DOC and DOCX to PDF via CLI

Headless LibreOffice (soffice) converts Word DOC and DOCX to PDF.

Packages to install

Install libreoffice-writer-nogui and fonts-liberation so the document renders predictably.

libreoffice-writer-nogui

fonts-liberation

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libreoffice-writer-nogui fonts-liberation

How to run the command

soffice --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir . document.docx. The same command works for .doc. On a server, set a private profile with -env:UserInstallation so parallel runs do not clash.

soffice --headless --nologo --nofirststartwizard --norestore --convert-to pdf --outdir . document.docx

Dockerfile example

Build a minimal Ubuntu image with the required packages and run the conversion inside the container.

FROM ubuntu:24.04

RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        libreoffice-writer-nogui \
        fonts-liberation && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

WORKDIR /work

docker build -t docx-to-pdf .
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" -w /work docx-to-pdf \
  soffice --headless --nologo --nofirststartwizard --norestore --convert-to pdf --outdir . document.docx

Example commands

Run these locally after installing the packages, or inside the container from the Dockerfile.

soffice --headless --nologo --nofirststartwizard --norestore --convert-to pdf --outdir . document.docx

soffice -env:UserInstallation=file:///tmp/lo-profile --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir /tmp document.doc