convert2pdf

Convert PowerPoint (.pptx, .ppt) to PDF and compress PDFs from the terminal — with an interactive wizard, live progress, and Ghostscript compression presets.

Built because I needed to convert large presentation files to PDF locally and fast, without uploading decks to online converters or waiting on slow cloud tools. Everything runs on your machine: convert with LibreOffice, then shrink the PDF with Ghostscript when you want a smaller file.

Fully built with Cursor.

Supported formats (current)

| Input | Output | |-------|--------| | .pptx, .ppt | PDF | | .pdf | Compressed PDF |

Install globally:

npm install -g convert2pdf

Or install in a project:

npm install convert2pdf

Or run once with npx:

npx convert2pdf

Features

• .pptx / .ppt to PDF via LibreOffice (headless)
• PDF compression via Ghostscript (screen, ebook, printer, prepress)
• Compress-only mode — pass a .pdf file (auto-detected) or use --compress-only
• Interactive wizard — guided prompts with descriptions
• Live progress — elapsed time and stage updates while converting/compressing
• Programmatic API — import in Node.js backends and wire progress to your own UI

Prerequisites

| Tool | When needed | macOS install | |------|-------------|---------------| | LibreOffice | .pptx / .ppt conversion | brew install --cask libreoffice | | Ghostscript | Any compression | brew install ghostscript |

Ghostscript

| OS | Command | |----|---------| | macOS | brew install ghostscript | | Ubuntu / Debian | sudo apt install -y ghostscript | | Windows | choco install ghostscript or download |

LibreOffice

| OS | Command | |----|---------| | macOS | brew install --cask libreoffice | | Ubuntu / Debian | sudo apt install -y libreoffice | | Windows | Download installer |

Usage

Interactive wizard (default)

convert2pdf

Accepts .pptx, .ppt, or .pdf paths. PDF inputs go straight to compression.

.pptx / .ppt to PDF

convert2pdf slides.pptx
convert2pdf slides.pptx -o output.pdf -l screen
convert2pdf slides.pptx --no-compress

Compress PDF only

Auto-detected when the input ends with .pdf:

convert2pdf document.pdf
convert2pdf document.pdf -o smaller.pdf -l ebook

Or explicitly:

convert2pdf document.pdf --compress-only -l screen

Default output for PDF compression: document-compressed.pdf

Options

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | [file] | Input .pptx, .ppt, or .pdf (wizard if omitted) | | -o, --output <path> | Output PDF path | | -l, --level <level> | none, screen, ebook, printer, prepress (default: ebook) | | --no-compress | Convert to PDF only — skip compression (.pptx, .ppt) | | --compress-only | Compress a PDF (also auto-detected for .pdf inputs) | | -h, --help | Show help | | -V, --version | Show version |

Compression levels

| Level | DPI | Best for | |-------|-----|----------| | screen | 72 | Smallest files — web, email | | ebook | 150 | Balanced quality and size (recommended) | | printer | 300 | Print-ready documents | | prepress | 300 | Professional print workflows |

Programmatic API

Install as a dependency:

npm install convert2pdf

Use it from Node.js (server, API route, Electron main process, etc.). Conversion requires LibreOffice and Ghostscript on the machine running your code — it does not run in the browser.

Convert to PDF

import {
  prepareConversionOptions,
  runConversion,
} from 'convert2pdf';

const options = prepareConversionOptions({
  inputPath: './slides.pptx',
  outputPath: './slides.pdf',
  compressionLevel: 'ebook',
});

const result = await runConversion({
  ...options,
  silent: true,
  onProgress: (event) => {
    console.log(event);
  },
});

console.log(result.outputPath, result.finalSize);

Compress an existing PDF

import { prepareConversionOptions, runConversion } from 'convert2pdf';

const result = await runConversion({
  ...prepareConversionOptions({
    inputPath: './large.pdf',
    compressionLevel: 'screen',
  }),
  silent: true,
});

PDF inputs are detected automatically — compressOnly is implied when the path ends with .pdf.

Wire up a frontend UI

Call the library from your backend and stream progress to the client:

// server.ts (Express example)
import express from 'express';
import { prepareConversionOptions, runConversion } from 'convert2pdf';

const app = express();

app.post('/convert', async (req, res) => {
  const { inputPath, outputPath, level } = req.body;

  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/event-stream');

  const result = await runConversion({
    ...prepareConversionOptions({
      inputPath,
      outputPath,
      compressionLevel: level ?? 'ebook',
    }),
    silent: true,
    onProgress: (event) => {
      res.write(`data: ${JSON.stringify(event)}\n\n`);
    },
  });

  res.write(`data: ${JSON.stringify({ type: 'result', result })}\n\n`);
  res.end();
});

Your React/Vue/Angular app uploads the file to the server, then listens to Server-Sent Events (or WebSockets) to show live progress in the UI.

API reference

| Export | Description | |--------|-------------| | runConversion(options) | Full pipeline: convert and/or compress | | prepareConversionOptions(opts) | Build options from paths and flags | | convertPptxToPdf(input, output) | .pptx / .ppt to PDF only | | compressPdfFile(input, output, level) | Compress a PDF only | | validateInputFile(path) | Validate input before running | | checkLibreOffice() | Check LibreOffice is installed | | checkGhostscript() | Check Ghostscript is installed | | getSupportedFormatsText() | Human-readable list of supported inputs | | SUPPORTED_FORMATS | .pptx/.ppt (convert) and .pdf (compress) | | getInputKind(path) | 'powerpoint' | 'pdf' | null | | defaultOutputPath(path) | Suggest an output path | | COMPRESSION_LEVELS | Preset metadata for UI dropdowns |

Progress events

When onProgress is set, you receive:

type ProgressEvent =
  | { type: 'start'; step: 'convert' | 'compress'; message: string; inputPath: string; inputSize?: number }
  | { type: 'stage'; step: 'convert' | 'compress'; message: string; elapsedMs: number; detail?: string }
  | { type: 'complete'; step: 'convert' | 'compress'; message: string; elapsedMs: number };

Use these to drive progress bars, status text, or logs in your own UI.

License

ISC