name is the corresponding character name. Multiple nameToUnicode files can be used; if a character name is given more than once, the code in the last specified file is used. There is a built-in default nameToUnicode table with all of Adobe's standard character names.

cidToUnicode registry-ordering map-file

Specifies the file with the mapping from character collection to Unicode. Each line of a cidToUnicode file represents one character:

hex-string

The hex-string is the Unicode (UCS-2) index for that character. The first line maps CID 0, the second line CID 1, etc. File size is determined by size of the character collection. Only one file is allowed per character collection; the last specified file is used. There are no built-in cidToUnicode mappings.

unicodeToUnicode font-name-substring map-file

This is used to work around PDF fonts which have incorrect Unicode information. It specifies a file which maps from the given (incorrect) Unicode indexes to the correct ones. The mapping will be used for any font whose name contains font-name-substring. Each line of a unicodeToUnicode file represents one Unicode character:

in-hex out-hex1 out-hex2 ...

The in-hex field is an input (incorrect) Unicode index, and the rest of the fields are one or more output (correct) Unicode indexes. Each occurrence of in-hex will be converted to the specified output sequence.

unicodeMap encoding-name map-file

Specifies the file with mapping from Unicode to encoding-name. These encodings are used for X display fonts and text output (see below). Each line of a unicodeMap file represents a range of one or more Unicode characters which maps linearly to a range in the output encoding:

     in-start-hex in-end-hex out-start-hex

Entries for single characters can be abbreviated to:

     in-hex out-hex

The in-start-hex and in-end-hex fields (or the single in-hex field) specify the Unicode range. The out-start-hex field (or the out-hex field) specifies the start of the output encoding range. The length of the out-start-hex (or out-hex) string determines the length of the output characters (e.g., UTF-8 uses different numbers of bytes to represent characters in different ranges). Entries must be given in increasing Unicode order. Only one file is allowed per encoding; the last specified file is used. The Latin1, ASCII7, Symbol, ZapfDingbats, UTF-8, and UCS-2 encodings are predefined.

cMapDir registry-ordering dir

Specifies a search directory, dir, for CMaps for the registry-ordering character collection. There can be multiple directories for a particular collection. There are no default CMap directories.

toUnicodeDir dir

Specifies a search directory, dir, for ToUnicode CMaps. There can be multiple ToUnicode directories. There are no default ToUnicode directories.

Display Fonts

displayFontX PDF-font-name XLFD encoding-name: Maps a PDF font, PDF-font-name, to an X font, XLFD, for display. The XLFD (X Logical Font Descriptor) should contain the string "%s", which will be replaced by xpdf with the font size. If the XLFD contains spaces it must be quoted. The encoding-name must be defined with the unicodeMap command (see above). By default, the Base-14 fonts are mapped to standard X fonts, using the Latin1, Symbol, and ZapfDingbats encodings.
displayFontT1 PDF-font-name T1-file: Maps a PDF font, PDF-font-name, to a Type 1 font for display. The Type 1 font file, T1-file, should be a standard .pfa or .pfb file.
displayFontTT PDF-font-name TT-file: Maps a PDF font, PDF-font-name, to a TrueType font for display. The TrueType font file, TT-file, should be a standard .ttf file.
displayNamedCIDFontX PDF-font-name XLFD encoding-name: Maps a specific PDF CID (16-bit) font, PDF-font-name, to the X font, XLFD, for display. The encoding given by encoding-name must be defined with the unicodeMap command. There are no default display CID font mappings.
displayCIDFontX registry-ordering XLFD encoding-name: Maps the registry-ordering character collection to the X font, XLFD, for display. This mapping is used if the font name doesn't match any of the fonts declared with displayNamedCIDFont* commands. The encoding given by encoding-name must be defined with the unicodeMap command. There are no default display CID font mappings.
displayNamedCIDFontT1 PDF-font-name T1-file: Maps a specific PDF CID (16-bit) font, PDF-font-name, to a CID font (16-bit PostScript font), for display. There are no default CID font mappings.
displayCIDFontT1 registry-ordering T1-file: Maps the registry-ordering character collection to a CID font (16-bit PostScript font), for display. This mapping is used if the font name doesn't match any of the fonts declared with displayNamedCIDFont* commands. There are no default CID font mappings.
displayNamedCIDFontTT PDF-font-name TT-file: Maps a specific PDF CID (16-bit) font, PDF-font-name, to a (16-bit) TrueType font, for display. There are no default CID font mappings.
displayCIDFontTT registry-ordering TT-file: Maps the registry-ordering character collection to a (16-bit) TrueType font, for display. This mapping is used if the font name doesn't match any of the fonts declared with displayNamedCIDFont* commands. There are no default CID font mappings.
fontDir dir: Specifies a search directory for external font files. There can be multiple fontDir directories. If a PDF file uses a font but doesn't embed it, these directories will be searched for a matching font file. These fonts are used by both xpdf (for display) and pdftops (for embedding in the generated PostScript). Type 1 fonts must have a suffix of ".pfa", ".pfb", ".ps", or no suffix at all. TrueType fonts must have a ".ttf" suffix. Other files in these directories will be ignored. There are no default fontDir directories.

