Text, Words & Objects

Require the public API namespace:

(require '[pdfplumber.core :as pdf])

Text and object functions accept either a document handle or a cropped page view from crop-page.

Characters

chars returns one map per PDF text position:

(pdf/with-pdf [doc "statement.pdf"]
  (pdf/chars doc {:page 1}))
;; => [{:text "H"
;;      :x0 72.0
;;      :top 82.5
;;      :x1 80.7
;;      :bottom 94.5
;;      :font-name "Helvetica"
;;      :font-size 12.0
;;      :page-number 1}
;;     ...]

Character map keys:

• :text
• :x0
• :top
• :x1
• :bottom
• :font-name
• :font-size
• :page-number

Options:

• :page - 1-based page number.
• :bbox - keep chars whose bbox center falls inside [x0 top x1 bottom].

Words

words groups characters into word maps:

(pdf/with-pdf [doc "statement.pdf"]
  (pdf/words doc {:page 1}))
;; => [{:text "Hello"
;;      :x0 72.0
;;      :top 82.5
;;      :x1 99.3
;;      :bottom 94.5
;;      :page-number 1}
;;     {:text "PDF" ...}]

Word map keys:

• :text
• :x0
• :top
• :x1
• :bottom
• :page-number

Options:

• :page - 1-based page number.
• :bbox - passed to chars, so it keeps characters whose centers are inside the bounding box before word grouping.
• :x-tolerance - default 3.0. A horizontal gap wider than this starts a new word.
• :y-tolerance - default 3.0. Characters whose :top values are within this tolerance are grouped into the same line.

Text

text reconstructs a string from words:

(pdf/with-pdf [doc "statement.pdf"]
  (pdf/text doc {:page 1}))
;; => "Hello PDF"

It accepts the same options as words. Words are joined by spaces within a line. Lines are joined with newline characters.

Graphical Objects

objects extracts painted paths as line, rectangle, and curve maps:

(pdf/with-pdf [doc "diagram.pdf"]
  (pdf/objects doc {:page 1}))
;; => [{:type :line
;;      :x0 72.0
;;      :top 92.0
;;      :x1 540.0
;;      :bottom 92.0
;;      :orientation :horizontal
;;      :page-number 1}
;;     {:type :rect
;;      :x0 100.0
;;      :top 292.0
;;      :x1 300.0
;;      :bottom 392.0
;;      :page-number 1}]

Common object keys:

• :type - one of :line, :rect, or :curve.
• :x0
• :top
• :x1
• :bottom
• :page-number

Line objects also include:

• :orientation - :horizontal, :vertical, or :other.

Options:

• :page - 1-based page number.
• :types - a set of object types to keep, for example #{:line}.
• :bbox - keep objects whose bounding boxes intersect the given bbox.

Only painted paths yield objects. Clip-only and no-paint paths are discarded.

Cropping

crop-page creates a lightweight cropped view:

(pdf/with-pdf [doc "statement.pdf"]
  (let [view (pdf/crop-page doc {:page 1
                                 :bbox [70.0 80.0 110.0 100.0]})]
    {:is-view? (pdf/page-view? view)
     :words (pdf/words view)
     :text (pdf/text view)
     :objects (pdf/objects view)}))

The view does not copy page data and does not translate coordinates. It resolves to extraction options:

{:page 1
 :bbox [70.0 80.0 110.0 100.0]}

Explicit options passed to an extraction call override the view's values:

(pdf/words view {:page 2})

Coordinate behavior in cropped views:

• text filtering keeps characters whose bbox centers are inside the crop bbox
• object filtering keeps objects whose bboxes intersect the crop bbox
• returned maps keep original page coordinates
• returned bboxes are not clipped to the crop bbox