Extract text from a PDF using Python

The high-level API can be used to do common tasks.

The most simple way to extract text from a PDF is to use extract_text:

>>> from pdfminer.high_level import extract_text
>>> text = extract_text('samples/simple1.pdf')
>>> print(repr(text))
'Hello \n\nWorld\n\nHello \n\nWorld\n\nH e l l o  \n\nW o r l d\n\nH e l l o  \n\nW o r l d\n\n\x0c'
>>> print(text)
... 
Hello

World

Hello

World

H e l l o

W o r l d

H e l l o

W o r l d

To read text from a PDF and print it on the command line:

>>> from io import StringIO
>>> from pdfminer.high_level import extract_text_to_fp
>>> output_string = StringIO()
>>> with open('samples/simple1.pdf', 'rb') as fin:
...     extract_text_to_fp(fin, output_string)
>>> print(output_string.getvalue().strip())
Hello WorldHello WorldHello WorldHello World

Or to convert it to html and use layout analysis:

>>> from io import StringIO
>>> from pdfminer.high_level import extract_text_to_fp
>>> from pdfminer.layout import LAParams
>>> output_string = StringIO()
>>> with open('samples/simple1.pdf', 'rb') as fin:
...     extract_text_to_fp(fin, output_string, laparams=LAParams(),
...                        output_type='html', codec=None)