How Can Python Libraries Best Extract Text from PDFs, Handling Encoding Issues?

Extracting Text from PDF Files with Python

In Python, extracting text from PDF files is a common task often accomplished using the PyPDF2 library. When attempting to extract text using PyPDF2, it's possible to encounter discrepancies in the extracted content compared to the original PDF.

Issue Explanation

The provided script, written in PyPDF2, successfully extracts text from the PDF file but encounters corrupted characters in the output. This is because PyPDF2 cannot handle certain encodings used in PDF documents.

Solution

To resolve this issue, consider utilizing the Tika library. Tika-Python provides a Python interface to Apache Tika's REST services, offering text extraction capabilities with improved handling of various encodings.

Code Example

from tika import parser # pip install tika

raw = parser.from_file('sample.pdf')
print(raw['content'])

Additional Notes

Tika requires a Java runtime environment. Ensure you have it installed before using Tika-Python. Also, Tika may consume additional memory compared to PyPDF2, so consider this aspect when selecting the best solution for your application.

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