Manatee v2.2

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Pdf ​

This module can be used to extract text from PDF files.

Note: That it is not possible to extract text from scanned PDF files.

Manatee compatibility

This module is compatible with Manatee v2.0.

Usage ​

Extract text from PDF file ​

You can use the textBlocks function to extract text blocks from a PDF file.

js
// Load and instantiate the module, replace x.y.z with a proper version
var pdf = Module.load("Pdf", {version: "vX.Y.Z"});
var result = pdf.textBlocks("/path/to/file.pdf", {page: 2});
// result is an `TextBlocks` object which has a blocks property containing the extracted text blocks
var blocks = result.blocks;

The options argument (the 2nd argument) can contain the following properties:

  • page the page number to extract text from. Defaults to all pages.
  • password the password to decrypt the PDF file.
  • betweenLineMultiplier the space allowed between blocks (average space multiplied with this variable). Defaults to 1.3.

The TextBlocks object has a find method which can be used to find text blocks in the PDF file. You can use it like:

js
// Find a block of text below the headline "Some headline"
result.find("below", "Some headline");
// We dont want rotated text, so we can use the `allowRotatedText` property
var block1 = result.find("below", "Some headline", {allowRotatedText: false});
// You can also use a boundingBox (rectangle) as an argument to find another block relative to it
var block2 = result.find("below", block1.boundingBox);

You can use

  • pdf.Below aka "Below"
  • pdf.Above aka "Above"
  • pdf.LeftOf aka "LeftOf"
  • pdf.RightOf aka "RightOf"
  • pdf.Nearest aka "Nearest" to find the nearest block of text

as the first argument and a regular expression as the second argument.

TextBlocks also has a blocks property which contains the extracted text blocks. Each TextBlock object has the following properties:

  • text (string) the combined text of all lines in the block
  • lines (array of strings) the individual lines in the block
  • separator (string) the separator used to separate the lines in the block
  • boundingBox (object) the bounding box of the block
    • topLeft (object) the top left corner, an object with x and y
    • topRight (object) the top right corner, an object with x and y
    • bottomLeft (object) the bottom left corner, an object with x and y
    • bottomRight (object) the bottom right corner, an object with x and y
    • top (number) the top edge of the bounding box
    • bottom (number) the bottom edge of the bounding box
    • left (number) the left edge of the bounding box
    • right (number) the right edge of the bounding box
    • width (number) the width of the bounding box
    • height (number) the height of the bounding box
    • rotation (number) the rotation of the bounding box
  • readingOrder (number) the reading order of the block
  • textOrientation (number) the text orientation of the block

TextBlocks also has a meta property carrying the document information, or null when the document has none:

  • title (string) the document title
  • author (string) the document author
  • subject (string) the document subject
  • keywords (string) the document keywords
  • creator (string) the application that created the original document
  • producer (string) the application that produced the PDF
  • creationDate (string) the date the document was created

Releases ​

v3.0.0 (2023-12-19) ​

  • Release for Manatee v2

v1.0.3 (2022-02-17) ​

  • Feature: Added support for password protected PDF files

v1.0.2 (2022-02-16) ​

Initial release.