[c#] Reading PDF documents in .Net

Is there an open source library that will help me with reading/parsing PDF documents in .Net/C#?

This question is related to c# .net pdf

The answer is


aspose pdf works pretty well. then again, you have to pay for it


iTextSharp is the best bet. Used it to make a spider for lucene.Net so that it could crawl PDF.

using System;
using System.IO;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace Spider.Utils
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Parses a PDF file and extracts the text from it.
    /// </summary>
    public class PDFParser
    {
        /// BT = Beginning of a text object operator 
        /// ET = End of a text object operator
        /// Td move to the start of next line
        ///  5 Ts = superscript
        /// -5 Ts = subscript

        #region Fields

        #region _numberOfCharsToKeep
        /// <summary>
        /// The number of characters to keep, when extracting text.
        /// </summary>
        private static int _numberOfCharsToKeep = 15;
        #endregion

        #endregion

        #region ExtractText
        /// <summary>
        /// Extracts a text from a PDF file.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="inFileName">the full path to the pdf file.</param>
        /// <param name="outFileName">the output file name.</param>
        /// <returns>the extracted text</returns>
        public bool ExtractText(string inFileName, string outFileName)
        {
            StreamWriter outFile = null;
            try
            {
                // Create a reader for the given PDF file
                PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(inFileName);
                //outFile = File.CreateText(outFileName);
                outFile = new StreamWriter(outFileName, false, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);

                Console.Write("Processing: ");

                int totalLen = 68;
                float charUnit = ((float)totalLen) / (float)reader.NumberOfPages;
                int totalWritten = 0;
                float curUnit = 0;

                for (int page = 1; page <= reader.NumberOfPages; page++)
                {
                    outFile.Write(ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(reader.GetPageContent(page)) + " ");

                    // Write the progress.
                    if (charUnit >= 1.0f)
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < (int)charUnit; i++)
                        {
                            Console.Write("#");
                            totalWritten++;
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        curUnit += charUnit;
                        if (curUnit >= 1.0f)
                        {
                            for (int i = 0; i < (int)curUnit; i++)
                            {
                                Console.Write("#");
                                totalWritten++;
                            }
                            curUnit = 0;
                        }

                    }
                }

                if (totalWritten < totalLen)
                {
                    for (int i = 0; i < (totalLen - totalWritten); i++)
                    {
                        Console.Write("#");
                    }
                }
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (outFile != null) outFile.Close();
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region ExtractTextFromPDFBytes
        /// <summary>
        /// This method processes an uncompressed Adobe (text) object 
        /// and extracts text.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="input">uncompressed</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public string ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(byte[] input)
        {
            if (input == null || input.Length == 0) return "";

            try
            {
                string resultString = "";

                // Flag showing if we are we currently inside a text object
                bool inTextObject = false;

                // Flag showing if the next character is literal 
                // e.g. '\\' to get a '\' character or '\(' to get '('
                bool nextLiteral = false;

                // () Bracket nesting level. Text appears inside ()
                int bracketDepth = 0;

                // Keep previous chars to get extract numbers etc.:
                char[] previousCharacters = new char[_numberOfCharsToKeep];
                for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep; j++) previousCharacters[j] = ' ';


                for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
                {
                    char c = (char)input[i];
                    if (input[i] == 213)
                        c = "'".ToCharArray()[0];

                    if (inTextObject)
                    {
                        // Position the text
                        if (bracketDepth == 0)
                        {
                            if (CheckToken(new string[] { "TD", "Td" }, previousCharacters))
                            {
                                resultString += "\n\r";
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                if (CheckToken(new string[] { "'", "T*", "\"" }, previousCharacters))
                                {
                                    resultString += "\n";
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    if (CheckToken(new string[] { "Tj" }, previousCharacters))
                                    {
                                        resultString += " ";
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        // End of a text object, also go to a new line.
                        if (bracketDepth == 0 &&
                            CheckToken(new string[] { "ET" }, previousCharacters))
                        {

                            inTextObject = false;
                            resultString += " ";
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            // Start outputting text
                            if ((c == '(') && (bracketDepth == 0) && (!nextLiteral))
                            {
                                bracketDepth = 1;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                // Stop outputting text
                                if ((c == ')') && (bracketDepth == 1) && (!nextLiteral))
                                {
                                    bracketDepth = 0;
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    // Just a normal text character:
                                    if (bracketDepth == 1)
                                    {
                                        // Only print out next character no matter what. 
                                        // Do not interpret.
                                        if (c == '\\' && !nextLiteral)
                                        {
                                            resultString += c.ToString();
                                            nextLiteral = true;
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                            if (((c >= ' ') && (c <= '~')) ||
                                                ((c >= 128) && (c < 255)))
                                            {
                                                resultString += c.ToString();
                                            }

                                            nextLiteral = false;
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }

                    // Store the recent characters for 
                    // when we have to go back for a checking
                    for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep - 1; j++)
                    {
                        previousCharacters[j] = previousCharacters[j + 1];
                    }
                    previousCharacters[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] = c;

                    // Start of a text object
                    if (!inTextObject && CheckToken(new string[] { "BT" }, previousCharacters))
                    {
                        inTextObject = true;
                    }
                }

                return CleanupContent(resultString);
            }
            catch
            {
                return "";
            }
        }

        private string CleanupContent(string text)
        {
            string[] patterns = { @"\\\(", @"\\\)", @"\\226", @"\\222", @"\\223", @"\\224", @"\\340", @"\\342", @"\\344", @"\\300", @"\\302", @"\\304", @"\\351", @"\\350", @"\\352", @"\\353", @"\\311", @"\\310", @"\\312", @"\\313", @"\\362", @"\\364", @"\\366", @"\\322", @"\\324", @"\\326", @"\\354", @"\\356", @"\\357", @"\\314", @"\\316", @"\\317", @"\\347", @"\\307", @"\\371", @"\\373", @"\\374", @"\\331", @"\\333", @"\\334", @"\\256", @"\\231", @"\\253", @"\\273", @"\\251", @"\\221"};
            string[] replace = {   "(",     ")",      "-",     "'",      "\"",      "\"",    "à",      "â",      "ä",      "À",      "Â",      "Ä",      "é",      "è",      "ê",      "ë",      "É",      "È",      "Ê",      "Ë",      "ò",      "ô",      "ö",      "Ò",      "Ô",      "Ö",      "ì",      "î",      "ï",      "Ì",      "Î",      "Ï",      "ç",      "Ç",      "ù",      "û",      "ü",      "Ù",      "Û",      "Ü",      "®",      "™",      "«",      "»",      "©",      "'" };

            for (int i = 0; i < patterns.Length; i++)
            {
                string regExPattern = patterns[i];
                Regex regex = new Regex(regExPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
                text = regex.Replace(text, replace[i]);
            }

            return text;
        }

        #endregion

        #region CheckToken
        /// <summary>
        /// Check if a certain 2 character token just came along (e.g. BT)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="tokens">the searched token</param>
        /// <param name="recent">the recent character array</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private bool CheckToken(string[] tokens, char[] recent)
        {
            foreach (string token in tokens)
            {
                if ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 3] == token[0]) &&
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 2] == token[1]) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0a)) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0a))
                    )
                {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

Have a look at Docotic.Pdf library. It does not require you to make source code of your application open (like iTextSharp with viral AGPL 3 license, for example).

