git:20260427.85307e1 to git:20260503.a1f10d4

---

name: pdf

description: "Read, create, edit, split, merge, rotate, watermark, fill, encrypt/decrypt, OCR, or extract text/tables/images from PDF files; use whenever .pdf is mentioned or requested."

license: Proprietary. LICENSE.txt has complete terms

---

# PDF Processing Guide

## Overview

This guide covers essential PDF processing operations using Python libraries and command-line tools. For advanced features, JavaScript libraries, and detailed examples, see REFERENCE.md. If you need to fill out a PDF form, read FORMS.md and follow its instructions.

## Quick Start

```python

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

# Read a PDF

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")

print(f"Pages: {len(reader.pages)}")

# Extract text

text = ""

for page in reader.pages:

text += page.extract_text()

```

## Python Libraries

### pypdf - Basic Operations

#### Merge PDFs

```python

from pypdf import PdfWriter, PdfReader

writer = PdfWriter()

for pdf_file in ["doc1.pdf", "doc2.pdf", "doc3.pdf"]:

reader = PdfReader(pdf_file)

for page in reader.pages:

writer.add_page(page)

with open("merged.pdf", "wb") as output:

writer.write(output)

```

#### Split PDF

```python

reader = PdfReader("input.pdf")

for i, page in enumerate(reader.pages):

writer = PdfWriter()

writer.add_page(page)

with open(f"page_{i+1}.pdf", "wb") as output:

writer.write(output)

```

#### Extract Metadata

```python

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")

meta = reader.metadata

print(f"Title: {meta.title}")

print(f"Author: {meta.author}")

print(f"Subject: {meta.subject}")

print(f"Creator: {meta.creator}")

```

#### Rotate Pages

```python

reader = PdfReader("input.pdf")

writer = PdfWriter()

page = reader.pages[0]

page.rotate(90) # Rotate 90 degrees clockwise

writer.add_page(page)

with open("rotated.pdf", "wb") as output:

writer.write(output)

```

### pdfplumber - Text and Table Extraction

#### Extract Text with Layout

```python

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:

for page in pdf.pages:

text = page.extract_text()

print(text)

```

#### Extract Tables

```python

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:

for i, page in enumerate(pdf.pages):

tables = page.extract_tables()

for j, table in enumerate(tables):

print(f"Table {j+1} on page {i+1}:")

for row in table:

print(row)

```

#### Advanced Table Extraction

```python

import pandas as pd

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:

all_tables = []

for page in pdf.pages:

tables = page.extract_tables()

for table in tables:

if table: # Check if table is not empty

df = pd.DataFrame(table[1:], columns=table[0])

all_tables.append(df)

# Combine all tables

if all_tables:

combined_df = pd.concat(all_tables, ignore_index=True)

combined_df.to_excel("extracted_tables.xlsx", index=False)

```

### reportlab - Create PDFs

#### Basic PDF Creation

```python

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter

from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas

c = canvas.Canvas("hello.pdf", pagesize=letter)

width, height = letter

# Add text

c.drawString(100, height - 100, "Hello World!")

c.drawString(100, height - 120, "This is a PDF created with reportlab")

# Add a line

c.line(100, height - 140, 400, height - 140)

# Save

c.save()

```

#### Create PDF with Multiple Pages

```python

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter

from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph, Spacer, PageBreak

from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet

doc = SimpleDocTemplate("report.pdf", pagesize=letter)

styles = getSampleStyleSheet()

story = []

# Add content

title = Paragraph("Report Title", styles['Title'])

story.append(title)

story.append(Spacer(1, 12))

body = Paragraph("This is the body of the report. " * 20, styles['Normal'])

story.append(body)

story.append(PageBreak())

# Page 2

story.append(Paragraph("Page 2", styles['Heading1']))

story.append(Paragraph("Content for page 2", styles['Normal']))

# Build PDF

doc.build(story)

```

#### Subscripts and Superscripts

**IMPORTANT**: Never use Unicode subscript/superscript characters (₀₁₂₃₄₅₆₇₈₉, ⁰¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹) in ReportLab PDFs. The built-in fonts do not include these glyphs, causing them to render as solid black boxes.

