dumping PDF document ( *.pdf) to Text?

Question

I got some great help on here (section of code) for dumping a word doc to text. Now, i am looking for help in dumping a PDF Document ( *.pdf) to Text? I am using Delphi 2010. I would prefer a non-component, non-Active-X, solution....as this code will be incorporated into my own component.

Thanks

Answer 1

I did'nt try it but TSMPDFReader seems to be OK for you : no DLL, no Activex no external component. Not free but 35 € is not too expensive.

I work with other components from Scalabium : great support.

Answer 2

I have been using the QuickPDF library to find text within PDF files. I use the function

GetPageText(ExtractOptions: Integer): string;

to get the text from each page so that it can be searched. If you use 0 for ExtractOptions, it will return the text in readable format. It's not free, but both the library and the documentation are very good. Also, a very active community blog is hosted at their website.

Answer 3

You've got two free options, as far as I can tell.

First, there is a command line tool in the xpf package freely available from http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf

Then, another command line tool in the http://mupdf.com project

Both can be called easily from Delphi. I used the pdftotext.exe file from xpdf without any problem.

Answer 4

PDFtext can do it. You'll have to pay $57 and deploy additional dll, though.