Docotic.Pdf can be used to read PDF files and extract text with or without formatting. Please have a look at the article that shows how to extract text from PDFs.

Disclaimer: I work for Bit Miracle, vendor of the library.



iTextSharp is the best bet. Used it to make a spider for lucene.Net so that it could crawl PDF.

using System;
using System.IO;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace Spider.Utils
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Parses a PDF file and extracts the text from it.
    /// </summary>
    public class PDFParser
    {
        /// BT = Beginning of a text object operator 
        /// ET = End of a text object operator
        /// Td move to the start of next line
        ///  5 Ts = superscript
        /// -5 Ts = subscript

        #region Fields

        #region _numberOfCharsToKeep
        /// <summary>
        /// The number of characters to keep, when extracting text.
        /// </summary>
        private static int _numberOfCharsToKeep = 15;
        #endregion

        #endregion

        #region ExtractText
        /// <summary>
        /// Extracts a text from a PDF file.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="inFileName">the full path to the pdf file.</param>
        /// <param name="outFileName">the output file name.</param>
        /// <returns>the extracted text</returns>
        public bool ExtractText(string inFileName, string outFileName)
        {
            StreamWriter outFile = null;
            try
            {
                // Create a reader for the given PDF file
                PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(inFileName);
                //outFile = File.CreateText(outFileName);
                outFile = new StreamWriter(outFileName, false, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);

                Console.Write("Processing: ");

                int totalLen = 68;
                float charUnit = ((float)totalLen) / (float)reader.NumberOfPages;
                int totalWritten = 0;
                float curUnit = 0;

                for (int page = 1; page <= reader.NumberOfPages; page++)
                {
                    outFile.Write(ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(reader.GetPageContent(page)) + " ");

                    // Write the progress.
                    if (charUnit >= 1.0f)
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < (int)charUnit; i++)
                        {
                            Console.Write("#");
                            totalWritten++;
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        curUnit += charUnit;
                        if (curUnit >= 1.0f)
                        {
                            for (int i = 0; i < (int)curUnit; i++)
                            {
                                Console.Write("#");
                                totalWritten++;
                            }
                            curUnit = 0;
                        }

                    }
                }

                if (totalWritten < totalLen)
                {
                    for (int i = 0; i < (totalLen - totalWritten); i++)
                    {
                        Console.Write("#");
                    }
                }
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (outFile != null) outFile.Close();
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region ExtractTextFromPDFBytes
        /// <summary>
        /// This method processes an uncompressed Adobe (text) object 
        /// and extracts text.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="input">uncompressed</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public string ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(byte[] input)
        {
            if (input == null || input.Length == 0) return "";

            try
            {
                string resultString = "";

                // Flag showing if we are we currently inside a text object
                bool inTextObject = false;

                // Flag showing if the next character is literal 
                // e.g. '\\' to get a '\' character or '\(' to get '('
                bool nextLiteral = false;

                // () Bracket nesting level. Text appears inside ()
                int bracketDepth = 0;

                // Keep previous chars to get extract numbers etc.:
                char[] previousCharacters = new char[_numberOfCharsToKeep];
                for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep; j++) previousCharacters[j] = ' ';


                for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
                {
                    char c = (char)input[i];
                    if (input[i] == 213)
                        c = "'".ToCharArray()[0];

                    if (inTextObject)
                    {
                        // Position the text
                        if (bracketDepth == 0)
                        {
                            if (CheckToken(new string[] { "TD", "Td" }, previousCharacters))
                            {
                                resultString += "\n\r";
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                if (CheckToken(new string[] { "'", "T*", "\"" }, previousCharacters))
                                {
                                    resultString += "\n";
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    if (CheckToken(new string[] { "Tj" }, previousCharacters))
                                    {
                                        resultString += " ";
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        // End of a text object, also go to a new line.
                        if (bracketDepth == 0 &&
                            CheckToken(new string[] { "ET" }, previousCharacters))
                        {

                            inTextObject = false;
                            resultString += " ";
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            // Start outputting text
                            if ((c == '(') && (bracketDepth == 0) && (!nextLiteral))
                            {
                                bracketDepth = 1;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                // Stop outputting text
                                if ((c == ')') && (bracketDepth == 1) && (!nextLiteral))
                                {
                                    bracketDepth = 0;
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    // Just a normal text character:
                                    if (bracketDepth == 1)
                                    {
                                        // Only print out next character no matter what. 
                                        // Do not interpret.
                                        if (c == '\\' && !nextLiteral)
                                        {
                                            resultString += c.ToString();
                                            nextLiteral = true;
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                            if (((c >= ' ') && (c <= '~')) ||
                                                ((c >= 128) && (c < 255)))
                                            {
                                                resultString += c.ToString();
                                            }

                                            nextLiteral = false;
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }

                    // Store the recent characters for 
                    // when we have to go back for a checking
                    for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep - 1; j++)
                    {
                        previousCharacters[j] = previousCharacters[j + 1];
                    }
                    previousCharacters[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] = c;

                    // Start of a text object
                    if (!inTextObject && CheckToken(new string[] { "BT" }, previousCharacters))
                    {
                        inTextObject = true;
                    }
                }

                return CleanupContent(resultString);
            }
            catch
            {
                return "";
            }
        }

        private string CleanupContent(string text)
        {
            string[] patterns = { @"\\\(", @"\\\)", @"\\226", @"\\222", @"\\223", @"\\224", @"\\340", @"\\342", @"\\344", @"\\300", @"\\302", @"\\304", @"\\351", @"\\350", @"\\352", @"\\353", @"\\311", @"\\310", @"\\312", @"\\313", @"\\362", @"\\364", @"\\366", @"\\322", @"\\324", @"\\326", @"\\354", @"\\356", @"\\357", @"\\314", @"\\316", @"\\317", @"\\347", @"\\307", @"\\371", @"\\373", @"\\374", @"\\331", @"\\333", @"\\334", @"\\256", @"\\231", @"\\253", @"\\273", @"\\251", @"\\221"};
            string[] replace = {   "(",     ")",      "-",     "'",      "\"",      "\"",    "à",      "â",      "ä",      "À",      "Â",      "Ä",      "é",      "è",      "ê",      "ë",      "É",      "È",      "Ê",      "Ë",      "ò",      "ô",      "ö",      "Ò",      "Ô",      "Ö",      "ì",      "î",      "ï",      "Ì",      "Î",      "Ï",      "ç",      "Ç",      "ù",      "û",      "ü",      "Ù",      "Û",      "Ü",      "®",      "™",      "«",      "»",      "©",      "'" };

            for (int i = 0; i < patterns.Length; i++)
            {
                string regExPattern = patterns[i];
                Regex regex = new Regex(regExPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
                text = regex.Replace(text, replace[i]);
            }

            return text;
        }

        #endregion

        #region CheckToken
        /// <summary>
        /// Check if a certain 2 character token just came along (e.g. BT)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="tokens">the searched token</param>
        /// <param name="recent">the recent character array</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private bool CheckToken(string[] tokens, char[] recent)
        {
            foreach (string token in tokens)
            {
                if ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 3] == token[0]) &&
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 2] == token[1]) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0a)) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0a))
                    )
                {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
        #endregion
    }
}


You could look into this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/showcase/pdfrasterizer.aspx It's not completely free, but it looks very nice.

