The 2PDF Command Line Syntax and Examples page shows the conversion settings that you can specify to adjust your file conversion with 2PDF. The command line syntax parameters determine how files are converted as well as the structure and features of resultant PDF documents.
Contents
Quick start
1. Press “Win+R” on your keyboard, type cmd and click OK to open the Command Prompt (CMD).
2. To call 2PDF, type in “2PDF.exe” and press Enter. You can get an entire list of available operations and options by using this command line:
2PDF.exe -help
3. The command lines have arguments with values, which are typed after the command itself. In general, the basic syntax is as follows:
2PDF.exe -src “C:\In*.*” -dst “C:\Out”
- -src should be followed by the source folder path with files to be converted or path to input file;
- Asterisk (star, *) is a wildcard character which stands for any string of characters (or no characters at all). *.* stands for any filename – point – any file extension;
- -dst should be followed by the destination folder path for output files.
When specifying the source folder path (or source file) and destination path (output folder) – enclose them in double quotation marks. Example: -src “C:\Incoming files\For conversion\Invoice.docx”.
Press Enter to execute the command.
Command line options
The basic command line structure is setting the source and the destination paths and adding optional parameters using -oper and -options attributes.
Switches
| -src | The source path to a file or files within a folder that should be converted. Can contain a search mask (to allow processing any files use *.*). Example: 2PDF.exe -src “C:\Incoming\Overview.docx” -dst “C:\Output” 2PDF.exe -src “C:\Incoming\*.*” -dst “C:\Output” If you have a list of files to convert, it should be saved as a text file. To set a list of files as a source, use @ before the file path. Example: 2PDF.exe -src “@C:\Incoming\list.txt” -dst “C:\Output” |
| -dst | The destination folder for the output PDF file(s). Example: 2PDF.exe -src “C:\Incoming\*.*” -dst “C:\Output” |
| -oper | Operation attribute which determines parameters applied to the files. Refers to the section <Operations> |
| -options | Option attribute which determines common 2PDF options. Refers to the section <Common options> |
| -about | View license key and software version. Example: 2PDF.exe -about |
Common options
To use these options, don’t forget to add -options before one or several following attributes. Options which are marked bold below are set by default (if the feature is enabled).
| Attribute | Description | Options* |
| pages: | Set page range, for example, pages:1,3,5-12 | all, 1,3,5-12 |
| scansf: | Convert files within subfolders too (if you specify a folder as a source) | yes, no |
| keepsf: | Keep the same subfolder structure as in the input folder (if you specify a folder as a source) | yes, no |
| overwrite: | Overwrite existing files or skip them | no, yes, skip |
| delsrc: | Delete source files | no, yes |
| keep_outfile: | Keep the output file in case of an error | yes, no |
| break_on_error: | Break on error (stop the program in case of an error) | no, yes |
| template: | Add output file name template. By default, page counter appears only for multipage files. *SFNAME* – source file name *WSNAME* – worksheet file name (for Excel and CAD files only) *SFMPAGENO* – source file page number *DFEXT* – destination file extension | *SFNAME**WSNAME**SFMPAGENO*.*DFEXT* |
| srcpwd: | Input password for the source file or files (if they are password-protected). Example: srcpwd:123456 If the input folder contains several files secured with different passwords, you can specify them too, each attribute and value separated by space. Example: srcpwd:password1 srcpwd:password2 srcpwd:password3 (The order is not important) Please note: this option unlocks secure files – it removes the source files’ password protection. | Enter password(s) for source file(s) |
| dstpwd: | Input password for the destination file or files to password-protect them. This way, you can protect one or multiple files at once with a password. Only a single password can be used for each command. Example: dstpwd:123456 | Enter password for output file(s) |
| attachments: | Set processing of file attachments. Can be saved separately, ignored or combined with the file itself | separate, ignore, combine |
| sort: | Sort output files. Can be sorted by different parameters like name, date, file type, and more | unsorted, name, date, type, size, path, name_d, date_d, type_d, size_d, path_d |
| silent: | Suppress console output – do not show the conversion process and convert silently | no, yes |
| alerts: | Display alert windows | yes, no |
Formats
To use these options, don’t forget to add -pdf before one or several following attributes.
| pdf_a: | Convert to PDF/A | no, yes |
| min_size: | Compress output PDF to minimize the file size | no, yes |
| multipage: | Create a multipage PDF. Possible options: – as is – keeps the original file structure – split – splits multipage files into separate PDF pages – append – adds new files as pages to the end – prepend – adds new files as pages to the beginning | asis, split, append, prepend |
| combine: | Set file name for a combined multipage file | combined.pdf, mymultipage.pdf |
| ocr: | Create searchable PDF using built-in OCR. | no, yes |
| ocr_lang: | Select language available for text recognition via OCR. By default, it is English. Other options: German, Hebrew, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, German Fraktur. You can select more than one, if your documents are in several languages, e.g., ocr_lang: 24,20 | 24 = English 20 = German 40 = Hebrew 50 = Japanese 79 = Russian 85 = Spanish 21 = German Fraktur |
Operations
To use these options, don’t forget to add -auto_rotate, -rotate, -textwatermark, or -watermark before one or several following parameters.
