#  `export_images`

Export images and a JSON manifest for external editing
## Usage
> pdftl `<input>` `export_images` `[<spec>...]` `<dir>` `[output` `<output>]`

## Details
The `export_images` operation extracts all embedded images from the PDF, saves them to a
specified directory, and generates a structured JSON manifest file.

This allows you to bulk-export images, edit them in external software (like GIMP or
Photoshop), and then easily re-integrate them back into the PDF using the [`import_images`](<import_images.md>)
command.

The JSON manifest groups images by their underlying stream data. This means that if a
single image is drawn multiple times across different pages, it will only be exported once.

### Arguments

* `<directory>`: **(Required)** The directory where the extracted images will be saved.
* `[output <manifest.json>]`: The file path to save the JSON manifest. If omitted, the
  manifest is automatically saved as `manifest.json` inside the specified directory.
  Specify `output -` to print the manifest directly to standard output.
* `[page_range]`: Optional page ranges to limit the extraction.
## Examples

> Extract all images to 'my_images/' and save the manifest to 'my_images/manifest.json'.
```
pdftl in.pdf export_images my_images
```

> Extract images from pages 1-5 into 'edited_assets/' and write manifest to 'manifest.json'.
```
pdftl in.pdf export_images 1-5 edited_assets output manifest.json
```


**Tags**: info, metadata, images, export

*Source: pdftl.operations.export_import_images*

*Read online: [https://pdftl.readthedocs.io/en/latest/operations/export_images.html](https://pdftl.readthedocs.io/en/latest/operations/export_images.html)*

*Type: Operation*