Extract text from PDF in Python

While processing PDF files, you often need to extract content from the pages as plain text. This plain text can further be used for various purposes, such as text analysis, text processing, etc. In this article, you will learn how to extract text from a PDF in Python. With the help of code samples, the article will demonstrate how to perform text extraction on a whole PDF or a single page.

Python Library to Extract Text from PDF

To extract text from PDF files, we will use Aspose.PDF for Python. It is a powerful PDF manipulation library that lets you create and process PDF files. In addition, it allows you to convert PDF files to other formats.

You can install Aspose.PDF for Python using the following pip command.

pip install aspose-pdf

Extract Text from PDF in Python

The following are the steps to extract text from a PDF in Python.

  • Use Document class to load the PDF file.
  • Create an instance of TextDevice class.
  • Start a loop for the number of pages times.
  • In each iteration, extract text from a page using TextDevice.process() method and save the extracted text in .txt file.

The following code sample shows how to extract text from PDF in Python.

Extract Text from a Specific Page in PDF

You can also extract text from a specific page of the PDF using the page number in Document.pages array. The following code sample shows how to extract text from a specific page in PDF.

Extract Text from PDF Online

You can also use our online PDF text extraction tool to extract text from PDF files. It is a free tool that you can use without any subscription or sign-up.

Free PDF Text Extraction Library

Get your free temporary license and extract text from PDF files without any limitations.

Explore Python PDF Library

You can explore more about the Python PDF library using the documentation. In addition, you can post your queries to our forum.

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned how to extract text from PDF in Python. The steps and code samples have demonstrated how to extract text from a whole PDF or a specific page. You can easily install the library and perform text extraction from within your Python applications.

See Also