Guides
See where the refs are
Draw the pages of a PDF or the slides of a deck as pictures with every ref on them. What you see matches the refs view, so you can tell what each ref points at.
Draw the refs
Convert to PNG with --refs. Each page or slide becomes one picture, with a box around every form field and annotation of a PDF, or every shape with text, picture and table of a deck, and a tag with the ref at the box's top-left corner.
A picture gives no rev. Take it from cv read form.pdf --refs before you edit.
$ export CV_API_KEY=cv_sk_…Set your key once. Every cv command reads it.
$ cv convert form.pdf pages/ --to png --refsstderr3 files -> pages/What the boxes mean
| Box | Means |
|---|---|
| Blue | Takes text or a value |
| Magenta | A PDF annotation |
| Green | A table |
| Purple | A picture |
| Gray | Read only |
| Dashed | An empty placeholder, or a shape or annotation that is hidden |
Table cells get a small tag such as B2 in their bottom-right corner when they are large enough. The cell's ref is the table's ref, ! and the tag, such as s2/4!B2. A radio button's tag adds the value that picks it, such as Plan = Pro.
Some pages only
--pages keeps the refs of the whole file, so --pages 3 still shows p3/a1 and s3/4. Slide pictures leave out hidden slides, and --to jpeg works the same way.
$ cv convert deck.pptx slides/ --to png --refs --pages 2-3stderr2 files -> slides/Updated 3 November 2026