Does the anyone know a .Net component to convert PDF to Word or RTF programatically? I don't want to use OCR and Adobe dependent solutions.
-
Welcome to StackOverflow! Your question has already been asked here, see this link: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2192400/does-anyone-know-of-a-way-to-easily-convert-a-pdf-to-a-docx-format-programmatical – CharlesB Apr 20 '11 at 12:04
-
2And about 4,000 other places. This question gets asked about three times a week. Try doing a search for "PDF", "Word" and "conversion". – Cody Gray - on strike Apr 20 '11 at 12:05
4 Answers
I tried several libraries:
- PDF Focus .NET: https://sautinsoft.com/products/pdf-focus/index.php
- Aspose.PDF: https://products.aspose.com/pdf/net
- Gembox: https://www.gemboxsoftware.com/document
- Spire.PDF: https://www.e-iceblue.com/Introduce/pdf-for-net-introduce.html
- considered also using Word via COM automation to open and save to pdf programmatically.
Among all of them I liked PDF Focus .NET best of all, and I will explain why:
- They try to keep the structure of the document EDITABLE, so that when I will try to continue editing the text, the paragraph will be smoothly prolonged. Other libraries are trying to do a "minimalistic" approach by inserting absolute positioned shapes, so that if you continue editing the text, it will overlap with the next piece of text.
- They do all their best to recognize tables, so that tables in the output document will be REAL TABLES, but not a collection of shapes and texts with absolute positioning (as produced by other libraries).
A customer of ours is evaluating now different libraries, and I will recommend PDF Focus .NET first of all.
P.S. I AM NOT INVOLVED IN ANY KIND OF RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS SOFTWARE PRODUCER. As a former .NET developer I simply see a high quality components which really work fine.

- 1,275
- 14
- 17
Use PDF Focus.
Nice and easy.
EDIT: And also
How to convert DOC into other formats using C#
http://dotnetf1.blogspot.com/2008/07/convert-word-doc-into-pdf-using-c-code.html

- 97,193
- 102
- 206
- 364
You need something like GemBox.Document. It's a simple .NET component that enables you to manipulate and convert all kinds of document files.

- 31
- 1
You should have read this: C# and PDF. There are methods to convert, like beforementioned PDF Focus but be warned: it is buggy, and crashy process. PDF is not intended to be PC-readable.

- 1
- 1
-
We are preparing the new engine for PDF Focus .Net right now, this will be version 2.0, completely improved. It will appear soon. – Maxim Sautin Apr 20 '11 at 12:12
-
@Maximus That is a great job (I looked into PDF, I know). The flaw is in PDF standart itself. e-mail me, and I will find you several files, that would break you component. – Apr 22 '11 at 05:29
-
1Nowadays (2016) [**PDF Focus .Net**](http://sautinsoft.com/products/pdf-focus/index.php) became a strong and the component in the prime of life :). We are with pleasure ready to look at any complex PDF files at support@sautinsoft.com. – Maxim Sautin Feb 09 '16 at 13:09