pdf-oxide — The Fastest PDF CLI Toolkit

A command-line tool for PDF text extraction, markdown conversion, search, merge, split, image extraction, and more. Built on pdf_oxide, the fastest Rust PDF library (0.8ms mean, 100% pass rate on 3,830 PDFs). MIT licensed.

Install

brew install yfedoseev/tap/pdf-oxide    # Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
cargo install pdf_oxide_cli             # Cargo
cargo binstall pdf_oxide_cli            # Pre-built binary via cargo-binstall

Quick Start

pdf-oxide text report.pdf                      # Extract text
pdf-oxide markdown report.pdf -o report.md     # Convert to Markdown
pdf-oxide html report.pdf -o report.html       # Convert to HTML
pdf-oxide search report.pdf "neural.?network"  # Regex search
pdf-oxide images report.pdf -o ./images/       # Extract images
pdf-oxide merge a.pdf b.pdf -o combined.pdf    # Merge PDFs
pdf-oxide split report.pdf -o ./pages/         # Split into pages

All Commands

Command	Description
`text`	Extract text from PDF pages
`markdown`	Convert PDF to Markdown with headings, lists, and layout
`html`	Convert PDF to HTML
`search`	Search PDF content with regex patterns
`images`	Extract images to files (PNG, JPEG, etc.)
`info`	Show PDF metadata, page count, and version
`metadata`	Read and write PDF metadata fields
`merge`	Combine multiple PDFs into one
`split`	Split PDF into individual pages
`compress`	Reduce PDF file size
`encrypt`	Password-protect a PDF
`decrypt`	Remove password from a PDF
`rotate`	Rotate pages by 90, 180, or 270 degrees
`crop`	Set page crop box dimensions
`delete`	Remove specific pages
`reorder`	Rearrange page order
`watermark`	Add text watermark to pages
`flatten`	Flatten form fields and annotations
`forms`	Read and fill PDF form fields
`bookmarks`	Extract document bookmarks/outline
`create`	Create new PDF documents programmatically

Features

22 commands for complete PDF processing from the terminal
Fast — powered by pdf_oxide, 5x faster than PyMuPDF
PDF to Markdown — headings, bullet lists, column-aware reading order
Regex search — full regex pattern matching across pages
Image extraction — extracts images from content streams, form XObjects, and inline images
Form filling — read and write PDF form fields from the command line
Page range support — use --pages 1-5,10 on any command
JSON output — add --json for machine-readable results
Interactive REPL — run pdf-oxide with no arguments for interactive mode
Encrypted PDFs — supply --password to open protected files
Cross-platform — Linux, macOS, and Windows

Usage Examples

Extract text from specific pages

pdf-oxide text paper.pdf --pages 1-5
pdf-oxide text paper.pdf --pages 1,3,7-10

Convert to Markdown for LLM/RAG pipelines

pdf-oxide markdown paper.pdf -o paper.md
pdf-oxide markdown paper.pdf --pages 1 --detect-headings

Search across a PDF

pdf-oxide search contract.pdf "termination|cancellation"
pdf-oxide search paper.pdf "equation \d+" --json

Merge and split

pdf-oxide merge chapter1.pdf chapter2.pdf chapter3.pdf -o book.pdf
pdf-oxide split book.pdf -o ./chapters/

Work with forms

pdf-oxide forms w2.pdf                              # List fields
pdf-oxide forms w2.pdf --fill "employee_name=Jane"   # Fill fields

Extract images

pdf-oxide images paper.pdf -o ./figures/ --pages 1-10

Performance

pdf_oxide processes PDFs at 0.8ms mean per document — 5x faster than PyMuPDF, 15x faster than pypdf. Text extraction, markdown conversion, and all operations share the same high-performance Rust core.

Documentation

Full Documentation — Getting started, CLI guide, and API reference
CLI Guide — Detailed command reference
GitHub — Source code and issue tracker

Related Crates

pdf_oxide — Rust PDF library (core)
pdf_oxide_mcp — MCP server for AI assistants

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0

pdf_oxide_cli 0.3.15