PDF to Text with HTTP POST

Overview

The Pdfcrowd API is HTTP-based, the communication is made through normal HTTP requests. You can call the API by sending an HTTP request to the API server address with options passed as POST data.

The POST request's content type must be multipart/form-data if the request includes any local files. Otherwise application/x-www-form-urlencoded can be used as well.

You can also check out our API client libraries if you want to implement the API in your favorite programming language.

Authentication

The credentials to access the API are your Pdfcrowd username and the API key. You can try out the API without registering using the following demo credentials:

  • Username: demo
  • API key: ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d

To get your personal API credentials, you can start a free API trial or buy the API license.

The authentication method for user credentials is HTTP Basic Access Authentication. You provide your credentials every time you make a request.

Server Address

The server address is https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/20.10/

Other addresses can be used:

  • https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/latest/ is for the latest converter version.
  • https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/20.10/ is for version 20.10.
  • https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/18.10/ is for version 18.10.
  • https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/ is a shortcut for version 18.10.

Both HTTP and HTTPS protocols are supported.

POST Parameter Reference

Refer to the PDF to Text POST Reference for a description of all options.

Code Examples

Here are a few HTTP POST examples to get you started quickly with the API. See more examples. 

curl -f -u "demo:ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d" \
    -o "invoice.txt" \
    -F "input_format=pdf" \
    -F "output_format=txt" \
    -F "file=@/path/to/invoice.pdf" \
    https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/20.10/
curl -f -u "demo:ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d" \
    -o "invoice.txt" \
    -F "input_format=pdf" \
    -F "output_format=txt" \
    -F "url=https://pdfcrowd.com/static/pdf/apisamples/invoice.pdf" \
    https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/20.10/

Response Headers

HTTP response can contain the following headers.
You can find details about each conversion in your conversion log.

Name Description
x-pdfcrowd-debug-log URL to the debug log
x-pdfcrowd-remaining-credits the number of available conversion credits in your account
x-pdfcrowd-consumed-credits the number of credits consumed by the conversion
x-pdfcrowd-job-id the unique ID of the conversion
x-pdfcrowd-pages the total number of pages in the output document
x-pdfcrowd-total-pages the total number of pages in the original output document, including the pages excluded by print_page_range option
x-pdfcrowd-output-size the size of the output in bytes

Troubleshooting

  • Refer to the API Status Codes page if the API returns an error.
  • You can use debug_log to get detailed info about the conversion, such as load errors, load times, browser console output, etc.
  • Check the FAQ.
  • Contact us if you need help or missing a feature.