Reading PDF file using javascript

Question

I'm currently developing an application that would Copy/Transfer a sentence/paragraph from a PDF file to my program. I'm using Javascript to develop my program but I have not found any idea how to read a PDF file.

I want to know how to Copy/Transfer a sentence/paragraph from a PDF file to my program?

Thanks.

What about https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js – elclanrs Aug 22 '12 at 04:07 — elclanrs, Aug 22 '12 at 04:07

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 13 '15 at 12:27

16

I know that the question is old, but if you find PDF.js too complex for the job, npm install pdfreader. (I wrote that module)

It would take 5 lines of code to extract text from your PDF file:

var PdfReader = require("pdfreader").PdfReader;
new PdfReader().parseFileItems("sample.pdf", function(err, item){
  if (item && item.text)
    console.log(item.text);
});

answered Mar 13 '15 at 12:27

Adrien Joly

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'It does not work from a web browser.' Guessing this means I couldn't use browserify with it? – static_null Sep 10 '18 at 03:23
I don't know, @static_null. Let us know how it goes if you give it a try! – Adrien Joly Sep 11 '18 at 08:30
@AdrienJoly hi do you know where/how I can get the compiled version of pdfreader module? I'm hoping to get one .js file so I could use it as a library. Thank you! – Daj Jun 17 '20 at 02:45
@Daj I am not distributing any bundled version of pdfreader. Feel free to use the bundler of your choice (e.g. webpack or other) to achieve that. – Adrien Joly Jun 18 '20 at 07:42

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

7

Check out PDF.js, it's a commonly used JavaScript library that contains a lot of methods for PDF manipulation.

Check out this answer to see a demonstration of how to extract text using pdf.js.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

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answered Jan 03 '15 at 14:40

theonlygusti

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Reading PDF file using javascript

2 Answers2

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