General command line options

Usually pdfaPilot CLI is started with: 

pdfaPilot <PDF file>

Input file

May be one or a number of input files (PDF or Office files) to be analysed and converted.

If an input file spec is pointing to an existing folder, all files inside this folder are processed:

Process folders recursively 

--recursive

If the file spec for the input file is pointing to an existing folder all PDF files inside the folder on all levels are processed

Empty the font cache 

--emptyfontcache

Removes all font files from the font cache folder of pdfaPilot CLI.

Incremental saving 

--incremental

Allows to modify the input file, only writing the changes to the original PDF. This can increase the speed significantly since pdfaPilot CLI does not need to create a new copy of the file.

PDF structure and font optimization 

--nooptimization

The internal PDF structure and fonts are not optimized when saving the PDF file.PDF structure and font optimization

Analyze only 

-a
-analyze

The input file is not being converted but is analyzed whether it is PDF/A compliant.
Both parameters can be used.

Analyze only certain pagerange 

-p --pagerange=<firstpage>[-<lastpage>] 

Only applied when analyzing not when converting PDF files.

  • Note: When converting non-PDF documents the page range of the  original docu­ment can be specified.

Parameters:

firstpage

Page where analysis should start

lastpage

optional, page where analysis should end

Example:

--pagerange=5-33

Setting the cache folder 

--cachefolder=<path> 

Sets the cache folder path. This is set by default to:

Windows:
%AppData%\callas software\callas pdfaPilot CLI <version>

MacOS:
/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Preferences/callas software/callas pdfaPilot CLI <version>

Linux:
home directory as defined in /etc/passwd/.callas software/ callas pdfaPilot CLI 

  • Note: This option is mandatory when running the CLI as a user without a home directory.

Parameters

path
 absolute path to custom cache folder

Font folders

If a font is not embedded and an embedding is required by a profile, pdfaPilot CLI will search the system font directories in order to find the needed font file, which are:

System Folder
Windows
  • C:\Windows\Fonts
MacOS
  1. /Users/<user>/Library/Fonts
  2. /Library/Fonts
  3. /System/Library/Fonts

Linux
  • /usr/share/fonts 
  • /usr/lib/X11/fonts
  • /usr/local/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts
  • /<user home>/.fonts

Additionally the font folder installed together with pdfaPilot CLI will be searched.
This folder lies next to the executable in "<callas pdfaPilot CLI directory>\etc\APDFL\Resource\Font".

Enable processing PDF with password protection for editing and printing 

--password=<password>

To enable Profile-processing of a password-protected PDF. This option can be used for PDFs with restrictions for editing and printing, which will become unsecured. The resulting PDF will have no security setting.

The entered password will be visible and may be grabbed or logged by other processes on the machine.

Parameters

password
 Password of the PDF (avoiding editing or printing of the PDF)

Enable processing PDF with password protection for opening 

--openpassword=<password to open PDF>

To enable Profile-processing of an "open"-password-protected PDF. With this option only PDFs with restrictions for opening can be unsecured. The resulting PDF will have no security setting.
Available since pdfaPilot 8.2.

The entered password will be visible and may be grabbed or logged by other processes on the machine.

Parameters

openpassword
 "Open" password of the PDF

Set a processing timeout 

--timeout=<seconds>

Sets the maximum processing time in seconds. If the process exceeds this duration, the execution process will be killed and the processing will result in an error.