Stirling Office Convert

Convert between PDF and editable Office documents in plain Java, built on PDFBox and Apache POI. The converter needs no native libraries or external processes. It also converts PDF to PDF/A.

Conversion	Formats
PDF to documents	DOCX, ODT, flat ODT (.fodt / .xml), RTF (.rtf / .doc), plain text
PDF to presentations	PPTX, ODP, PPT (via the legacy module)
PDF to spreadsheets	XLSX, ODS
Office to PDF	DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, legacy DOC/XLS/PPT, XLSB, RTF, OpenDocument, Office XML, Visio, text and table formats
PDF to PDF/A	1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 2u, 3a, 3b, 3u

PDF-to-Office documents contain real paragraphs, headings, lists, tables, footnotes, headers and footers. Office-to-PDF reads saved content without running macros, scripts or formulas or fetching linked resources. iWork files use their embedded PDF or picture preview. PDF/A level a requires an already tagged PDF; the converter does not create a structure tree for an untagged document.

See the usage guide for the complete format list, limitations, API options, fonts, JPEG 2000 reader registration, timeout behavior and the LibreOffice comparison tester.

Requirements

Java 25 or later. The 0.2.0 changes are unreleased; the checkout's default version remains 0.1.0-SNAPSHOT. Build from source to use the new modules.

Build

./gradlew build
./gradlew publishToMavenLocal

The second command installs the library modules locally, including sources, javadoc and POMs.

CLI

java -jar cli/build/libs/stirling-office-convert-cli.jar in.pdf -o out.docx
java -jar cli/build/libs/stirling-office-convert-cli.jar report.docx slides.pptx book.xlsx -o outdir/
java -jar cli/build/libs/stirling-office-convert-cli.jar folder/ -o outdir/ --format pdf
java -jar cli/build/libs/stirling-office-convert-cli.jar in.pdf --pdfa 2b -o archive.pdf

The output extension picks the PDF-to-Office format. Office inputs produce PDFs. A folder can contain both PDFs and Office files; --format pdf selects Office inputs and includes text and CSV files. Inputs are never overwritten. Existing outputs are skipped unless --overwrite is given, and colliding input names retain their extensions in the output name. A failure, skipped input or empty folder exits with status 1.

Option	Description
--format ext	Select the output format for a folder
--pages a-b	PDF page range
--password p	Password for a protected input
--timeout s	Office-to-PDF or PDF/A timeout; 0 disables it
--max-pages n	Office-to-PDF page limit; 0 converts all pages
--fonts dir	Add a font directory for Office-to-PDF or PDF/A
--pictures compact|lossless	PDF-to-Office picture storage
--sheets page|table|single	PDF-to-spreadsheet layout
--overwrite	Replace existing output files
-q	Quiet

The usage guide documents the remaining options and exit statuses.

Library

The main API entry points are OfficeConvert, OfficeToPdf and PdfToPdfA. Use FontSet to share configured fonts between Office-to-PDF and PDF/A conversions.

import java.nio.file.Path;
import stirling.software.officeconvert.OfficeConvert;
import stirling.software.officeconvert.topdf.OfficeToPdf;
import stirling.software.officeconvert.pdfa.PdfToPdfA;
import stirling.software.officeconvert.pdfa.PdfALevel;

OfficeConvert.convert(Path.of("in.pdf"), Path.of("out.docx"));
OfficeToPdf.convert(Path.of("in.docx"), Path.of("out.pdf"));
PdfToPdfA.convert(Path.of("in.pdf"), Path.of("archive.pdf"),
        PdfToPdfA.Options.defaults().level(PdfALevel.A2B));

The library modules use the com.stirling group and the artifact names listed below. Use the locally installed 0.1.0-SNAPSHOT artifacts when building against this unreleased checkout. See library use, Office to PDF and PDF to PDF/A for dependency and option details.

Different documents can convert in parallel. A single PDDocument must not be used on two threads. Path overloads move completed output into place. The usage guide explains the ownership and timeout rules for caller-owned documents and streams.

Test app

app provides a local page for trying PDF-to-Office and Office-to-PDF conversions. It is not published to Maven.

./gradlew :app:jar
java -jar app/build/libs/stirling-office-convert-app.jar

Open http://localhost:8177. The usage guide covers the HTTP API, Docker demo and optional LibreOffice comparison tester.

Project layout

Module	Purpose	Library artifact
core	PDF to editable Office; shared image decoder and memory admission	stirling-office-convert
legacy	PowerPoint 97-2003 (.ppt) writer	stirling-office-convert-legacy
topdf	Office to PDF	stirling-office-convert-topdf
pdfa	PDF to PDF/A	stirling-office-convert-pdfa
cli	Command line tool
app	Local test web app

Tests

./gradlew check :cli:jar :app:jar

CI builds, tests and generates javadoc on Linux, macOS and Windows with Java 25. Tests generate their document fixtures in code, including JPEG 2000 pixel coverage and active-content guards. See tests for details.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.