Alex



public string ReadPdfFile(object Filename, DataTable ReadLibray)
{
    PdfReader reader2 = new PdfReader((string)Filename);
    string strText = string.Empty;

    for (int page = 1; page <= reader2.NumberOfPages; page++)
    {
    ITextExtractionStrategy its = new iTextSharp.text.pdf.parser.SimpleTextExtractionStrategy();
    PdfReader reader = new PdfReader((string)Filename);
    String s = PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(reader, page, its);

    s = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ASCIIEncoding.Convert(Encoding.Default, Encoding.UTF8, Encoding.Default.GetBytes(s)));
    strText = strText + s;
    reader.Close();
    }
    return strText;
}

iText is the best library I know. Originally written in Java, there is a .NET port as well.

See http://www.ujihara.jp/iTextdotNET/en/


PDFClown might help, but I would not recommend it for a big or heavy use application.


aspose pdf works pretty well. then again, you have to pay for it


PDFClown might help, but I would not recommend it for a big or heavy use application.


iText is the best library I know. Originally written in Java, there is a .NET port as well.

See http://www.ujihara.jp/iTextdotNET/en/


There is also LibHaru

http://libharu.org/wiki/Main_Page


aspose pdf works pretty well. then again, you have to pay for it


There is also LibHaru

http://libharu.org/wiki/Main_Page


iText is the best library I know. Originally written in Java, there is a .NET port as well.

See http://www.ujihara.jp/iTextdotNET/en/



Have a look at Docotic.Pdf library. It does not require you to make source code of your application open (like iTextSharp with viral AGPL 3 license, for example).

Docotic.Pdf can be used to read PDF files and extract text with or without formatting. Please have a look at the article that shows how to extract text from PDFs.

Disclaimer: I work for Bit Miracle, vendor of the library.


PDFClown might help, but I would not recommend it for a big or heavy use application.


Have a look at Docotic.Pdf library. It does not require you to make source code of your application open (like iTextSharp with viral AGPL 3 license, for example).

Docotic.Pdf can be used to read PDF files and extract text with or without formatting. Please have a look at the article that shows how to extract text from PDFs.

Disclaimer: I work for Bit Miracle, vendor of the library.


There is also LibHaru

http://libharu.org/wiki/Main_Page



aspose pdf works pretty well. then again, you have to pay for it


public string ReadPdfFile(object Filename, DataTable ReadLibray)
{
    PdfReader reader2 = new PdfReader((string)Filename);
    string strText = string.Empty;

    for (int page = 1; page <= reader2.NumberOfPages; page++)
    {
    ITextExtractionStrategy its = new iTextSharp.text.pdf.parser.SimpleTextExtractionStrategy();
    PdfReader reader = new PdfReader((string)Filename);
    String s = PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(reader, page, its);

    s = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ASCIIEncoding.Convert(Encoding.Default, Encoding.UTF8, Encoding.Default.GetBytes(s)));
    strText = strText + s;
    reader.Close();
    }
    return strText;
}

iTextSharp is the best bet. Used it to make a spider for lucene.Net so that it could crawl PDF.

using System;
using System.IO;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace Spider.Utils
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Parses a PDF file and extracts the text from it.
    /// </summary>
    public class PDFParser
    {
        /// BT = Beginning of a text object operator 
        /// ET = End of a text object operator
        /// Td move to the start of next line
        ///  5 Ts = superscript
        /// -5 Ts = subscript

        #region Fields

        #region _numberOfCharsToKeep
        /// <summary>
        /// The number of characters to keep, when extracting text.
        /// </summary>
        private static int _numberOfCharsToKeep = 15;
        #endregion

        #endregion

        #region ExtractText
        /// <summary>
        /// Extracts a text from a PDF file.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="inFileName">the full path to the pdf file.</param>
        /// <param name="outFileName">the output file name.</param>
        /// <returns>the extracted text</returns>
        public bool ExtractText(string inFileName, string outFileName)
        {
            StreamWriter outFile = null;
            try
            {
                // Create a reader for the given PDF file
                PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(inFileName);
                //outFile = File.CreateText(outFileName);
                outFile = new StreamWriter(outFileName, false, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);

                Console.Write("Processing: ");

                int totalLen = 68;
                float charUnit = ((float)totalLen) / (float)reader.NumberOfPages;
                int totalWritten = 0;
                float curUnit = 0;

                for (int page = 1; page <= reader.NumberOfPages; page++)
                {
                    outFile.Write(ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(reader.GetPageContent(page)) + " ");

                    // Write the progress.
                    if (charUnit >= 1.0f)
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < (int)charUnit; i++)
                        {
                            Console.Write("#");
                            totalWritten++;
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        curUnit += charUnit;
                        if (curUnit >= 1.0f)
                        {
                            for (int i = 0; i < (int)curUnit; i++)
                            {
                                Console.Write("#");
                                totalWritten++;
                            }
                            curUnit = 0;
                        }

                    }
                }

                if (totalWritten < totalLen)
                {
                    for (int i = 0; i < (totalLen - totalWritten); i++)
                    {
                        Console.Write("#");
                    }
                }
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (outFile != null) outFile.Close();
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region ExtractTextFromPDFBytes
        /// <summary>
        /// This method processes an uncompressed Adobe (text) object 
        /// and extracts text.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="input">uncompressed</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public string ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(byte[] input)
        {
            if (input == null || input.Length == 0) return "";

            try
            {
                string resultString = "";

                // Flag showing if we are we currently inside a text object
                bool inTextObject = false;

                // Flag showing if the next character is literal 
                // e.g. '\\' to get a '\' character or '\(' to get '('
                bool nextLiteral = false;

                // () Bracket nesting level. Text appears inside ()
                int bracketDepth = 0;

                // Keep previous chars to get extract numbers etc.:
                char[] previousCharacters = new char[_numberOfCharsToKeep];
                for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep; j++) previousCharacters[j] = ' ';


                for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
                {
                    char c = (char)input[i];
                    if (input[i] == 213)
                        c = "'".ToCharArray()[0];

                    if (inTextObject)
                    {
                        // Position the text
                        if (bracketDepth == 0)
                        {
                            if (CheckToken(new string[] { "TD", "Td" }, previousCharacters))
                            {
                                resultString += "\n\r";
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                if (CheckToken(new string[] { "'", "T*", "\"" }, previousCharacters))
                                {
                                    resultString += "\n";
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    if (CheckToken(new string[] { "Tj" }, previousCharacters))
                                    {
                                        resultString += " ";
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        // End of a text object, also go to a new line.
                        if (bracketDepth == 0 &&
                            CheckToken(new string[] { "ET" }, previousCharacters))
                        {

                            inTextObject = false;
                            resultString += " ";
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            // Start outputting text
                            if ((c == '(') && (bracketDepth == 0) && (!nextLiteral))
                            {
                                bracketDepth = 1;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                // Stop outputting text
                                if ((c == ')') && (bracketDepth == 1) && (!nextLiteral))
                                {
                                    bracketDepth = 0;
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    // Just a normal text character:
                                    if (bracketDepth == 1)
                                    {
                                        // Only print out next character no matter what. 
                                        // Do not interpret.
                                        if (c == '\\' && !nextLiteral)
                                        {
                                            resultString += c.ToString();
                                            nextLiteral = true;
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                            if (((c >= ' ') && (c <= '~')) ||
                                                ((c >= 128) && (c < 255)))
                                            {
                                                resultString += c.ToString();
                                            }