Instead, use ReportLab's XML markup tags in Paragraph objects:

```python

from reportlab.platypus import Paragraph

from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet

styles = getSampleStyleSheet()

# Subscripts: use <sub> tag

chemical = Paragraph("H<sub>2</sub>O", styles['Normal'])

# Superscripts: use <super> tag

squared = Paragraph("x<super>2</super> + y<super>2</super>", styles['Normal'])

```

For canvas-drawn text (not Paragraph objects), manually adjust font the size and position rather than using Unicode subscripts/superscripts.

## Command-Line Tools

### pdftotext (poppler-utils)

```bash

# Extract text

pdftotext input.pdf output.txt

# Extract text preserving layout

pdftotext -layout input.pdf output.txt

# Extract specific pages

pdftotext -f 1 -l 5 input.pdf output.txt # Pages 1-5

```

### qpdf

```bash

# Merge PDFs

qpdf --empty --pages file1.pdf file2.pdf -- merged.pdf

# Split pages

qpdf input.pdf --pages . 1-5 -- pages1-5.pdf

qpdf input.pdf --pages . 6-10 -- pages6-10.pdf

# Rotate pages

qpdf input.pdf output.pdf --rotate=+90:1 # Rotate page 1 by 90 degrees

# Remove password

qpdf --password=mypassword --decrypt encrypted.pdf decrypted.pdf

```

### pdftk (if available)

```bash

# Merge

pdftk file1.pdf file2.pdf cat output merged.pdf

# Split

pdftk input.pdf burst

# Rotate

pdftk input.pdf rotate 1east output rotated.pdf

```

## Common Tasks

### Extract Text from Scanned PDFs

```python

# Requires: pip install pytesseract pdf2image

import pytesseract

from pdf2image import convert_from_path

# Convert PDF to images

images = convert_from_path('scanned.pdf')

# OCR each page

text = ""

for i, image in enumerate(images):

text += f"Page {i+1}:\n"

text += pytesseract.image_to_string(image)

text += "\n\n"

print(text)

```

### Add Watermark

```python

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

# Create watermark (or load existing)

watermark = PdfReader("watermark.pdf").pages[0]

# Apply to all pages

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")

writer = PdfWriter()

for page in reader.pages:

page.merge_page(watermark)

writer.add_page(page)

with open("watermarked.pdf", "wb") as output:

writer.write(output)

```

### Extract Images

```bash

# Using pdfimages (poppler-utils)

pdfimages -j input.pdf output_prefix

# This extracts all images as output_prefix-000.jpg, output_prefix-001.jpg, etc.

```

### Password Protection

```python

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

reader = PdfReader("input.pdf")

writer = PdfWriter()

for page in reader.pages:

writer.add_page(page)

# Add password

writer.encrypt("userpassword", "ownerpassword")

with open("encrypted.pdf", "wb") as output:

writer.write(output)

```

## Quick Reference

| Task | Best Tool | Command/Code |

|------|-----------|--------------|

| Merge PDFs | pypdf | `writer.add_page(page)` |

| Split PDFs | pypdf | One page per file |

| Extract text | pdfplumber | `page.extract_text()` |

| Extract tables | pdfplumber | `page.extract_tables()` |

| Create PDFs | reportlab | Canvas or Platypus |

| Command line merge | qpdf | `qpdf --empty --pages ...` |

| OCR scanned PDFs | pytesseract | Convert to image first |

| Fill PDF forms | pdf-lib or pypdf (see FORMS.md) | See FORMS.md |

## Next Steps

- For advanced pypdfium2 usage, see REFERENCE.md

- For JavaScript libraries (pdf-lib), see REFERENCE.md

- If you need to fill out a PDF form, follow the instructions in FORMS.md

- For troubleshooting guides, see REFERENCE.md