Extract Text

Extract Text

Extract Text is a REST API tool designed to efficiently extract all text from PDF documents, with options to include detailed style and positional information. This tool is ideal for developers and businesses looking to streamline data extraction processes and integrate text content into various applications, including AI-driven workflows.

  • Extract text from PDFs with precision, capturing all content for further analysis or integration into databases and other systems.
  • Include optional style information, such as font type, size, and color, to preserve the original document's appearance in the extracted text.
  • Utilize positional data to maintain text layout and structure, essential for applications requiring exact text placement, such as digital archiving and document conversion.
  • Automate text extraction workflows to enhance efficiency and reduce manual data entry, perfect for high-volume document processing.
  • Enhance data accessibility by converting static PDF content into dynamic, usable data for business intelligence, compliance, and reporting purposes.
  • Supply large language models (LLM) with rich content from PDF archives, enabling advanced AI applications like natural language processing and sentiment analysis. Transform static documents into valuable data sources for AI-driven insights and decision-making.
Build Your Solution

You have document processing problems, we have Solutions. Explore the many ways pdfRest can align your documents with your business objectives.

Browse all solutions
A PDF leads to a long text file which leads to a robot with the OpenAI logo and finally to a short form text file
Generating Summaries of PDF Documents using ChatGPT
Text from a PDF is passed to a robot with the OpenAI logo, who performs language translation
Translate PDF Text to New Language with ChatGPT
Parse PDF Files to Streamline Data Extraction
Parse PDF Files to Streamline Data Extraction
Create Searchable PDF Files with OCR
Create Searchable PDF Files with OCR
A friendly robot with the OpenAI logo is holding a PDF and a sentiment analysis tool
Discover Sentiment Insights from PDF Documents with pdfRest and ChatGPT
Convert PDF to Text to Unlock Trapped Data
Convert PDF to Text to Unlock Trapped Data
Why is pdfRest the best API to extract text from PDF?
pdfRest offers the best solution for extracting text from PDF documents, because it preserves positional data, includes text style information, and taps into data.

Extract Text with Precise Positional Data from PDFs

Unlike most PDF text extraction tools, pdfRest's Extract Text API can optionally include page and coordinate metadata for each word extracted from the PDF in an easy-to-parse JSON format. By enabling the word_coordinates parameter, you gain access to:

  • Detailed positional data that preserves the exact layout of text, crucial for applications requiring precise text placement.
  • The ability to create PDF viewers with searchable and selectable text, enhancing user interaction and accessibility.
  • Leveraging positional data for AI models to understand document structure, improving tasks like document classification and layout analysis.

This capability is essential for developers and businesses aiming to maintain the integrity of text layout when converting PDFs to other formats or integrating into complex systems.

Preserve Detailed Styling with PDF Extracted Text

With the word_style option, pdfRest's Extract Text API provides detailed style information about each word extracted from the PDF, including font type, size, color, and color space. This feature supports:

  • Preservation of the original document's appearance, ensuring that text maintains its intended look and feel in other formats or user interfaces.
  • Enhanced document fidelity, particularly important for industries where visual consistency is critical, such as publishing and design.
  • The option to combine style and positional data for a comprehensive extraction, or to disable style information when not needed, offering flexibility in your data processing.

Unlock and Aggregate Valuable Text Data from PDF Archives

The world's collective archive of PDFs is estimated to contain over 2.5 trillion documents, representing a vast opportunity for discovering new sources of untapped data. pdfRest's Extract Text API empowers you to:

  • Batch process large volumes of PDFs, automating workflows to efficiently extract and aggregate text data.
  • Facilitate easy database entry and integration with other services, transforming static documents into dynamic data sources.
  • Leverage advanced extraction capabilities to support AI-driven insights, business intelligence, and data-driven decision-making.
  • Supply extracted text data to large language models (LLMs) for natural language processing, enabling advanced AI applications such as automated content generation and sentiment analysis.
Check out other videos
Start from Code Examples
See more code examples in our GitHub repository

Need more help?

Start with a Tutorial for step-by-step guidance

How to Extract PDF Text in .NET with C#
How to Extract PDF Text with cURL
How to Extract PDF Text with JavaScript in NodeJS
How to Extract PDF Text with PHP
How to Extract PDF Text with Python
How to Use OCR to Extract Text from PDF Images in .NET with C#
How to Use OCR to Extract Text from PDF Images with cURL
How to Use OCR to Extract Text from PDF Images with JavaScript in NodeJS
Customize Your Solution

Learn about the parameters for this tool to create your custom solution.

Word Style

The word_style parameter allows you to toggle whether or not to extract styling information about font and color for individual words in the document.

See Documentation
Frequently Asked Questions
Need more help? Contact Us or visit our documentation.

The Extract Text API is a robust tool designed for extracting text from PDF documents. It efficiently retrieves all text content and offers optional features to include detailed style information, positional data, and the preservation of line breaks. This makes it an ideal solution for developers and businesses looking to integrate PDF text extraction into their workflows for further analysis, data processing, or integration into other systems. By using this API, you can transform static PDF content into dynamic, usable data.

