How to extract text from a PDF file in Python?

Question

How can I extract text from a PDF file in Python?

I tried the following:

import sys
import pyPdf

def convertPdf2String(path):
      content = ""
      pdf = pyPdf.PdfFileReader(file(path, "rb"))
      for i in range(0, pdf.getNumPages()):
          content += pdf.getPage(i).extractText() + " \n"
          content = " ".join(content.replace(u"\xa0", u" ").strip().split())
      return content

f = open('a.txt','w+')

f.write(convertPdf2String(sys.argv[1]).encode("ascii","xmlcharrefreplace"))
f.close()

But the result is as follows, rather than readable text:

728;ˇˆ˜ ˚ˇˇ!""˘ˇˆ˙ˆ˝˛˛˛˛ˆ˜ˆ ˆ ˆ˘ˆ˛˙ˆ"ˆ˘"ˆˆˆ˜#$˙ˆ˚ˆ %&ˆ ˘˛ˆ˜'˙˙%˝˛ˆˇ˙ ˜ˆˆ˜'ˆ ˇˆ#$%&('%$&))$$+%#,-.+&&˝())˝)˝+,,-./012)(˝)*˝+,-3˙ˆ/0245)6#57+82,55)6#57+,+2,+ /!#!!&˘˘1"%˘20˛˛3ˆ07%4!˘"6 ˛ˆ ˝ˆ ˆ˘&/&4"9ˆ %6ˇ%4%4&5˘2)˘˘˛%:6(

Answer 1

if you are running linux or mac you can use ps2ascii command in your code:

import os

input="someFile.pdf"
output="out.txt"
os.system(("ps2ascii %s %s") %( input , output))