                                            nextLiteral = false;
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }

                    // Store the recent characters for 
                    // when we have to go back for a checking
                    for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep - 1; j++)
                    {
                        previousCharacters[j] = previousCharacters[j + 1];
                    }
                    previousCharacters[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] = c;

                    // Start of a text object
                    if (!inTextObject && CheckToken(new string[] { "BT" }, previousCharacters))
                    {
                        inTextObject = true;
                    }
                }

                return CleanupContent(resultString);
            }
            catch
            {
                return "";
            }
        }

        private string CleanupContent(string text)
        {
            string[] patterns = { @"\\\(", @"\\\)", @"\\226", @"\\222", @"\\223", @"\\224", @"\\340", @"\\342", @"\\344", @"\\300", @"\\302", @"\\304", @"\\351", @"\\350", @"\\352", @"\\353", @"\\311", @"\\310", @"\\312", @"\\313", @"\\362", @"\\364", @"\\366", @"\\322", @"\\324", @"\\326", @"\\354", @"\\356", @"\\357", @"\\314", @"\\316", @"\\317", @"\\347", @"\\307", @"\\371", @"\\373", @"\\374", @"\\331", @"\\333", @"\\334", @"\\256", @"\\231", @"\\253", @"\\273", @"\\251", @"\\221"};
            string[] replace = {   "(",     ")",      "-",     "'",      "\"",      "\"",    "à",      "â",      "ä",      "À",      "Â",      "Ä",      "é",      "è",      "ê",      "ë",      "É",      "È",      "Ê",      "Ë",      "ò",      "ô",      "ö",      "Ò",      "Ô",      "Ö",      "ì",      "î",      "ï",      "Ì",      "Î",      "Ï",      "ç",      "Ç",      "ù",      "û",      "ü",      "Ù",      "Û",      "Ü",      "®",      "™",      "«",      "»",      "©",      "'" };

            for (int i = 0; i < patterns.Length; i++)
            {
                string regExPattern = patterns[i];
                Regex regex = new Regex(regExPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
                text = regex.Replace(text, replace[i]);
            }

            return text;
        }

        #endregion

        #region CheckToken
        /// <summary>
        /// Check if a certain 2 character token just came along (e.g. BT)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="tokens">the searched token</param>
        /// <param name="recent">the recent character array</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private bool CheckToken(string[] tokens, char[] recent)
        {
            foreach (string token in tokens)
            {
                if ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 3] == token[0]) &&
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 2] == token[1]) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0a)) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0a))
                    )
                {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
        #endregion
    }
}


PDFClown might help, but I would not recommend it for a big or heavy use application.


There is also LibHaru

http://libharu.org/wiki/Main_Page


You could look into this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/showcase/pdfrasterizer.aspx It's not completely free, but it looks very nice.

Alex



iText is the best library I know. Originally written in Java, there is a .NET port as well.

See http://www.ujihara.jp/iTextdotNET/en/



There is also LibHaru

http://libharu.org/wiki/Main_Page


PDFClown might help, but I would not recommend it for a big or heavy use application.


iText is the best library I know. Originally written in Java, there is a .NET port as well.

See http://www.ujihara.jp/iTextdotNET/en/


PDFClown might help, but I would not recommend it for a big or heavy use application.


You could look into this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/showcase/pdfrasterizer.aspx It's not completely free, but it looks very nice.

Alex


public string ReadPdfFile(object Filename, DataTable ReadLibray)
{
    PdfReader reader2 = new PdfReader((string)Filename);
    string strText = string.Empty;

    for (int page = 1; page <= reader2.NumberOfPages; page++)
    {
    ITextExtractionStrategy its = new iTextSharp.text.pdf.parser.SimpleTextExtractionStrategy();
    PdfReader reader = new PdfReader((string)Filename);
    String s = PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(reader, page, its);

    s = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ASCIIEncoding.Convert(Encoding.Default, Encoding.UTF8, Encoding.Default.GetBytes(s)));
    strText = strText + s;
    reader.Close();
    }
    return strText;
}

aspose pdf works pretty well. then again, you have to pay for it


You could look into this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/showcase/pdfrasterizer.aspx It's not completely free, but it looks very nice.

Alex


iTextSharp is the best bet. Used it to make a spider for lucene.Net so that it could crawl PDF.

using System;
using System.IO;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace Spider.Utils
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Parses a PDF file and extracts the text from it.
    /// </summary>
    public class PDFParser
    {
        /// BT = Beginning of a text object operator 
        /// ET = End of a text object operator
        /// Td move to the start of next line
        ///  5 Ts = superscript
        /// -5 Ts = subscript

        #region Fields

        #region _numberOfCharsToKeep
        /// <summary>
        /// The number of characters to keep, when extracting text.
        /// </summary>
        private static int _numberOfCharsToKeep = 15;
        #endregion

        #endregion

        #region ExtractText
        /// <summary>
        /// Extracts a text from a PDF file.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="inFileName">the full path to the pdf file.</param>
        /// <param name="outFileName">the output file name.</param>
        /// <returns>the extracted text</returns>
        public bool ExtractText(string inFileName, string outFileName)
        {
            StreamWriter outFile = null;
            try
            {
                // Create a reader for the given PDF file
                PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(inFileName);
                //outFile = File.CreateText(outFileName);
                outFile = new StreamWriter(outFileName, false, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);

                Console.Write("Processing: ");

                int totalLen = 68;
                float charUnit = ((float)totalLen) / (float)reader.NumberOfPages;
                int totalWritten = 0;
                float curUnit = 0;

                for (int page = 1; page <= reader.NumberOfPages; page++)
                {
                    outFile.Write(ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(reader.GetPageContent(page)) + " ");

                    // Write the progress.
                    if (charUnit >= 1.0f)
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < (int)charUnit; i++)
                        {
                            Console.Write("#");
                            totalWritten++;
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        curUnit += charUnit;
                        if (curUnit >= 1.0f)
                        {
                            for (int i = 0; i < (int)curUnit; i++)
                            {
                                Console.Write("#");
                                totalWritten++;
                            }
                            curUnit = 0;
                        }

                    }
                }

                if (totalWritten < totalLen)
                {
                    for (int i = 0; i < (totalLen - totalWritten); i++)
                    {
                        Console.Write("#");
                    }
                }
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (outFile != null) outFile.Close();
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region ExtractTextFromPDFBytes
        /// <summary>
        /// This method processes an uncompressed Adobe (text) object 
        /// and extracts text.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="input">uncompressed</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public string ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(byte[] input)
        {
            if (input == null || input.Length == 0) return "";

            try
            {
                string resultString = "";

                // Flag showing if we are we currently inside a text object
                bool inTextObject = false;

                // Flag showing if the next character is literal 
                // e.g. '\\' to get a '\' character or '\(' to get '('
                bool nextLiteral = false;

                // () Bracket nesting level. Text appears inside ()
                int bracketDepth = 0;

