PDF Processing
Quick start
Use pdfplumber to extract text from PDFs:
import pdfplumber
with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:
text = pdf.pages[0].extract_text()
print(text)Extracting tables
Extract tables from PDFs with automatic detection:
import pdfplumber
with pdfplumber.open("report.pdf") as pdf:
page = pdf.pages[0]
tables = page.extract_tables()
for table in tables:
for row in table:
print(row)Extracting all pages
Process multi-page documents efficiently:
import pdfplumber
with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:
full_text = ""
for page in pdf.pages:
full_text += page.extract_text() + "\n\n"
print(full_text)Form filling
For PDF form filling, see FORMS.md for the complete guide including field analysis and validation.
Merging PDFs
Combine multiple PDF files:
from pypdf import PdfMerger
merger = PdfMerger()
for pdf in ["file1.pdf", "file2.pdf", "file3.pdf"]:
merger.append(pdf)
merger.write("merged.pdf")
merger.close()Splitting PDFs
Extract specific pages or ranges:
from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter
reader = PdfReader("input.pdf")
writer = PdfWriter()
# Extract pages 2-5
for page_num in range(1, 5):
writer.add_page(reader.pages[page_num])
with open("output.pdf", "wb") as output:
writer.write(output)Available packages
- pdfplumber - Text and table extraction (recommended)
- pypdf - PDF manipulation, merging, splitting
- pdf2image - Convert PDFs to images (requires poppler)
- pytesseract - OCR for scanned PDFs (requires tesseract)
Common patterns
Extract and save text:
import pdfplumber
with pdfplumber.open("input.pdf") as pdf:
text = "\n\n".join(page.extract_text() for page in pdf.pages)
with open("output.txt", "w") as f:
f.write(text)Extract tables to CSV:
import pdfplumber
import csv
with pdfplumber.open("tables.pdf") as pdf:
tables = pdf.pages[0].extract_tables()
with open("output.csv", "w", newline="") as f:
writer = csv.writer(f)
for table in tables:
writer.writerows(table)Error handling
Handle common PDF issues:
import pdfplumber
try:
with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:
if len(pdf.pages) == 0:
print("PDF has no pages")
else:
text = pdf.pages[0].extract_text()
if text is None or text.strip() == "":
print("Page contains no extractable text (might be scanned)")
else:
print(text)
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error processing PDF: {e}")Performance tips
- Process pages in batches for large PDFs
- Use multiprocessing for multiple files
- Extract only needed pages rather than entire document
- Close PDF objects after use