Extract text from a PDF file

Viltedali

Viltedali

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I am wondering what would be the best way to extract text from a PDF file.

The PDF files are forms that have fields where someone enters text (typed on a computer, not handwritten), and I want to extract the textthat they enter into the fields.

Preferably something that would run on a Linux server, if possible.

I looked around and found itextsharp, has anyone used it and would it do the job?

If so, I guess you can not install that on a Linux server?

Thanks in advance for any replies
 
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I've used the desktop version, but they do make server based apps as well

Able2Extract Server
http://www.investintech.com/purchase/server/[/URL]
 
Wow, it looks like the server version is $5,000, way out of my range.
 
More precisely, reading the PDF into a character recognition (OCR) software, if your PDF is an all graphics file (indicated by the impossibility of highlighting text).



The results of course depend on your OCR software and the settings you apply before recognition.



In any case, the procedure is likely to involve a lot of work and only pays off if the text contains lots of repetitions and you can use a CAT software afterwards. Otherwise, just use a printout and type the translation into Word
 
Viltedali said:
I am wondering what would be the best way to extract text from a PDF file.

The PDF files are forms that have fields where someone enters text (typed on a computer, not handwritten), and I want to extract the textthat they enter into the fields.

Preferably something that would run on a Linux server, if possible.

I looked around and found itextsharp, has anyone used it and would it do the job?

If so, I guess you can not install that on a Linux server?

Thanks in advance for any replies
Click to expand...

The something you want is Adobe Acrobat. Acrobat does not run on Linux though. I have also read that PDF Studio Pro may be the tool you want, and it does run on Linux, Mac, and Windows. PDF Studio does not have OCR.
 
At the risk of looking foolish couldn't you just use something like this..
again I'm probably waaayy Of -lol

This is a Online tool.
hxxp://mmm(dot)pdfonline(dot)com/pdf-to-word-converter/default-b.aspx?utm_expid=127285-38

Have to make the obvious adjustments as i cant post links.
 
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Also You can also Google "PDFEdit" it's a open source editor that runs on Linux.
Just trying to throw a few options out there is all.
 
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hey man, i am currently creating a pdf to text converter myself, which should look something like when its done
still looking for something special to implement, maybe a keyword finder
anyway if you have suggestions im open for them :D
 
If PDF is not scan image, you could simply use any pdf->doc converter?

About linux version, I had big success with pdftotex tool.
 
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Nitro PDF is one of the best for editing and stripping PDF's. You can find it for free.
 
Hy.

Before starting to make comments I would like to ask you to give more details.

You need to make this on autopilot or you just need some file to be converted?
 
Apache Tika can extract text from PDF's and loads of other file formats and it is open source. It is written in java, so it can run on pretty much any platform.
I can't post links yet, but do a google search for Apache Tika and it should show up as the first result
 
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