Page autorotation parameters
-auto_rotate
| orientation: | Set page or image orientation (portrait, landscape). Once enabled, this option will apply portrait or landscape orientation to all files | portrait, landscape |
| direction: | Set rotation direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) | ccw, cw |
Page rotation parameters
-rotate
| angle: | Set angle of rotation (0-360°) | 0, 45 |
| direction: | Set direction for page rotation (clockwise or counterclockwise) | ccw, cw |
| color: | Set background color using RGB color model – “r:(0-255),g:(0-255),b:(0-255)” | r:255,g:255,b:255 |
Text watermark parameters
-textwatermark
| pages: | Set page range for the watermark, for example, 1,3,5-12 | all, 1,3,5-12 |
| text: | Input watermark text | Type any text |
| font: | Set font name, the default font is Arial | Arial, Tahoma |
| fontsize: | Set font size | 12 |
| fs_units: | Set font size units: points, percents (percent of image height) | points |
| bold: | Make font bold | no, yes |
| italic: | Make font italic | no, yes |
| underline: | Make font underlined | no, yes |
| halign: | Set horizontal alignment | left, center, right |
| valign: | Set vertical alignment | top, center, bottom |
| units: | Set horizontal and vertical offset units | pixels, percents |
| offx: | Set horizontal offset value | 0, 30 |
| offy: | Set vertical offset value | 0, 30 |
| color: | Set text color using RGB color model – “r:(0-255),g:(0-255),b:(0-255)” | “r:0,g:0,b:0,a:255”, “r:10,g:20,b:0,a:255” |
| bkcolor: | Set text background color using RGB color model – “r:(0-255),g:(0-255),b:(0-255)” | “r:255,g:255,b:0,a:255”, “r:10,g:20,b:0,a:255” |
| angle: | Set angle of rotation (0-360°) | 0, 30 |
| direction: | Set direction for watermark rotation (clockwise or counterclockwise) | ccw, cw |
| border: | Draw border | no, yes |
| fit: | Fit into image | no, yes |
| method: | Set a blending method for watermark – AlphaBlend or Overdraw | alphablend, overdraw |
Image watermark parameters
-watermark
| pages: | Set page range for the watermark, for example, “1,3,5-12” | all, 1,3,5-12 |
| image: | Set path to watermark image | e.g., “C:\Watermark.png” |
| halign: | Set horizontal alignment | left, center, right |
| valign: | Set vertical alignment | top, center, bottom |
| units: | Set horizontal and vertical offset units | pixels, percents |
| offx: | Set horizontal offset value | 0, 30 |
| offy: | Set vertical offset value | 0, 30 |
| size: | Set watermark size as a percent of page width and height. It is possible to set original image size (as is) | -1, as is |
| method: | Set a blending method for watermark – AlphaBlend or Overdraw | alphablend, overdraw |
*Options marked bold are set by default (if the feature is enabled)
Examples
Convert to PDF all files from folder “C:\In” with all subfolders
2PDF.exe -src “C:\In\*.*” -dst “C:\Out”
Combine all files from folder “C:\In” to a single multipage PDF file
2PDF.exe -src “C:\In*.*” -dst “C:\Out” -pdf multipage:append combine:”my multipage.pdf”
Convert all files from folder “C:\In” to searchable PDF
2PDF.exe -src “C:\In*.*” -dst “C:\Out” -pdf ocr:yes ocr_lang:En
Convert to PDF all files, listed in a text file “C:\tests\list.txt”
2PDF.exe -src “@C:\tests\list.txt” -dst “C:\Out”
Combine a large number of PDFs (10000 files) from folder “C:\In” and save the output file as “C:\Out\output.pdf”
2pdf.exe -src “C:\in*.pdf” -dst “C:\Out” -pdf multipage:append combine:”output.pdf” -options fast_combine:10000
Split multipage files into separate PDF pages
2pdf.exe -src “C:\in*.*” -dst “C:\Out” -pdf multipage:split
Password-protect multiple documents (batch lock files)
2PDF.exe -src “C:\In*.*” -dst “C:\Out” -options dstpwd:password
password – enter a password which will be applied to all source files
Remove password from multiple secured documents (batch unlock files)
2PDF.exe -src “C:\In*.*” -dst “C:\Out” -options srcpwd:password1 srcpwd:password2 srcpwd:password3
password1, password2, password3 – if, e.g., files within a folder have 3 different passwords