PDF to Text Ruby Examples

Complete Ruby examples for common PDF to Text tasks. See the Ruby SDK guide for installation and result handling.

You can run the examples below with the displayed API credentials. Update the input URLs and filenames as needed. Each Ruby example can be copied and run independently.

Basic examples

Choose file, in-memory, or output-stream handling for the text result. Stream examples use a binary file stream as their destination.

The memory variants return binary Ruby Strings containing UTF-8 bytes. Set their encoding to UTF-8 before using them as text.

Convert a PDF file

Upload an existing invoice.pdf file.

Save to a file

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

client.convertFileToFile('invoice.pdf', 'invoice.txt')

Keep in memory

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

text_bytes = client.convertFile('invoice.pdf') # binary String
puts text_bytes.bytesize

Write to a stream

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

File.open('invoice.txt', 'wb') do |output_stream|
  client.convertFileToStream('invoice.pdf', output_stream)
end

Convert a URL

Fetch a PDF from its URL.

Save to a file

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

client.convertUrlToFile('https://your-server.com/invoice.pdf', 'invoice.txt')

Keep in memory

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

text_bytes = client.convertUrl('https://your-server.com/invoice.pdf') # binary String
puts text_bytes.bytesize

Write to a stream

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

File.open('invoice.txt', 'wb') do |output_stream|
  client.convertUrlToStream(
    'https://your-server.com/invoice.pdf', output_stream
  )
end

Convert raw PDF bytes

Read invoice.pdf as binary data. In an application, pass the bytes you already hold in memory instead.

Save to a file

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

pdf_data_1 = File.binread('invoice.pdf') # binary String
client.convertRawDataToFile(pdf_data_1, 'invoice.txt')

Keep in memory

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

pdf_data_1 = File.binread('invoice.pdf') # binary String
text_bytes = client.convertRawData(pdf_data_1) # binary String
puts text_bytes.bytesize

Write to a stream

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

File.open('invoice.txt', 'wb') do |output_stream|
  pdf_data_1 = File.binread('invoice.pdf') # binary String
  client.convertRawDataToStream(pdf_data_1, output_stream)
end

Read from an input stream

Open invoice.pdf as a binary input stream and save the result to invoice.txt.

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

File.open('invoice.pdf', 'rb') do |input_stream|
  client.convertStreamToFile(input_stream, 'invoice.txt')
end

Use extracted text

Convert a PDF URL, interpret the returned bytes as UTF-8, validate the encoding, and print the resulting string.

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

text = client.convertUrl('https://your-server.com/invoice.pdf') # binary String
text.force_encoding(Encoding::UTF_8) # UTF-8 String
raise EncodingError, 'Invalid UTF-8 text' unless text.valid_encoding?
puts text

Customize text extraction

These examples upload extraction.pdf, a three-page document with a two-column article, wrapped paragraphs, and invoice fields.

Extract selected pages

Extract pages 1 and 3 of extraction.pdf into excerpt.txt.

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

client.setPrintPageRange('1,3')
client.convertFileToFile('extraction.pdf', 'excerpt.txt')

Extract text without layout spacing

Extract the article on page 1 into article.txt without spacing that recreates the PDF's columns. For tables, the default layout mode usually preserves column alignment better.

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

client.setNoLayout(true)
client.setPrintPageRange('1')
client.convertFileToFile('extraction.pdf', 'article.txt')

Reconstruct wrapped paragraphs

Extract page 2 into paragraphs.txt, joining wrapped lines with paragraph detection and removing line-end hyphens. For example, infor- followed by mation becomes information. Paragraph detection depends on the document's layout.

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

client.setParagraphMode('bounding-box')
client.setPrintPageRange('2')
client.setRemoveHyphenation(true)
client.convertFileToFile('extraction.pdf', 'paragraphs.txt')

Extract text from a page region

Crop away the headers and footers on every page, or extract only the customer, invoice, and reference fields on page 3.

The coordinates below match a 612 × 792 point (US Letter) page. Measure X and Y from the top-left corner; 72 points equal one inch. Adjust the regions for your PDF.

Exclude headers and footers

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

client.setCropAreaHeight(648)
client.setCropAreaWidth(540)
client.setCropAreaX(36)
client.setCropAreaY(72)
client.convertFileToFile('extraction.pdf', 'body.txt')

Extract an invoice field block

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

client.setCropAreaHeight(70)
client.setCropAreaWidth(300)
client.setCropAreaX(36)
client.setCropAreaY(290)
client.setPrintPageRange('3')
client.convertFileToFile('extraction.pdf', 'fields.txt')

Keep page boundaries

The default output has no page separators. Insert form-feed characters (\f) for processing text by page, or add a visible --- PAGE BREAK --- marker on its own line.

Use form-feed separators

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

client.setPageBreakMode('default')
client.convertFileToFile('extraction.pdf', 'pages.txt')

Use visible separators

require 'pdfcrowd'

client = Pdfcrowd::PdfToTextClient.new('demo', 'demo')

client.setCustomPageBreak('
--- PAGE BREAK ---
')
client.setPageBreakMode('custom')
client.convertFileToFile('extraction.pdf', 'separated.txt')