Choosing pdfRest's Extract Text API offers several compelling benefits:

  • Positional Data Extraction: The word_coordinates parameter allows you to extract text along with metadata indicating the page and coordinates of each word. This is particularly useful for maintaining the original text structure and positioning when converting or reformatting documents, ensuring that the layout remains intact. It also supports filtering or finding content based on positional information.
  • Comprehensive Text Style Information: By enabling the word_style parameter, you can include detailed style information such as font type, size, color, and color space for each word. This is essential for preserving the document's original appearance in other formats or user interfaces.
  • Flexible Output Options: The API provides multiple output formats, including a direct JSON response or JSON file, which is ideal for seamless integration into workflows, databases, or document management systems. This flexibility allows you to tailor the output to your specific needs.

Positional data refers to the coordinates of each word within a PDF document, including information about the page it appears on and its exact location on the page. This feature is crucial for:

  • Preserving Document Layout: When converting PDFs to other formats or creating PDF viewers, maintaining the exact positioning of text is essential for preserving the document's integrity and readability.
  • Enhancing Searchability: Positional data enables efficient searching and text selection, which is vital for documents where precise text placement is necessary, such as legal documents or technical manuals.
  • Advanced Filtering: Positional information can be used to find specific text content based on its location within a document.

By enabling the word_coordinates parameter, you can extract this valuable positional information, ensuring that your document's layout and functionality are preserved.

Yes, the Extract Text API allows you to extract text along with comprehensive style information. By enabling the word_style parameter, you can retrieve details such as:

  • Font Type and Size: Understand the typography used in the document.
  • Font Color and Color Space: Preserve the visual appearance of the text, which is crucial for maintaining the document's aesthetic in conversions or user interfaces.

This feature is particularly beneficial when you need to replicate the original document's appearance in another format or display the extracted text in a way that mimics the PDF layout.

Preserving line breaks is a key feature of the Extract Text API. By enabling the preserve_line_breaks parameter, the API will maintain the original line breaks in the extracted text by inserting newline characters at appropriate points. This ensures that the structure and readability of the text are preserved, making it easier to replicate the document’s layout in other formats or applications.

The Extract Text API offers flexible output formats to suit various needs:

  • JSON Format: A structured format that includes the text along with optional style and positional data. This format is ideal for further processing, analysis, or integration with other systems.
  • Direct JSON Response: Receive the extracted text directly in the response body, eliminating the need to download a separate file. This option is convenient for quick access and integration.

These output options provide the flexibility to tailor the extracted data to your specific use case, whether for database entry, document management, or other applications.

While the Extract Text API processes the entire PDF document, you can focus on specific sections by filtering the results. With word_coordinates enabled, positional data is provided for each word in the PDF to help you isolate certain areas or content within the document. This allows you to target and extract text from specific parts of the PDF, including target page ranges or specified bounding boxes on a page, making it easier to flexibly manage and utilize the data according to your needs.

Integrating the Extract Text API into your workflow is straightforward:

  • Upload Your PDF: Use the API to upload and process your document.
  • Configure Parameters: Select the features you need, such as positional data, style information, or line break preservation.
  • Integrate Output: The JSON output can be easily integrated into your database, document management systems, or other workflows.

With code examples available in various programming languages, including JavaScript, Python, PHP, and C#, getting started with integration is simple and efficient.

Absolutely! You can use the API Lab to test the Extract Text API directly from your browser. This user-friendly interface allows you to upload your PDF, configure the desired parameters, download and assess the output, and generate the code you need to integrate into your project—all without writing a single line of code. This makes it an excellent option for those looking to explore the API's capabilities quickly and easily.

For an even more convenient and efficient workflow, try pdfAssistant.ai for automated PDF text extraction, which provides an intuitive AI chat-based interface for processing PDF tasks using a virtual assistant.

pdfRest’s Extract Text API utilizes Adobe PDF technology with advanced algorithms to detect and preserve natural text flow, ensuring high accuracy in text extraction, even from complex PDF documents. The inclusion of positional and style metadata also helps preserve the document’s structure and appearance, ensuring that the extracted text is both accurate and reliable.

The Extract Text API is capable of extracting all text-based content found within a PDF. However, the accuracy of extracted text order may vary depending on the the presence of complex elements such as multi-column layouts or tables.

For documents with embedded images, you can enhance text extraction by first using the OCR PDF API Tool to make image-based text extractable and then processing with Extract Text as a second step, allowing you to extract text from images as well.

Yes, pdfRest can extract text from PDFs under GDPR compliance. To ensure full compliance, send your API calls to the http://eu-api.pdfrest.com/extracted-text endpoint. This ensures that all data processing occurs within the EU, adhering to GDPR data protection regulations. Note that some plans may incur a small fee for GDPR-compliant usage.

Yes, pdfRest offers self-hosted options for text extraction. You can explore our PDF Toolkit Self-Hosted API available on AWS, which allows you to manage your own backend processing infrastructure. Additionally, our Container API provides flexible deployment options for running the pdfRest API in your preferred environment, whether on-premises or in the cloud.

Generate a self-service API Key now!
Create your FREE API Key to start processing PDFs in seconds, only possible with pdfRest.
Contact Us