PDF to Text / Command Line Guide

Overview

This page serves as a guide on using PDFCrowd API to extract text from PDF from the command line.

Installation

  1. Download pdfcrowd-6.4.0-python.zip.
  2. Extract the archive and run the following commands:
    cd pdfcrowd-6.4.0
pip install .
Clone pdfcrowd-python from Github and install the tools: 
git clone https://github.com/pdfcrowd/pdfcrowd-python
cd pdfcrowd-python
pip install .

Quick Start

Below are examples to help you quickly get started with the API. Explore our additional examples for more insights. 

pdf2text -user-name "demo" -api-key "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d" \
    "/path/to/invoice.pdf" > "invoice.txt"
pdf2text -user-name "demo" -api-key "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d" \
    "https://pdfcrowd.com/static/pdf/apisamples/invoice.pdf" > "invoice.txt"

Authentication

To access the API, you will need to use your PDFCrowd username and API key. For initial testing, you may use the following demo credentials without registering:

  • Username: demo
  • API key: ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d

To obtain your personal API credentials, start a free trial or purchase the API license.

Troubleshooting

  • If you are receiving an error, refer to the API Status Codes for more information.
  • Use -debug-log to obtain detailed information about the conversion process, including load errors, load times, browser console output, etc.
  • Consult the FAQ for answers to common questions.
  • Contact us if you need assistance or if there is a feature you are missing.

User Manual

Refer to the PDF to Text Command Line Reference Manual for a description of all command line options.