Extract Text, Export Data from PDF, API Tool

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Request

POST

Headers

Api-Key

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Response-Type

Poll for the status of a request by ID. Request IDs can be found in the JSON response of POST requests sent to any pdfRest endpoint.

Required Parameters

file

File to be uploaded and processed

Alphanumeric ID (UUID) of existing file on server to be processed

Optional Parameters

full_text

Extract the full text from the document

preserve_line_breaks

When enabled, this feature identifies and maintains the original line breaks within the text, inserting a newline character ("\n") at each break point.

word_style

Extract styling information for the words

word_coordinates

Extract coordinate information for the words

output_type

Specify whether to save output as a file with .json extension or return output directly in the JSON response

Code

curl -X POST "https://api.pdfrest.com/extracted-text" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
  -H "Api-Key: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" \

Response

The response for your API Call will display here.

Once you've sent your POST request and received a valid response, you can download your output file using the output URL.

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

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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.

Preserve Positional Data

Unlike most PDF text extraction tools, Extract Text by pdfRest can optionally include page and coordinate metadata for each word extracted from the PDF in easy-to-parse JSON format. Simply turn on the word_coordinates parameter.

This data is essential if you're aiming to preserve the position of text in a different file format or create a PDF viewer with searchable and selectable text. If you don't need this extra information, it's just as easy to turn off.

Include Text Style Info

Turn on the word_style option to include detailed style information about each word extracted from the PDF, including font, size, color, and the color space.

This optional metadata supports use cases that require preserving the original document's same appearance of text in another format or user interface. This can be combined with word_coordinates if you require both style and positional data about each word, or simply turned off when not needed.

Tap into Data

The world's collective archive of PDFs is estimated to contain over 2.5 trillion documents, representing an abundance of opportunity for discovering new sources of untapped data. Accessing and aggregating data from many documents can be challenging without the right tools for the job.

pdfRest Extract Text is just the tool you need to batch process or configure automated workflows to extract data from PDFs and facilitate easy database entry and integration with other services.

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Start from Code Examples

See more code examples in our GitHub repository

Need more help?

Start with a Tutorial for step-by-step guidance

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Customize Your Solution

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

File

The file parameter allows you to select a local file to be uploaded to pdfRest’s processing server.

See Documentation

The id parameter allows you to submit a resource ID generated by one of our API Tools. Each of our API Tools assigns a unique resource ID to your output file(s), allowing you to chain requests together without having to download intermediate files between requests.

See Documentation

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

Word Coordinates

The word_coordinates parameter allows you to toggle whether or not to extract coordinate information for the text boxes of individual words in the document.

See Documentation

Full Text

The full_text parameter allows you to specify whether to extract the full text of a document. The three options are as follows:

off: Do not extract the full text
by_page: Extract the full text of each page and return them as separate chunks
document: Extract the full text of the document and return it as a single block of text

See Documentation

Preserve Line Breaks

When preserve_line_breaks is set to on, this feature identifies and maintains the original line breaks within the text, inserting a newline character ("\n") at each break point.

See Documentation