PDF Extractor CLI

A powerful Python command-line tool that extracts data from PDF files with a clean, modular architecture.

Features

• Text Extraction: Extract plain text from PDFs using PyMuPDF (fitz)
• Table Extraction: Extract tables as CSV or JSON using pdfplumber
• Image Extraction: Extract embedded images from PDFs
• OCR Processing: Apply OCR to image-based PDFs using pytesseract

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11 or higher
• Tesseract OCR (for OCR capabilities)
  • Windows: Download and install from here
  • macOS: brew install tesseract
  • Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install tesseract-ocr

Installation Steps

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/sfkbstnc/pdf-extractor-cli.git
cd pdf-extractor-cli

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Make the CLI executable (Linux/macOS)
chmod +x pdf_extractor_cli.py

Usage

python pdf_extractor_cli.py --file [PDF_FILE] [OPTIONS]

Options

Option	Description
--file	Path to the PDF file (required)
--text	Extract plain text
--tables	Extract tables
--images	Extract images
--ocr	Apply OCR to images
--pages	Page numbers or ranges to process (e.g. 1-3,5,7)
--output	Directory to save outputs (default: output/)
--table-format	Format for table output (csv or json, default: csv)
--verbose	Enable verbose logging

Examples

Extract text from a PDF:

python pdf_extractor_cli.py --file document.pdf --text

Extract tables from pages 1-3 and save as JSON:

python pdf_extractor_cli.py --file document.pdf --tables --pages 1-3 --table-format json

Extract images from specific pages:

python pdf_extractor_cli.py --file document.pdf --images --pages 5-10

Apply OCR to extract text from an image-based PDF:

python pdf_extractor_cli.py --file scanned_document.pdf --ocr

Extract everything from a PDF:

python pdf_extractor_cli.py --file document.pdf --text --tables --images --ocr

Output Examples

Text Extraction

--- Page 1 ---
Annual Report 2023
Company XYZ

Our mission is to provide the best services...

Table Extraction (CSV)

Name,Age,Position
John Doe,35,CEO
Jane Smith,32,CTO
Mike Johnson,28,Developer

Image Extraction

Images are saved to the output/[filename]_images/ directory with filenames like page1_image1.png.

Project Structure

pdf-extractor-cli/
├── pdf_extractor/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── main.py
│   ├── utils.py
│   ├── text_extractor.py
│   ├── table_extractor.py
│   ├── image_extractor.py
│   └── ocr_extractor.py
├── examples/
│   └── README.txt
├── output/
├── pdf_extractor_cli.py
├── requirements.txt
├── pyproject.toml
└── README.md

Troubleshooting

OCR Issues

Tesseract Not Found Error

If you encounter the following error:

Error: tesseract is not installed or it's not in your PATH. See README file for more information.

Solutions:

1. Ensure Tesseract is installed: Follow the installation instructions for your OS in the Prerequisites section.
2. Add Tesseract to PATH:
   • Windows: Add the Tesseract installation directory (e.g., C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR) to your system's PATH variable.
   • Linux/macOS: Verify the installation with which tesseract.
3. Specify Tesseract Path directly:
   • If you know where tesseract is installed but can't modify PATH, you can set it in your code:

   import pytesseract
   pytesseract.pytesseract.tesseract_cmd = r'C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe'  # Windows example

Table Extraction Issues

If no tables are found in your PDF, verify that:

1. Your PDF actually contains tables (not just spaces/tabs formatting text)
2. The tables have clear borders or structural elements that pdfplumber can identify

Dependencies

• PyMuPDF (fitz): For text and image extraction
• pdfplumber: For table extraction
• pandas: For data handling
• pytesseract: For OCR
• Pillow (PIL): For image processing
• rich: For colorful terminal output

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.