The PDF (Portable Document Format) file is used to save text\/image data for offline use. Sometimes PDF files are used to display text\/graphics content on the web page for online use. Generally, a web viewer is used to embed PDF files in the browser. When a PDF file is embedded on the web page, the text\/graphics content is not appended to the HTML page. Since the PDF content is not rendered on the web page, it causes a negative impact on SEO. To overcome this issue, you can extract text content from PDF<\/b> and include it on the web page.<\/p>\n
The PDF Parser library is very helpful for extracting elements from PDF files using PHP. This PHP library parses PDF files and extracts text content from all the pages. The object, headers, metadata, and text can be parsed from the PDF file using PHP. This tutorial will show you how to extract text from PDF files using PHP<\/b>.<\/p>\n
In this example script, we will use the PDF Parser library<\/b> to extract text from PDF with PHP. Also, we will show how you can upload PDF files and extract text data on the fly using PHP.<\/p>\nInstall PDF Parser Library<\/h2>\n
Run the following command to install PDF Parser library using composer.<\/p>\n
composer require smalot\/pdfparser<\/pre>\nNote that:<\/span> You don’t need to download the PDF Parser library separately, all the required files are included in the source code. Download the source code if you want to install and use PDF Parser without composer<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Include autoloader to load PDF Parser library and helper functions in the PHP script.<\/p>\n
include <\/span>'vendor\/autoload.php'<\/span>;<\/span><\/pre>\nExtract Text from PDF<\/h2>\n
The following code snippet extracts all the text content from PDF file using PHP<\/b>.<\/p>\n
\n
- Initialize and load PDF Parser library.<\/li>\n
- Specify the source PDF file from where the text content will retrieve.<\/li>\n
- Parse PDF file using
parseFile()<\/code> function of the PDF Parser class.<\/li>\n- Extract text from PDF using
getText()<\/code> method of the PDF Parser class.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\/\/ Initialize and load PDF Parser library
<\/span>$parser <\/span>= new \\<\/span>Smalot<\/span>\\<\/span>PdfParser<\/span>\\<\/span>Parser<\/span>();
<\/span>\/\/ Source PDF file to extract text
<\/span>$file <\/span>= <\/span>'path-to-file\/Brochure.pdf'<\/span>;
<\/span>\/\/ Parse pdf file using Parser library
<\/span>$pdf <\/span>= <\/span>$parser<\/span>-><\/span>parseFile<\/span>(<\/span>$file<\/span>);
<\/span>\/\/ Extract text from PDF
<\/span>$textContent <\/span>= <\/span>$pdf<\/span>-><\/span>getText<\/span>();<\/span><\/pre>\nUpload PDF File and Extract Text<\/h2>\n
This example code snippet shows you the step-by-step process to upload PDF files and extract the text using PHP.<\/p>\n
PDF File Upload Form:<\/b>
\nDefine HTML elements for file uploading form.<\/p>\n<form<\/span> action<\/span>=\"submit.php\"<\/span> method<\/span>=\"post\"<\/span> enctype<\/span>=\"multipart\/form-data\"<\/span>><\/span>\r\n <div<\/span> class<\/span>=\"form-input\"<\/span>><\/span>\r\n <label<\/span> for<\/span>=\"pdf_file\"<\/span>><\/span>PDF File<\/label<\/span>><\/span>\r\n <input<\/span> type<\/span>=\"file\"<\/span> name<\/span>=\"pdf_file\"<\/span> placeholder<\/span>=\"Select a PDF file\"<\/span> required<\/span>=\"\"<\/span>><\/span>\r\n <\/div<\/span>><\/span>\r\n <input<\/span> type<\/span>=\"submit\"<\/span> name<\/span>=\"submit\"<\/span> class<\/span>=\"btn\"<\/span> value<\/span>=\"Extract Text\"<\/span>><\/span>\r\n<\/form<\/span>><\/span><\/pre>\nOn form submission, the selected file is submitted to the server-side script for process further.<\/p>\n