PostScript Control

psPaperSize width(pts) height(pts): Sets the paper size for PostScript output. The width and height parameters give the paper size in PostScript points.
psPaperSize letter | legal | A4 | A3 | match: Sets the paper size for PostScript output to a standard size. The default paper size is set when xpdf and pdftops are built, typically to "letter" or "A4". This can also be set to "match", which will set the paper size to match the size specified in the PDF file.
psDuplex yes | no: If set to "yes", the generated PostScript will set the "Duplex" pagedevice entry. This tells duplex-capable printers to enable duplexing. This defaults to "no".
psLevel level1 | level1sep | level2 | level2sep | level3 | level3Sep: Sets the PostScript level to generate. This defaults to "level2".
psFont PDF-font-name PS-font-name: When the PDF-font-name font is used in a PDF file, it will be translated to the PostScript font PS-font-name, which is assumed to be resident in the printer. Typically, PDF-font-name and PS-font-name are the same. By default, only the Base-14 fonts are assumed to be resident.
psNamedFont16 PDF-font-name wMode PS-font-name encoding: When the 16-bit font PDF-font-name is used in a PDF file with the wMode writing mode and is not embedded, the PS-font-name font is substituted for it. The writing mode must be either 'H' for horizontal or 'V' for vertical. The PS-font-name font is assumed to be resident in the printer and to use the specified encoding (which must have been defined with the unicodeMap command).
psFont16 registry-ordering wMode PS-font-name encoding: When a 16-bit font using the registry-ordering character collection and wMode writing mode is not embedded and does not match any of the fonts declared in psNamedFont16 commands, the PS-font-name font is substituted for it. The writing mode must be either 'H' for horizontal or 'V' for vertical. The PS-font-name font is assumed to be resident in the printer and to use the specified writing mode and encoding (which must have been defined with the unicodeMap command).
psEmbedType1Fonts yes | no: If set to "no", prevents embedding of Type 1 fonts in generated PostScript. This defaults to "yes".
psEmbedTrueTypeFonts yes | no: If set to "no", prevents embedding of TrueType fonts in generated PostScript. This defaults to "yes".
psEmbedCIDTrueTypeFonts yes | no: If set to "no", prevents embedding of CID TrueType fonts in generated PostScript. For Level 3 PostScript, this generates a CID font, for lower levels it generates a non-CID composite font.
psEmbedCIDPostScriptFonts yes | no: If set to "no", prevents embedding of CID PostScript fonts in generated PostScript. For Level 3 PostScript, this generates a CID font, for lower levels it generates a non-CID composite font.
psOPI yes | no: If set to "yes", generates PostScript OPI comments for all images and forms which have OPI information. This option is only available if the Xpdf tools were compiled with OPI support. This defaults to "no".
psASCIIHex yes | no: If set to "yes", the ASCIIHexEncode filter will be used instead of ASCII85Encode for binary data. This defaults to "no".
psFile file-or-command: Sets the default PostScript file or print command for xpdf. Commands start with a '|' character; anything else is a file. If the file name or command contains spaces it must be quoted. This defaults to unset, which tells xpdf to generate a name of the form <file>.ps for a PDF file <file>.pdf.
fontDir dir: See the description above, in the DISPLAY FONTS section.

Text Control

textEncoding encoding-name

Sets the encoding to use for text output. (This can be overridden with the "-enc" switch on the command line.) The encoding-name must be defined with the unicodeMap command (see above). This defaults to "Latin1".

textEOL unix | dos | mac

Sets the end-of-line convention to use for text output. The options are:

    unix = LF
    dos  = CR+LF
    mac  = CR

(This can be overridden with the "-eol" switch on the command line.) The default value is based on the OS where xpdf and pdftotext were built.

textPageBreaks yes | no

If set to "yes", text extraction will insert page breaks (form feed characters) between pages. This defaults to "yes".

textKeepTinyChars yes | no

If set to "yes", text extraction will keep all characters. If set to "no", text extraction will discard tiny (smaller than 3 point) characters after the first 50000 per page, avoiding extremely slow run times for PDF files that use special fonts to do shading or cross-hatching. This defaults to "no".

