Extract text from PDF

[goryee]

   

Hi. Newbie to python.

I have this PDF that i review each week to make sure the records are setup correctly in excel.

I am wanting to have a script that will pull out the description of the items, the sell price and the save price into each individual row.

Can this be done through python?

Thanking you in advance for this.

[DPaul]

Hi, yes it can.
But, there are many kinds of pdf, and also many python modules that will do the job.
We need to know more.
- How are the pdfs created (Word, photocopies...?)
- How are the data arranged ( plain text, columns, grids ...?) -> always the same as in the example ?
"PDF" is just a type of document, with may possible approaches.
Paul

PS. I seem to recall that a similar question has been asked some months ago, if not longer.

[Pedroski55]

You can do this easily. I recommend fitz aka pymupdf.

Go to this link for great information.

Here a little example of how to get text and image blocks from the manual I got with my induction cooker.

import fitz
# import pymupdf aka fitz
from pprint import pprint

# go here for very good information on using fitz
# https://pymupdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial.html
path2pdf = '/home/pedro/pdfs/pdfs/user_manual_ce208.pdf'

doc = fitz.open(path2pdf)
num_pages = doc.page_count # 36

# the first page of the pdf is page 0
# loop to manipulate each page in turn
# for page in doc:
# for now just get 1 page
page = doc.load_page(0)
d = page.get_text("dict") # big because contains images
blocks = d["blocks"]  # the list of block dictionaries
# text blocks are type 0
textblocks = [b for b in blocks if b["type"] == 0]
# image blocks are type 1
imgblocks = [b for b in blocks if b["type"] == 1]
pprint(textblocks[0])
print(textblocks[0]['lines'][0]['spans'][0]['text'])
text = page.get_text('text')