Install img2pdf with Homebrew, apt, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• img2pdf
• img2pdf-gui

Project history

The changelog records an initial 0.1.0 packaging entry in March 2014, followed by public PyPI uploads beginning in 2014. The project moved from GitHub to gitlab.mister-muffin.de in the 0.2.0 development line documented in 2015.

The README frames img2pdf around three priorities: always lossless, small output, and fast conversion. It directly contrasts that with conventional conversion tools such as ImageMagick, which may re-encode images, inflate output, or consume more CPU and memory.

Over time the project added Python 3 support, reproducible output options, multipage and palette image handling, CCITT Group 4 TIFF direct copying, PDF/A-1b output, pikepdf support, pathlib input, JBIG2 support, and a minimal tkinter GUI.

Adoption history

img2pdf spread through both Python and operating-system package channels. Its README documents pip installation, source installation, Debian and Ubuntu repository installation, and Windows executables from the project's release page.

Homebrew formula metadata shows bottled distribution for the CLI on macOS and Linux. PyPI metadata supplies the Python-library distribution path, making img2pdf useful both in scripts and as a dependency inside larger document-processing programs.

How it is used

At the command line, users pass one or more image files and write a PDF with -o, or stream a single image from standard input to standard output. The README includes a SANE scanimage pipeline that turns a scan directly into a PDF.

As a library, callers use img2pdf.convert with filenames, file handles, pathlib paths, globs, or in-memory image data. Options cover page layout, DPI, rotation handling, and PDF/A output.

Why package nerds care

img2pdf is package-nerd significant because it solves a common automation problem with a precise format insight: for JPEG, JPEG2000, suitable PNG, CCITT Group 4 TIFF, and JBIG2 cases, the best conversion is often not conversion at all, but direct embedding.

That makes it a favorite kind of small package: easy to install, easy to shell-script, and technically sharper than larger generic image suites for its particular job.

Timeline

• 2014: 0.1.0 records the initial PyPI packaging work; 0.1.1 changes the license from GPL to LGPL.
• 2015: 0.2.0 moves the project to gitlab.mister-muffin.de and adds a larger test suite and standard-input support.
• 2018: 0.3.1 directly copies CCITT Group 4 TIFF images into PDF containers.
• 2020: 0.4.0 adds PDF/A-1b support, pikepdf support, ICC profile handling, and a rewritten test suite.
• 2023: 0.5.0 changes thumbnail behavior and accepts pathlib.Path objects as input.
• 2025: 0.6.0 adds JBIG2 support; 0.6.3 adds pyproject.toml and merges the jp2 module.

Related projects

• Pillow supplies image metadata and fallback conversion support.
• pikepdf is an optional PDF engine used in newer img2pdf releases.
• ImageMagick is the comparison point named by the README for conventional image-to-PDF conversion.
• SANE scanimage is shown in the README as part of a scanner-to-PDF pipeline.

Sources

• https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula/img2pdf.json
• https://gitlab.mister-muffin.de/josch/img2pdf
• https://gitlab.mister-muffin.de/josch/img2pdf/raw/branch/main/CHANGES.rst
• https://gitlab.mister-muffin.de/josch/img2pdf/raw/branch/main/README.md
• https://pypi.org/pypi/img2pdf/json