                // Keep previous chars to get extract numbers etc.:
                char[] previousCharacters = new char[_numberOfCharsToKeep];
                for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep; j++) previousCharacters[j] = ' ';


                for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
                {
                    char c = (char)input[i];
                    if (input[i] == 213)
                        c = "'".ToCharArray()[0];

                    if (inTextObject)
                    {
                        // Position the text
                        if (bracketDepth == 0)
                        {
                            if (CheckToken(new string[] { "TD", "Td" }, previousCharacters))
                            {
                                resultString += "\n\r";
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                if (CheckToken(new string[] { "'", "T*", "\"" }, previousCharacters))
                                {
                                    resultString += "\n";
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    if (CheckToken(new string[] { "Tj" }, previousCharacters))
                                    {
                                        resultString += " ";
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        // End of a text object, also go to a new line.
                        if (bracketDepth == 0 &&
                            CheckToken(new string[] { "ET" }, previousCharacters))
                        {

                            inTextObject = false;
                            resultString += " ";
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            // Start outputting text
                            if ((c == '(') && (bracketDepth == 0) && (!nextLiteral))
                            {
                                bracketDepth = 1;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                // Stop outputting text
                                if ((c == ')') && (bracketDepth == 1) && (!nextLiteral))
                                {
                                    bracketDepth = 0;
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    // Just a normal text character:
                                    if (bracketDepth == 1)
                                    {
                                        // Only print out next character no matter what. 
                                        // Do not interpret.
                                        if (c == '\\' && !nextLiteral)
                                        {
                                            resultString += c.ToString();
                                            nextLiteral = true;
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                            if (((c >= ' ') && (c <= '~')) ||
                                                ((c >= 128) && (c < 255)))
                                            {
                                                resultString += c.ToString();
                                            }

                                            nextLiteral = false;
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }

                    // Store the recent characters for 
                    // when we have to go back for a checking
                    for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep - 1; j++)
                    {
                        previousCharacters[j] = previousCharacters[j + 1];
                    }
                    previousCharacters[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] = c;

                    // Start of a text object
                    if (!inTextObject && CheckToken(new string[] { "BT" }, previousCharacters))
                    {
                        inTextObject = true;
                    }
                }

                return CleanupContent(resultString);
            }
            catch
            {
                return "";
            }
        }

        private string CleanupContent(string text)
        {
            string[] patterns = { @"\\\(", @"\\\)", @"\\226", @"\\222", @"\\223", @"\\224", @"\\340", @"\\342", @"\\344", @"\\300", @"\\302", @"\\304", @"\\351", @"\\350", @"\\352", @"\\353", @"\\311", @"\\310", @"\\312", @"\\313", @"\\362", @"\\364", @"\\366", @"\\322", @"\\324", @"\\326", @"\\354", @"\\356", @"\\357", @"\\314", @"\\316", @"\\317", @"\\347", @"\\307", @"\\371", @"\\373", @"\\374", @"\\331", @"\\333", @"\\334", @"\\256", @"\\231", @"\\253", @"\\273", @"\\251", @"\\221"};
            string[] replace = {   "(",     ")",      "-",     "'",      "\"",      "\"",    "à",      "â",      "ä",      "À",      "Â",      "Ä",      "é",      "è",      "ê",      "ë",      "É",      "È",      "Ê",      "Ë",      "ò",      "ô",      "ö",      "Ò",      "Ô",      "Ö",      "ì",      "î",      "ï",      "Ì",      "Î",      "Ï",      "ç",      "Ç",      "ù",      "û",      "ü",      "Ù",      "Û",      "Ü",      "®",      "™",      "«",      "»",      "©",      "'" };

            for (int i = 0; i < patterns.Length; i++)
            {
                string regExPattern = patterns[i];
                Regex regex = new Regex(regExPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
                text = regex.Replace(text, replace[i]);
            }

            return text;
        }

        #endregion

        #region CheckToken
        /// <summary>
        /// Check if a certain 2 character token just came along (e.g. BT)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="tokens">the searched token</param>
        /// <param name="recent">the recent character array</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private bool CheckToken(string[] tokens, char[] recent)
        {
            foreach (string token in tokens)
            {
                if ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 3] == token[0]) &&
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 2] == token[1]) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0a)) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0a))
                    )
                {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

aspose pdf works pretty well. then again, you have to pay for it


PDFClown might help, but I would not recommend it for a big or heavy use application.


iText is the best library I know. Originally written in Java, there is a .NET port as well.

See http://www.ujihara.jp/iTextdotNET/en/


There is also LibHaru

http://libharu.org/wiki/Main_Page


Have a look at Docotic.Pdf library. It does not require you to make source code of your application open (like iTextSharp with viral AGPL 3 license, for example).

Docotic.Pdf can be used to read PDF files and extract text with or without formatting. Please have a look at the article that shows how to extract text from PDFs.

Disclaimer: I work for Bit Miracle, vendor of the library.



iTextSharp is the best bet. Used it to make a spider for lucene.Net so that it could crawl PDF.

using System;
using System.IO;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace Spider.Utils
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Parses a PDF file and extracts the text from it.
    /// </summary>
    public class PDFParser
    {
        /// BT = Beginning of a text object operator 
        /// ET = End of a text object operator
        /// Td move to the start of next line
        ///  5 Ts = superscript
        /// -5 Ts = subscript

        #region Fields

        #region _numberOfCharsToKeep
        /// <summary>
        /// The number of characters to keep, when extracting text.
        /// </summary>
        private static int _numberOfCharsToKeep = 15;
        #endregion

        #endregion

        #region ExtractText
        /// <summary>
        /// Extracts a text from a PDF file.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="inFileName">the full path to the pdf file.</param>
        /// <param name="outFileName">the output file name.</param>
        /// <returns>the extracted text</returns>
        public bool ExtractText(string inFileName, string outFileName)
        {
            StreamWriter outFile = null;
            try
            {
                // Create a reader for the given PDF file
                PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(inFileName);
                //outFile = File.CreateText(outFileName);
                outFile = new StreamWriter(outFileName, false, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);

                Console.Write("Processing: ");

                int totalLen = 68;
                float charUnit = ((float)totalLen) / (float)reader.NumberOfPages;
                int totalWritten = 0;
                float curUnit = 0;

                for (int page = 1; page <= reader.NumberOfPages; page++)
                {
                    outFile.Write(ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(reader.GetPageContent(page)) + " ");

                    // Write the progress.
                    if (charUnit >= 1.0f)
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < (int)charUnit; i++)
                        {
                            Console.Write("#");
                            totalWritten++;
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        curUnit += charUnit;
                        if (curUnit >= 1.0f)
                        {
                            for (int i = 0; i < (int)curUnit; i++)
                            {
                                Console.Write("#");
                                totalWritten++;
                            }
                            curUnit = 0;
                        }

                    }
                }

                if (totalWritten < totalLen)
                {
                    for (int i = 0; i < (totalLen - totalWritten); i++)
                    {
                        Console.Write("#");
                    }
                }
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (outFile != null) outFile.Close();
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region ExtractTextFromPDFBytes
        /// <summary>
        /// This method processes an uncompressed Adobe (text) object 
        /// and extracts text.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="input">uncompressed</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public string ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(byte[] input)
        {
            if (input == null || input.Length == 0) return "";

            try
            {
                string resultString = "";

