pdf

Working with PDF Documents

Introduction

A comprehensive toolkit for PDF manipulation through Python and shell utilities. Consult advanced-reference.md for extended capabilities (pypdfium2, JavaScript ecosystems, performance guidance). When form-filling is required, follow the workflow described in form-filling-guide.md.

Getting Started

import pypdf

# Open and inspect a document
doc = pypdf.PdfReader("document.pdf")
total_pages = len(doc.pages)
print("Pages: {}".format(total_pages))

# Gather all textual content
content = "".join(pg.extract_text() for pg in doc.pages)

Core Python Libraries

pypdf — Structural Manipulation

Combining Multiple Documents

import pypdf

output = pypdf.PdfWriter()
sources = ["doc1.pdf", "doc2.pdf", "doc3.pdf"]
for src in sources:
    rdr = pypdf.PdfReader(src)
    for pg in rdr.pages:
        output.add_page(pg)

with open("merged.pdf", "wb") as dest:
    output.write(dest)

Separating Pages Into Individual Files

import pypdf

source = pypdf.PdfReader("input.pdf")
for idx, pg in enumerate(source.pages):
    single = pypdf.PdfWriter()
    single.add_page(pg)
    with open("page_{}.pdf".format(idx + 1), "wb") as dest:
        single.write(dest)

Reading Document Properties

import pypdf

source = pypdf.PdfReader("document.pdf")
props = source.metadata
print("Title: {}".format(props.title))
print("Author: {}".format(props.author))
print("Subject: {}".format(props.subject))
print("Creator: {}".format(props.creator))

Changing Page Orientation

import pypdf

source = pypdf.PdfReader("input.pdf")
output = pypdf.PdfWriter()

target = source.pages[0]
target.rotate(90)  # 90-degree clockwise rotation
output.add_page(target)

with open("rotated.pdf", "wb") as dest:
    output.write(dest)

pdfplumber — Content Extraction

Retrieving Text Preserving Layout

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as doc:
    for pg in doc.pages:
        content = pg.extract_text()
        print(content)