Command-line Reference

Prince may be called from the command-line with the following arguments:


  prince OPTIONS
    FILE
    -o PDF

Please note that on Windows, Prince can be called from the command-line by running the prince.exe file found in the Prince\Engine\bin folder of the Prince installation.

Examples

prince file.xml: Convert file.xml to file.pdf.
prince doc.html -o out.pdf: Convert doc.html to out.pdf.
prince -s style1.css -s style2.css input.xml -o output.pdf: Convert input.xml to output.pdf, applying two user style sheets.
prince doc1.html doc2.html -o out.pdf: Combine doc1.html and doc2.html into a single PDF file, out.pdf.

Specifying input and output

The command line must contain the name of the input file to process. An input filename consisting of a single hyphen "-" will cause Prince to read from the standard input stream.

The output file name can be specified on the command line using the -o command line option. An output filename consisting of a single hyphen "-" will cause Prince to write to the standard output stream.

If the output file name is omitted, the output will be placed in a file with the same name as the input, but with a PDF file extension.

Options

The command line may include the options described below:

General Options

-h, --help: Display usage and options.
--version: Display version information.
--credits: Display credits and acknowledgements.

Logging Options

-v, --verbose: Log informative messages.
--debug: Log debug messages.
--log=FILE: Append log messages to a file.

Input Options

-i FORMAT, --input=FORMAT: Set input format [auto | xml | html | html5].
-l, --input-list=FILE: Read input file list from specified file.
--baseurl=URL: Specify the base URL of the input document.
--remap=URL=DIR: Rather than retrieving documents beginning with URL get them from the local directory DIR. This option can be used multiple times to specify more than one remapping. It cannot be used with --fileroot
--fileroot=DIR: Specify the root directory for absolute filenames.
--no-xinclude: Disable XInclude processing.

Network Options

--no-network: Disable network access (prevents HTTP downloads).
--auth-user=USER: Specify the username for HTTP authentication.
--auth-password=PASS: Specify the password for HTTP authentication.
--auth-server=HOST[:PORT]: Send username and password credential to the specified server only. (The default is to send them to any server which challenges for authentication).
--auth-scheme=SCHEME: Send username and password credentials only for requests with the given scheme, either http or https
--auth-method=METHOD: Specify a comma separated list of HTTP authentication methods to enable. Valid entries are: basic, digest, ntlm and negotiate. The default is basic.
--auth=URL: Specify a URL with credentials for HTTP authentication: [SCHEME:]//USER:PASS@HOST[:PORT]. Unlike the preceding options, --auth may be used multiple times. The username and password must be percent-encoded.
--no-auth-preemptive: Do not send credentials to named servers until an authentication challenge is received. When multiple authentication methods are enabled, an initial request may be required to discover the methods supported by the remote site.
--http-proxy=PROXY: Specify the HTTP proxy server.
--http-timeout=SEC: Specify the HTTP timeout in seconds.
--cookiejar=FILE: Specify a file containing HTTP cookies.
--ssl-cacert=FILE: Specify an SSL certificate file.
--ssl-capath=PATH: Specify an SSL certificate directory.
--insecure: Disable SSL verification (not recommended).
--no-parallel-downloads: Disable downloading multiple HTTP resources at once.

JavaScript Options

--javascript: Enable JavaScript in HTML documents.
--script=FILE: Run an external script.

CSS Options

-s FILE, --style=FILE: Apply a CSS file.
--media=MEDIA: Specify the media type (eg. print, screen).
--page-size=SIZE: Specify the page size (eg. A4).
--page-margin=MARGIN: Specify the page margin (eg. 20mm).
--no-author-style: Ignore author style sheets.
--no-default-style: Ignore default style sheets.

PDF Output Options

-o FILE.PDF, --output=FILE.PDF: Specify the output PDF file.
--pdf-profile=PROFILE: Specify the PDF profile (PDF Profiles) to use.
--pdf-output-intent=ICC: Specify the ICC profile to use.
--attach=FILE: Attach a file to the PDF.
--no-artificial-fonts: Disable synthesis of missing bold/italic fonts.
--no-embed-fonts: Disable font embelistiteming in PDF output.
--no-subset-fonts: Disable font subsetting in PDF output.
--no-compress: Disable compression of PDF output.

PDF Metadata Options

--pdf-title=TITLE: Set PDF document title.
--pdf-subject=SUBJECT: Set PDF document subject.
--pdf-author=AUTHOR: Set PDF document author.
--pdf-keywords=KEYWORDS: Set PDF document keywords.
--pdf-creator=CREATOR: Set PDF document creator.

PDF Encryption Options

--encrypt: Encrypt PDF output.
--key-bits=NUM: Set encryption key size either 40 or 128.
--user-password=PASS: Set PDF user password.
--owner-password=PASS: Set PDF owner password.
--disallow-print: Disallow printing of PDF output.
--disallow-copy: Disallow copying from PDF output.
--disallow-annotate: Disallow annotation of PDF output.
--disallow-modify: Disallow modification of PDF output.

Utility Options

--scanfonts FILES...: Scan font files and create a CSS file.