                // Flag showing if we are we currently inside a text object
                bool inTextObject = false;

                // Flag showing if the next character is literal 
                // e.g. '\\' to get a '\' character or '\(' to get '('
                bool nextLiteral = false;

                // () Bracket nesting level. Text appears inside ()
                int bracketDepth = 0;

                // Keep previous chars to get extract numbers etc.:
                char[] previousCharacters = new char[_numberOfCharsToKeep];
                for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep; j++) previousCharacters[j] = ' ';


                for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
                {
                    char c = (char)input[i];
                    if (input[i] == 213)
                        c = "'".ToCharArray()[0];

                    if (inTextObject)
                    {
                        // Position the text
                        if (bracketDepth == 0)
                        {
                            if (CheckToken(new string[] { "TD", "Td" }, previousCharacters))
                            {
                                resultString += "\n\r";
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                if (CheckToken(new string[] { "'", "T*", "\"" }, previousCharacters))
                                {
                                    resultString += "\n";
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    if (CheckToken(new string[] { "Tj" }, previousCharacters))
                                    {
                                        resultString += " ";
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        // End of a text object, also go to a new line.
                        if (bracketDepth == 0 &&
                            CheckToken(new string[] { "ET" }, previousCharacters))
                        {

                            inTextObject = false;
                            resultString += " ";
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            // Start outputting text
                            if ((c == '(') && (bracketDepth == 0) && (!nextLiteral))
                            {
                                bracketDepth = 1;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                // Stop outputting text
                                if ((c == ')') && (bracketDepth == 1) && (!nextLiteral))
                                {
                                    bracketDepth = 0;
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    // Just a normal text character:
                                    if (bracketDepth == 1)
                                    {
                                        // Only print out next character no matter what. 
                                        // Do not interpret.
                                        if (c == '\\' && !nextLiteral)
                                        {
                                            resultString += c.ToString();
                                            nextLiteral = true;
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                            if (((c >= ' ') && (c <= '~')) ||
                                                ((c >= 128) && (c < 255)))
                                            {
                                                resultString += c.ToString();
                                            }

                                            nextLiteral = false;
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }

                    // Store the recent characters for 
                    // when we have to go back for a checking
                    for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep - 1; j++)
                    {
                        previousCharacters[j] = previousCharacters[j + 1];
                    }
                    previousCharacters[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] = c;

                    // Start of a text object
                    if (!inTextObject && CheckToken(new string[] { "BT" }, previousCharacters))
                    {
                        inTextObject = true;
                    }
                }

                return CleanupContent(resultString);
            }
            catch
            {
                return "";
            }
        }

        private string CleanupContent(string text)
        {
            string[] patterns = { @"\\\(", @"\\\)", @"\\226", @"\\222", @"\\223", @"\\224", @"\\340", @"\\342", @"\\344", @"\\300", @"\\302", @"\\304", @"\\351", @"\\350", @"\\352", @"\\353", @"\\311", @"\\310", @"\\312", @"\\313", @"\\362", @"\\364", @"\\366", @"\\322", @"\\324", @"\\326", @"\\354", @"\\356", @"\\357", @"\\314", @"\\316", @"\\317", @"\\347", @"\\307", @"\\371", @"\\373", @"\\374", @"\\331", @"\\333", @"\\334", @"\\256", @"\\231", @"\\253", @"\\273", @"\\251", @"\\221"};
            string[] replace = {   "(",     ")",      "-",     "'",      "\"",      "\"",    "à",      "â",      "ä",      "À",      "Â",      "Ä",      "é",      "è",      "ê",      "ë",      "É",      "È",      "Ê",      "Ë",      "ò",      "ô",      "ö",      "Ò",      "Ô",      "Ö",      "ì",      "î",      "ï",      "Ì",      "Î",      "Ï",      "ç",      "Ç",      "ù",      "û",      "ü",      "Ù",      "Û",      "Ü",      "®",      "™",      "«",      "»",      "©",      "'" };

            for (int i = 0; i < patterns.Length; i++)
            {
                string regExPattern = patterns[i];
                Regex regex = new Regex(regExPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
                text = regex.Replace(text, replace[i]);
            }

            return text;
        }

        #endregion

        #region CheckToken
        /// <summary>
        /// Check if a certain 2 character token just came along (e.g. BT)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="tokens">the searched token</param>
        /// <param name="recent">the recent character array</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private bool CheckToken(string[] tokens, char[] recent)
        {
            foreach (string token in tokens)
            {
                if ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 3] == token[0]) &&
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 2] == token[1]) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0a)) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0a))
                    )
                {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

There is also LibHaru

http://libharu.org/wiki/Main_Page



iTextSharp is the best bet. Used it to make a spider for lucene.Net so that it could crawl PDF.

using System;
using System.IO;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace Spider.Utils
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Parses a PDF file and extracts the text from it.
    /// </summary>
    public class PDFParser
    {
        /// BT = Beginning of a text object operator 
        /// ET = End of a text object operator
        /// Td move to the start of next line
        ///  5 Ts = superscript
        /// -5 Ts = subscript

        #region Fields

        #region _numberOfCharsToKeep
        /// <summary>
        /// The number of characters to keep, when extracting text.
        /// </summary>
        private static int _numberOfCharsToKeep = 15;
        #endregion

        #endregion

        #region ExtractText
        /// <summary>
        /// Extracts a text from a PDF file.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="inFileName">the full path to the pdf file.</param>
        /// <param name="outFileName">the output file name.</param>
        /// <returns>the extracted text</returns>
        public bool ExtractText(string inFileName, string outFileName)
        {
            StreamWriter outFile = null;
            try
            {
                // Create a reader for the given PDF file
                PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(inFileName);
                //outFile = File.CreateText(outFileName);
                outFile = new StreamWriter(outFileName, false, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);

                Console.Write("Processing: ");

                int totalLen = 68;
                float charUnit = ((float)totalLen) / (float)reader.NumberOfPages;
                int totalWritten = 0;
                float curUnit = 0;

                for (int page = 1; page <= reader.NumberOfPages; page++)
                {
                    outFile.Write(ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(reader.GetPageContent(page)) + " ");

                    // Write the progress.
                    if (charUnit >= 1.0f)
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < (int)charUnit; i++)
                        {
                            Console.Write("#");
                            totalWritten++;
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        curUnit += charUnit;
                        if (curUnit >= 1.0f)
                        {
                            for (int i = 0; i < (int)curUnit; i++)
                            {
                                Console.Write("#");
                                totalWritten++;
                            }
                            curUnit = 0;
                        }

                    }
                }

                if (totalWritten < totalLen)
                {
                    for (int i = 0; i < (totalLen - totalWritten); i++)
                    {
                        Console.Write("#");
                    }
                }
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (outFile != null) outFile.Close();
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region ExtractTextFromPDFBytes
        /// <summary>
        /// This method processes an uncompressed Adobe (text) object 
        /// and extracts text.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="input">uncompressed</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public string ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(byte[] input)
        {
            if (input == null || input.Length == 0) return "";

            try
            {
                string resultString = "";

                // Flag showing if we are we currently inside a text object
                bool inTextObject = false;

                // Flag showing if the next character is literal 
                // e.g. '\\' to get a '\' character or '\(' to get '('
                bool nextLiteral = false;

