Extract Text from PDF File

GemBox PDF @ $240.00

using GemBox.Pdf;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // If using Professional version, put your serial key below.
        ComponentInfo.SetLicense("FREE-LIMITED-KEY");

        using (var document = new PdfDocument())
        {
            // Add a first empty page.
            document.Pages.Add();

            // Add a second empty page.
            document.Pages.Add();

            document.Save("Hello World.pdf");
        }
    }
}

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https://www.gemboxsoftware.com/pdf

One common use of this type of processing I use is to convert all my bank + credit card statements into text for processing tax records.

My approach is fairly simple.

1) The PDF file must have a text component. Most do. Some don't. For PDF files with no text component, rescan the statement using cheap ScanSnap scanner with OCR of all pages enabled. These scanners cost around $100 USD + scan full duplex (both page sides) around 1 page/second.

2) Extract the text component...

pdftotext -enc ASCII7 -nopgbrk -layout "$in" - 2>/dev/null > "$in.txt"

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3) Pull $in.txt into a line editor + make any hand edits required to ensure all column alignment is correct.

Note: If you have 1000s of files, likely you can write scripts to either to 100% of your fixes or nearly 100% of your fixes.

4) At this point all your .txt files will have all their column data normalized (the same), so this data can be process mechanically by other software.

5) For access to pdftotext, install the Poppler Tools package for your OS.

All Linux Distros provide a Poppler Tools package. On Macs both MacPorts + Brew provide Poppler Tools packaging.

https://poppler.freedesktop.org/ provides a link to an unofficial Windows version.

David Favor:

pdftotext -enc ASCII7 -nopgbrk -layout "$in" - 2>/dev/null > "$in.txt"

Can you please let me know, where you found this?

To Joe Winograd:

Thank you very much, it has solved my problem.
I have marked your answer as solution.
Not sure, how the points are assigned, but I will
give you the maximum allowed.

Kind Regards
Wolfgang

You're very welcome, Wolfgang, I'm glad to hear that it solved your problem. And thanks to you for the points...much appreciated! Regards, Joe