Convert pdf to text

[joaonuno]

Does anyone knows how to convert pdf files in text files?

 

Is there any free program to do that?

 

Thanks

[theYinYeti]

I suppose you could use pdf2ps, and then ps2a.

 

Yves.

[aRTee]

You can also select all in kpdf, and copy-paste as text, and you could also use koffice, it can import pdf.

[polemicz]

Kword 1.4.2 will open and edit PDF files and I believe you can then save them as you wish. 1.4.2 is not in 2006, but is in cooker. I've done some PDF editing with it. I haven't tried to see how the various options for saving work. I've only used it with Debian Sid, so I'm not sure how things are with cooker.

[richard-gt]

There's a pdftotext command line tool, it should be included with the xpdf package.

[scoopy]

You may be able to use the gimp too. I haven't tried yet, but there is a plugin to read and write pdf files.

 

http://registry.gimp.org/plugin?id=195

 

It reads PostScript and PDF files. It writes PostScript files. To interprete PostScript, ghostscript with the pXmraw-drivers must be installed. To interprete PDF, the ghostscript must be able of interpreting PDF. (V1.01 : parse rc file) (V1.02 : support anti-aliasing, no progress bars for non-interactive mode, new procedure to set interpretation arguments in non-interactive mode) (V1.04 : support Encapsulated PostScript writing and preview) (V1.05 : save b/w-indexed images with 24 times less disk space) (V1.06 : fix problem with writing color PS-files)

[Darkelve]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software Edited December 16, 2005 by Darkelve

[scarecrow]

Sorry, but ain't "saving as text" a built-in feature of Acroread 7? :P

(If it isn't, then I'm just a lucky bastard, as I've done it up to now dozens of times...).

[Guest hello]

Does anyone knows how to convert pdf files in text files?

 

Is there any free program to do that?

 

Thanks

Sure. Use Ghostscript. Inside there's a pdftotext utility.

pdftotext -q -f 1 -l 100 the_pdf.pdf the_txt.txt

[iphitus]

On Arch, that same utility is in the poppler package.

[scarecrow]

...and since an old thread has been brought back, one can also use right now "pdfedit" which can take a pdf document, add/remove pages, manipulate images, and convert it to text, image(s), or different resolution pdf... pretty much an "Acrobat for *nix"- surely with less features, but not bad at all!