                // () Bracket nesting level. Text appears inside ()
                int bracketDepth = 0;

                // Keep previous chars to get extract numbers etc.:
                char[] previousCharacters = new char[_numberOfCharsToKeep];
                for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep; j++) previousCharacters[j] = ' ';


                for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
                {
                    char c = (char)input[i];
                    if (input[i] == 213)
                        c = "'".ToCharArray()[0];

                    if (inTextObject)
                    {
                        // Position the text
                        if (bracketDepth == 0)
                        {
                            if (CheckToken(new string[] { "TD", "Td" }, previousCharacters))
                            {
                                resultString += "\n\r";
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                if (CheckToken(new string[] { "'", "T*", "\"" }, previousCharacters))
                                {
                                    resultString += "\n";
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    if (CheckToken(new string[] { "Tj" }, previousCharacters))
                                    {
                                        resultString += " ";
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        // End of a text object, also go to a new line.
                        if (bracketDepth == 0 &&
                            CheckToken(new string[] { "ET" }, previousCharacters))
                        {

                            inTextObject = false;
                            resultString += " ";
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            // Start outputting text
                            if ((c == '(') && (bracketDepth == 0) && (!nextLiteral))
                            {
                                bracketDepth = 1;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                // Stop outputting text
                                if ((c == ')') && (bracketDepth == 1) && (!nextLiteral))
                                {
                                    bracketDepth = 0;
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    // Just a normal text character:
                                    if (bracketDepth == 1)
                                    {
                                        // Only print out next character no matter what. 
                                        // Do not interpret.
                                        if (c == '\\' && !nextLiteral)
                                        {
                                            resultString += c.ToString();
                                            nextLiteral = true;
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                            if (((c >= ' ') && (c <= '~')) ||
                                                ((c >= 128) && (c < 255)))
                                            {
                                                resultString += c.ToString();
                                            }

                                            nextLiteral = false;
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }

                    // Store the recent characters for 
                    // when we have to go back for a checking
                    for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep - 1; j++)
                    {
                        previousCharacters[j] = previousCharacters[j + 1];
                    }
                    previousCharacters[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] = c;

                    // Start of a text object
                    if (!inTextObject && CheckToken(new string[] { "BT" }, previousCharacters))
                    {
                        inTextObject = true;
                    }
                }

                return CleanupContent(resultString);
            }
            catch
            {
                return "";
            }
        }

        private string CleanupContent(string text)
        {
            string[] patterns = { @"\\\(", @"\\\)", @"\\226", @"\\222", @"\\223", @"\\224", @"\\340", @"\\342", @"\\344", @"\\300", @"\\302", @"\\304", @"\\351", @"\\350", @"\\352", @"\\353", @"\\311", @"\\310", @"\\312", @"\\313", @"\\362", @"\\364", @"\\366", @"\\322", @"\\324", @"\\326", @"\\354", @"\\356", @"\\357", @"\\314", @"\\316", @"\\317", @"\\347", @"\\307", @"\\371", @"\\373", @"\\374", @"\\331", @"\\333", @"\\334", @"\\256", @"\\231", @"\\253", @"\\273", @"\\251", @"\\221"};
            string[] replace = {   "(",     ")",      "-",     "'",      "\"",      "\"",    "à",      "â",      "ä",      "À",      "Â",      "Ä",      "é",      "è",      "ê",      "ë",      "É",      "È",      "Ê",      "Ë",      "ò",      "ô",      "ö",      "Ò",      "Ô",      "Ö",      "ì",      "î",      "ï",      "Ì",      "Î",      "Ï",      "ç",      "Ç",      "ù",      "û",      "ü",      "Ù",      "Û",      "Ü",      "®",      "™",      "«",      "»",      "©",      "'" };

            for (int i = 0; i < patterns.Length; i++)
            {
                string regExPattern = patterns[i];
                Regex regex = new Regex(regExPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
                text = regex.Replace(text, replace[i]);
            }

            return text;
        }

        #endregion

        #region CheckToken
        /// <summary>
        /// Check if a certain 2 character token just came along (e.g. BT)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="tokens">the searched token</param>
        /// <param name="recent">the recent character array</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private bool CheckToken(string[] tokens, char[] recent)
        {
            foreach (string token in tokens)
            {
                if ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 3] == token[0]) &&
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 2] == token[1]) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0a)) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0a))
                    )
                {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

aspose pdf works pretty well. then again, you have to pay for it


You could look into this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/showcase/pdfrasterizer.aspx It's not completely free, but it looks very nice.

Alex


PDFClown might help, but I would not recommend it for a big or heavy use application.



aspose pdf works pretty well. then again, you have to pay for it


iText is the best library I know. Originally written in Java, there is a .NET port as well.

See http://www.ujihara.jp/iTextdotNET/en/


iTextSharp is the best bet. Used it to make a spider for lucene.Net so that it could crawl PDF.

using System;
using System.IO;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace Spider.Utils
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Parses a PDF file and extracts the text from it.
    /// </summary>
    public class PDFParser
    {
        /// BT = Beginning of a text object operator 
        /// ET = End of a text object operator
        /// Td move to the start of next line
        ///  5 Ts = superscript
        /// -5 Ts = subscript

        #region Fields

        #region _numberOfCharsToKeep
        /// <summary>
        /// The number of characters to keep, when extracting text.
        /// </summary>
        private static int _numberOfCharsToKeep = 15;
        #endregion

        #endregion

        #region ExtractText
        /// <summary>
        /// Extracts a text from a PDF file.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="inFileName">the full path to the pdf file.</param>
        /// <param name="outFileName">the output file name.</param>
        /// <returns>the extracted text</returns>
        public bool ExtractText(string inFileName, string outFileName)
        {
            StreamWriter outFile = null;
            try
            {
                // Create a reader for the given PDF file
                PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(inFileName);
                //outFile = File.CreateText(outFileName);
                outFile = new StreamWriter(outFileName, false, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);

                Console.Write("Processing: ");

                int totalLen = 68;
                float charUnit = ((float)totalLen) / (float)reader.NumberOfPages;
                int totalWritten = 0;
                float curUnit = 0;

                for (int page = 1; page <= reader.NumberOfPages; page++)
                {
                    outFile.Write(ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(reader.GetPageContent(page)) + " ");

                    // Write the progress.
                    if (charUnit >= 1.0f)
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < (int)charUnit; i++)
                        {
                            Console.Write("#");
                            totalWritten++;
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        curUnit += charUnit;
                        if (curUnit >= 1.0f)
                        {
                            for (int i = 0; i < (int)curUnit; i++)
                            {
                                Console.Write("#");
                                totalWritten++;
                            }
                            curUnit = 0;
                        }

                    }
                }

                if (totalWritten < totalLen)
                {
                    for (int i = 0; i < (totalLen - totalWritten); i++)
                    {
                        Console.Write("#");
                    }
                }
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (outFile != null) outFile.Close();
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region ExtractTextFromPDFBytes
        /// <summary>
        /// This method processes an uncompressed Adobe (text) object 
        /// and extracts text.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="input">uncompressed</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public string ExtractTextFromPDFBytes(byte[] input)
        {
            if (input == null || input.Length == 0) return "";

            try
            {
                string resultString = "";