Server-side Script (submit.php) to Extract Text from Uploaded PDF:<\/b>
\nThe following code is used to upload the submitted file and extract text from PDF.<\/p>\n\n
- Retrieve file name using $_FILES in PHP<\/b>.<\/li>\n
- Get file extention using
pathinfo()<\/code> function with PATHINFO_EXTENSION filter.<\/li>\n- Validate the file to check whether it is a valid PDF file.<\/li>\n
- Retrieve file path using
tmp_name<\/code> in $_FILES.<\/li>\n- Parse uploaded PDF file and extract text content using PDF Parser library.<\/li>\n
- Format text content by replacing the new line (
\\n<\/code>) with line break (<br<\/span>\/><\/span>) using nl2br() function in PHP<\/b>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n$pdfText <\/span>= <\/span>''<\/span>;
if(isset(<\/span>$_POST<\/span>[<\/span>'submit'<\/span>])){
<\/span>\/\/ If file is selected
<\/span>if(!empty(<\/span>$_FILES<\/span>[<\/span>\"pdf_file\"<\/span>][<\/span>\"name\"<\/span>])){
<\/span>\/\/ File upload path
<\/span>$fileName <\/span>= <\/span>basename<\/span>(<\/span>$_FILES<\/span>[<\/span>\"pdf_file\"<\/span>][<\/span>\"name\"<\/span>]);
<\/span>$fileType <\/span>= <\/span>pathinfo<\/span>(<\/span>$fileName<\/span>, <\/span>PATHINFO_EXTENSION<\/span>);
<\/span>\/\/ Allow certain file formats
<\/span>$allowTypes <\/span>= array(<\/span>'pdf'<\/span>);
if(<\/span>in_array<\/span>(<\/span>$fileType<\/span>, <\/span>$allowTypes<\/span>)){
<\/span>\/\/ Include autoloader file
<\/span>include <\/span>'vendor\/autoload.php'<\/span>;
<\/span>\/\/ Initialize and load PDF Parser library
<\/span>$parser <\/span>= new \\<\/span>Smalot<\/span>\\<\/span>PdfParser<\/span>\\<\/span>Parser<\/span>();
<\/span>\/\/ Source PDF file to extract text
<\/span>$file <\/span>= <\/span>$_FILES<\/span>[<\/span>\"pdf_file\"<\/span>][<\/span>\"tmp_name\"<\/span>];
<\/span>\/\/ Parse pdf file using Parser library
<\/span>$pdf <\/span>= <\/span>$parser<\/span>-><\/span>parseFile<\/span>(<\/span>$file<\/span>);
<\/span>\/\/ Extract text from PDF
<\/span>$text <\/span>= <\/span>$pdf<\/span>-><\/span>getText<\/span>();
<\/span>\/\/ Add line break
<\/span>$pdfText <\/span>= <\/span>nl2br<\/span>(<\/span>$text<\/span>);
}else{
<\/span>$statusMsg <\/span>= <\/span>'<p>Sorry, only PDF file is allowed to upload.<\/p>'<\/span>;
}
}else{
<\/span>$statusMsg <\/span>= <\/span>'<p>Please select a PDF file to extract text.<\/p>'<\/span>;
}
}
<\/span>\/\/ Display text content
<\/span>echo <\/span>$pdfText<\/span>;<\/span><\/pre>\nAdvanced Usage of PDF Parser Library<\/h2>\n
You can use this PDF parser library for various needs. Here are some advanced uses to further customize the PDF parser and text output.<\/p>\n
Extract the text of a specific page from PDF:<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n
\/\/ extract the text of a specific page (in this case the first page)
<\/span>$text <\/span>= <\/span>$pdf<\/span>-><\/span>getPages<\/span>()[<\/span>0<\/span>]-><\/span>getText<\/span>();<\/span><\/pre>\nExtract text positions in PDF:<\/u><\/b>
\nTo display text in the same position as the PDF, you can extract the transformation matrix (indexes 0-3) and the x,y position of text objects (indexes 4,5) using thegetDataTm()<\/code> method of the PDF Parser class.<\/p>\n$data <\/span>= <\/span>$pdf<\/span>-><\/span>getPages<\/span>()[<\/span>0<\/span>]-><\/span>getDataTm<\/span>();<\/span><\/pre>\nArray<\/span>\r\n(\r\n [0<\/span>] => Array\r\n (\r\n [0<\/span>] => Array\r\n (\r\n [0<\/span>] => 0.878529\r\n [1<\/span>] => 0\r\n [2<\/span>] => 0\r\n [3<\/span>] => 1\r\n [4<\/span>] => 325.75\r\n [5<\/span>] => 670.90\r\n )\r\n\r\n [1<\/span>] => Document title\r\n )\r\n\r\n [1<\/span>] => Array\r\n (\r\n [0<\/span>] => Array\r\n (\r\n [0<\/span>] => 0.879104\r\n [1<\/span>] => 0\r\n [2<\/span>] => 0\r\n [