eml2pdf | Official WEB Site

The eml2pdf | Official Website also provides the Admin Manual, among other things. Further information can also be found here.

eml2pdf Converter 2.00 – Administrator Manual

Audience: Administrators / DevOps
License: MIT License
Author: Michael Klissner (2025–2026)

1. Overview
2. General Usage
3. Supported Content & Attachments
4. Performance Overview
5. System Requirements
6. Docker Setup
7. Configuration
8. Paperless Integration
9. Logging & Error Handling
10. License

1. Overview

The eml2pdf Converter is a Docker-based Python service for automated conversion of EML email files into PDF documents for further processing in document management systems such as Paperless-ngx.

2. General Usage

2.1 Workflow

Place .eml files into the import directory
Automatic processing at the configured polling interval
PDF generation including attachments
Handover to the consume directory
Archiving or error handling of the original EML

3. Supported Content & Attachments

3.1 Email Content

Plain text emails
HTML emails
Multipart MIME

3.2 Supported Attachments

PDF
DOC / DOCX
XLS / XLSX
PPT / PPTX
ODT / ODS / ODP
PAGES (Apple Pages, via LibreOffice)
NUMBERS (Apple Numbers, via LibreOffice)
TXT
CSV
VCF (vCard)
PNG / JPG / TIFF / BMP

3.3 Unsupported / Limited Formats

Markdown (.md) – not supported
RTF (.rtf) – best effort, not guaranteed

4. Performance Overview

Batch processing via watch folders
ARM and x86 compatible
Low resource footprint

5. System Requirements

Docker ≥ 20
docker-compose ≥ v2
Linux recommended

Official Images (GitHub Container Registry)

Architecture	Version 1.01 (stable)	Latest (rolling)	Recommended for
x86_64(Intel/AMD)	`ghcr.io/klissner/eml2pdf:2.00-x86`	`ghcr.io/klissner/eml2pdf:latest-x86`	Servers, desktops, NAS (Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS)
ARM64(aarch64)	`ghcr.io/klissner/eml2pdf:2.00-arm`	`ghcr.io/klissner/eml2pdf:latest-arm`	Raspberry Pi 4/5, Apple Silicon M1/M2, AWS Graviton

Important: Always use the full tag with architecture suffix!

6. Docker Setup

services:
  eml2pdf:
    image: ghcr.io/klissner/eml2pdf:2.00-x86      # x86 systems
    # image: ghcr.io/klissner/eml2pdf:2.00-arm    # Raspberry Pi / Apple Silicon
    container_name: eml2pdf
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/Berlin
      - LOGLEVEL=INFO
    volumes:
      - ./eml-import:/input
      - ./consume:/usr/src/paperless/consume
      - ./eml-import/archiv:/eml-import/archiv
      - ./eml-import/error:/eml-import/error
      - ./config.json:/config.json

7. Configuration

Runtime configuration is handled via config.json.

8. Paperless Integration

PDFs are handed over via the consume directory. OCR is intentionally delegated to Paperless.

9. Logging & Error Handling

Central logging inside the container
Configurable log level
Faulty emails are preserved for analysis

10. License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.