                // Flag showing if we are we currently inside a text object
                bool inTextObject = false;

                // Flag showing if the next character is literal 
                // e.g. '\\' to get a '\' character or '\(' to get '('
                bool nextLiteral = false;

                // () Bracket nesting level. Text appears inside ()
                int bracketDepth = 0;

                // Keep previous chars to get extract numbers etc.:
                char[] previousCharacters = new char[_numberOfCharsToKeep];
                for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep; j++) previousCharacters[j] = ' ';


                for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
                {
                    char c = (char)input[i];
                    if (input[i] == 213)
                        c = "'".ToCharArray()[0];

                    if (inTextObject)
                    {
                        // Position the text
                        if (bracketDepth == 0)
                        {
                            if (CheckToken(new string[] { "TD", "Td" }, previousCharacters))
                            {
                                resultString += "\n\r";
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                if (CheckToken(new string[] { "'", "T*", "\"" }, previousCharacters))
                                {
                                    resultString += "\n";
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    if (CheckToken(new string[] { "Tj" }, previousCharacters))
                                    {
                                        resultString += " ";
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        // End of a text object, also go to a new line.
                        if (bracketDepth == 0 &&
                            CheckToken(new string[] { "ET" }, previousCharacters))
                        {

                            inTextObject = false;
                            resultString += " ";
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            // Start outputting text
                            if ((c == '(') && (bracketDepth == 0) && (!nextLiteral))
                            {
                                bracketDepth = 1;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                // Stop outputting text
                                if ((c == ')') && (bracketDepth == 1) && (!nextLiteral))
                                {
                                    bracketDepth = 0;
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    // Just a normal text character:
                                    if (bracketDepth == 1)
                                    {
                                        // Only print out next character no matter what. 
                                        // Do not interpret.
                                        if (c == '\\' && !nextLiteral)
                                        {
                                            resultString += c.ToString();
                                            nextLiteral = true;
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                            if (((c >= ' ') && (c <= '~')) ||
                                                ((c >= 128) && (c < 255)))
                                            {
                                                resultString += c.ToString();
                                            }

                                            nextLiteral = false;
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }

                    // Store the recent characters for 
                    // when we have to go back for a checking
                    for (int j = 0; j < _numberOfCharsToKeep - 1; j++)
                    {
                        previousCharacters[j] = previousCharacters[j + 1];
                    }
                    previousCharacters[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] = c;

                    // Start of a text object
                    if (!inTextObject && CheckToken(new string[] { "BT" }, previousCharacters))
                    {
                        inTextObject = true;
                    }
                }

                return CleanupContent(resultString);
            }
            catch
            {
                return "";
            }
        }

        private string CleanupContent(string text)
        {
            string[] patterns = { @"\\\(", @"\\\)", @"\\226", @"\\222", @"\\223", @"\\224", @"\\340", @"\\342", @"\\344", @"\\300", @"\\302", @"\\304", @"\\351", @"\\350", @"\\352", @"\\353", @"\\311", @"\\310", @"\\312", @"\\313", @"\\362", @"\\364", @"\\366", @"\\322", @"\\324", @"\\326", @"\\354", @"\\356", @"\\357", @"\\314", @"\\316", @"\\317", @"\\347", @"\\307", @"\\371", @"\\373", @"\\374", @"\\331", @"\\333", @"\\334", @"\\256", @"\\231", @"\\253", @"\\273", @"\\251", @"\\221"};
            string[] replace = {   "(",     ")",      "-",     "'",      "\"",      "\"",    "à",      "â",      "ä",      "À",      "Â",      "Ä",      "é",      "è",      "ê",      "ë",      "É",      "È",      "Ê",      "Ë",      "ò",      "ô",      "ö",      "Ò",      "Ô",      "Ö",      "ì",      "î",      "ï",      "Ì",      "Î",      "Ï",      "ç",      "Ç",      "ù",      "û",      "ü",      "Ù",      "Û",      "Ü",      "®",      "™",      "«",      "»",      "©",      "'" };

            for (int i = 0; i < patterns.Length; i++)
            {
                string regExPattern = patterns[i];
                Regex regex = new Regex(regExPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
                text = regex.Replace(text, replace[i]);
            }

            return text;
        }

        #endregion

        #region CheckToken
        /// <summary>
        /// Check if a certain 2 character token just came along (e.g. BT)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="tokens">the searched token</param>
        /// <param name="recent">the recent character array</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private bool CheckToken(string[] tokens, char[] recent)
        {
            foreach (string token in tokens)
            {
                if ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 3] == token[0]) &&
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 2] == token[1]) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 1] == 0x0a)) &&
                    ((recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == ' ') ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0d) ||
                    (recent[_numberOfCharsToKeep - 4] == 0x0a))
                    )
                {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

You could look into this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/showcase/pdfrasterizer.aspx It's not completely free, but it looks very nice.

Alex


public string ReadPdfFile(object Filename, DataTable ReadLibray)
{
    PdfReader reader2 = new PdfReader((string)Filename);
    string strText = string.Empty;

    for (int page = 1; page <= reader2.NumberOfPages; page++)
    {
    ITextExtractionStrategy its = new iTextSharp.text.pdf.parser.SimpleTextExtractionStrategy();
    PdfReader reader = new PdfReader((string)Filename);
    String s = PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(reader, page, its);

    s = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ASCIIEncoding.Convert(Encoding.Default, Encoding.UTF8, Encoding.Default.GetBytes(s)));
    strText = strText + s;
    reader.Close();
    }
    return strText;
}

You could look into this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/showcase/pdfrasterizer.aspx It's not completely free, but it looks very nice.

Alex


iText is the best library I know. Originally written in Java, there is a .NET port as well.

See http://www.ujihara.jp/iTextdotNET/en/


Examples related to c#

How can I convert this one line of ActionScript to C#? Microsoft Advertising SDK doesn't deliverer ads How to use a global array in C#? How to correctly write async method? C# - insert values from file into two arrays Uploading into folder in FTP? Are these methods thread safe? dotnet ef not found in .NET Core 3 HTTP Error 500.30 - ANCM In-Process Start Failure Best way to "push" into C# array

Examples related to .net

You must add a reference to assembly 'netstandard, Version=2.0.0.0 How to use Bootstrap 4 in ASP.NET Core No authenticationScheme was specified, and there was no DefaultChallengeScheme found with default authentification and custom authorization .net Core 2.0 - Package was restored using .NetFramework 4.6.1 instead of target framework .netCore 2.0. The package may not be fully compatible Update .NET web service to use TLS 1.2 EF Core add-migration Build Failed What is the difference between .NET Core and .NET Standard Class Library project types? Visual Studio 2017 - Could not load file or assembly 'System.Runtime, Version=4.1.0.0' or one of its dependencies Nuget connection attempt failed "Unable to load the service index for source" Token based authentication in Web API without any user interface

Examples related to pdf

ImageMagick security policy 'PDF' blocking conversion How to extract table as text from the PDF using Python? Extract a page from a pdf as a jpeg How can I read pdf in python? Generating a PDF file from React Components Extract Data from PDF and Add to Worksheet How to extract text from a PDF file? How to download PDF automatically using js? Download pdf file using jquery ajax Generate PDF from HTML using pdfMake in Angularjs