Miscellaneous Settings

initialZoom percentage | page | width: Sets the initial zoom factor. A number specifies a zoom percentage, where 100 means 72 dpi. You may also specify 'page', to fit the page to the window size, or 'width', to fit the page width to the window width.
t1libControl none | plain | low | high: Sets the type of font rendering for t1lib (the Type 1 rasterizer) to use. Options are "none" (don't use t1lib at all), "plain" (use non-anti-aliased fonts), "low" or "high" (use low-level or high-level anti-aliased fonts). This defaults to "low".
freetypeControl none | plain | low | high: Sets the type of font rendering for FreeType (the TrueType rasterizer) to use. Options are "none" (don't use FreeType at all), "plain" (use non-anti-aliased fonts), "low" or "high" (use anti-aliased fonts; these two are identical). This defaults to "low".
urlCommand command: Sets the command executed when you click on a URL link. The string "%s" will be replaced with the URL. (See the example below.) This has no default value.
movieCommand command: Sets the command executed when you click on a movie annotation. The string "%s" will be replaced with the movie file name. This has no default value.
mapNumericCharNames yes | no: If set to "yes", the Xpdf tools will attempt to map various numeric character names sometimes used in font subsets. In some cases this leads to usable text, and in other cases it leads to gibberish -- there is no way for Xpdf to tell. This defaults to "yes".
printCommands yes | no: If set to "yes", drawing commands are printed as they're executed (useful for debugging). This defaults to "no".
errQuiet yes | no: If set to "yes", this suppresses all error and warning messages from all of the Xpdf tools. This defaults to "no".

Examples

The following is a sample xpdfrc file.

# from the Thai support package
nameToUnicode /usr/local/share/xpdf/Thai.nameToUnicode
# from the Japanese support package
cidToUnicode Adobe-Japan1 /usr/local/share/xpdf/Adobe-Japan1.cidToUnicode
unicodeMap   JISX0208     /usr/local/share/xpdf/JISX0208.unicodeMap
cMapDir      Adobe-Japan1 /usr/local/share/xpdf/cmap/Adobe-Japan1
# use an X server font for Times-Roman
# (this is the built-in default)
displayFontX Times-Roman "-*-times-medium-r-normal-*-%s-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1" Latin1
# use the Base-14 Type 1 fonts from ghostscript
# (note that this overrides the displayFontX command above)
displayFontT1 Times-Roman           /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n021003l.pfb
displayFontT1 Times-Italic          /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n021023l.pfb
displayFontT1 Times-Bold            /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n021004l.pfb
displayFontT1 Times-BoldItalic      /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n021024l.pfb
displayFontT1 Helvetica             /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n019003l.pfb
displayFontT1 Helvetica-Oblique     /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n019023l.pfb
displayFontT1 Helvetica-Bold        /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n019004l.pfb
displayFontT1 Helvetica-BoldOblique /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n019024l.pfb
displayFontT1 Courier               /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n022003l.pfb
displayFontT1 Courier-Oblique       /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n022023l.pfb
displayFontT1 Courier-Bold          /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n022004l.pfb
displayFontT1 Courier-BoldOblique   /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/n022024l.pfb
displayFontT1 Symbol                /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/s050000l.pfb
displayFontT1 ZapfDingbats          /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/d050000l.pfb
# from the Japanese support package
displayCIDFontX Adobe-Japan1 "-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-%s-*-*-*-*-*-jisx0208.1983-0"
JISX0208
# use the Bakoma Type 1 fonts
# (this assumes they happen to be installed in /usr/local/fonts/bakoma)
fontDir /usr/local/fonts/bakoma
# set some PostScript options
psPaperSize          letter
psDuplex             no
psLevel              level2
psEmbedType1Fonts    yes
psEmbedTrueTypeFonts yes
psFile               "| lpr -Pprinter5"
# assume that the PostScript printer has the Univers and
# Univers-Bold fonts
psFont Univers      Univers
psFont Univers-Bold Univers-Bold
# set the text output options
textEncoding UTF-8
textEOL      unix
# misc options
t1libControl    low
freetypeControl low
urlCommand      "netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'"

Files

/usr/local/etc/xpdfrc: This is the default location for the system-wide configuration file. Depending on build options, it may be placed elsewhere.
$HOME/.xpdfrc: This is the user's configuration file. If it exists, it will be read in place of the system-wide file.