flonat PDF Processing Guide
Overview
This guide covers essential PDF processing operations using Python libraries and command-line tools. For advanced features, JavaScript libraries, and detailed examples, see REFERENCE.md. If you need to fill out a PDF form, read FORMS.md and follow its instructions.
Quick Start
from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter
# Read a PDF
reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")
print(f"Pages: {len(reader.pages)}")
# Extract text
text = ""
for page in reader.pages:
text += page.extract_text()
Library & Tool Recipes
All Python library examples (pypdf, pdfplumber, reportlab), CLI tools (pdftotext, qpdf, pdftk), and common tasks (OCR, watermarks, image extraction, encryption):
references/pdf-recipes.md
Quick Reference
| Task | Best Tool | Command/Code |
|---|---|---|
| Merge PDFs | pypdf | writer.add_page(page) |
| Split PDFs | pypdf | One page per file |
| Extract text | pdfplumber | page.extract_text() |
| Extract tables | pdfplumber | page.extract_tables() |
| Create PDFs | reportlab | Canvas or Platypus |
| Command line merge | qpdf | qpdf --empty --pages ... |
| OCR scanned PDFs | pytesseract | Convert to image first |
| Fill PDF forms | pdf-lib or pypdf (see FORMS.md) | See FORMS.md |
Next Steps
- For advanced pypdfium2 usage, see REFERENCE.md
- For JavaScript libraries (pdf-lib), see REFERENCE.md
- If you need to fill out a PDF form, follow the instructions in FORMS.md
- For troubleshooting guides, see REFERENCE.md