pdf

Extract and manipulate PDF content:

• Extract text with layout preservation
• Extract tables and parse structured data
• Fill PDF forms programmatically
• Merge multiple PDFs into a single document
• Split PDFs by pages or ranges
• Create PDFs from scratch with text, images, and graphics
• Add watermarks and annotations
• Extract and modify metadata (author, title, keywords)
• Add password protection and encryption
• Perform OCR on scanned documents
• Convert images to PDF
• Compress and optimize PDF files
• Extract images from PDFs
• Rotate and reorder pages

Install required libraries:

```bash

pip install pypdf pdfplumber reportlab PyMuPDF pdf2image pytesseract pillow

```

For detailed installation instructions including system dependencies, see:

• [Library Installation Guide](./references/library-installation.md)

pypdf: Basic operations (merge, split, rotate, metadata)

pdfplumber: Advanced text/table extraction with layout awareness

reportlab: Create PDFs from scratch (reports, invoices, documents)

PyMuPDF (fitz): Advanced manipulation, annotations, compression

pdf2image: Convert PDF pages to images (requires poppler)

pytesseract: OCR for scanned documents (requires tesseract)

Basic Extraction

```python

from pypdf import PdfReader

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")

for page in reader.pages:

text = page.extract_text()

print(text)

```

Layout-Aware Extraction

```python

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:

for page in pdf.pages:

text = page.extract_text()

words = page.extract_words() # With positioning

print(text)

```

Extract from Specific Region

```python

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:

page = pdf.pages[0]

bbox = (0, 0, 612, 100) # x0, y0, x1, y1

header = page.crop(bbox).extract_text()

```

For detailed text extraction methods including OCR fallback and encoding handling, see:

• [Text Extraction Reference](./references/text-extraction.md)

Extract All Tables

```python

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("report.pdf") as pdf:

for page in pdf.pages:

tables = page.extract_tables()

for table in tables:

print(table)

```

Advanced Table Detection

```python

table_settings = {

"vertical_strategy": "lines",

"horizontal_strategy": "lines",

"snap_tolerance": 3

}

tables = page.extract_tables(table_settings=table_settings)

```

For detailed table extraction strategies and data cleaning, see:

• [Table Extraction Reference](./references/table-extraction.md)

Fill Form Fields

```python

import fitz

doc = fitz.open("form.pdf")

for page in doc:

for widget in page.widgets():

if widget.field_name == "name":

widget.field_value = "John Doe"

widget.update()

doc.save("filled.pdf")

doc.close()

```

Extract Form Field Names

```python

doc = fitz.open("form.pdf")

for page in doc:

for widget in page.widgets():

print(f"{widget.field_name}: {widget.field_type_string}")

doc.close()

```

For form filling, flattening, and debugging, see:

• [PDF Operations Reference](./references/pdf-operations.md)

Merge PDFs

```python

from pypdf import PdfMerger

merger = PdfMerger()

for pdf in ["file1.pdf", "file2.pdf", "file3.pdf"]:

merger.append(pdf)

merger.write("merged.pdf")

merger.close()

```

Merge with Page Ranges

```python

merger = PdfMerger()

merger.append("doc1.pdf", pages=(0, 3)) # First 3 pages

merger.append("doc2.pdf") # All pages

merger.write("compiled.pdf")

merger.close()

```

Split into Individual Pages

```python

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")

for i, page in enumerate(reader.pages):

writer = PdfWriter()

writer.add_page(page)

with open(f"page_{i+1}.pdf", 'wb') as f:

writer.write(f)

```

For merging with bookmarks and splitting by size, see:

• [PDF Operations Reference](./references/pdf-operations.md)

Simple Text PDF

```python

from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter

c = canvas.Canvas("output.pdf", pagesize=letter)

c.setFont("Helvetica", 12)

c.drawString(50, 750, "Hello, World!")

c.save()

```

Styled Report

```python

from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph, Spacer

from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet

doc = SimpleDocTemplate("report.pdf")

styles = getSampleStyleSheet()

story = []

story.append(Paragraph("Report Title", styles['Title']))

story.append(Spacer(1, 12))

story.append(Paragraph("Content here", styles['BodyText']))

doc.build(story)

```

PDF with Table

```python

from reportlab.platypus import Table, TableStyle

from reportlab.lib import colors

data = [

['Product', 'Quantity', 'Price'],

['Widget A', '10', '$50'],

['Widget B', '5', '$75']

]

table = Table(data)

table.setStyle(TableStyle([

('BACKGROUND', (0, 0), (-1, 0), colors.grey),

('GRID', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 1, colors.black)

]))

```

For complete PDF creation workflows including images, multi-column layouts, and custom fonts, see:

• [PDF Creation Reference](./references/pdf-creation.md)

For practical examples:

• [Invoice Generator](./examples/invoice-generator.md)
• [Report Automation](./examples/report-automation.md)

Extract Metadata

```python

from pypdf import PdfReader

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")

metadata = reader.metadata

print(f"Title: {metadata.get('/Title')}")

print(f"Author: {metadata.get('/Author')}")

```

Modify Metadata

```python

from pypdf import PdfWriter

writer = PdfWriter()

for page in reader.pages:

writer.add_page(page)

writer.add_metadata({

'/Title': 'New Title',

'/Author': 'John Doe'

})

with open("updated.pdf", 'wb') as f:

writer.write(f)

```

Add Password Protection

```python

writer.encrypt(

user_password="user123",

owner_password="owner456",

algorithm="AES-256"

)

```

For detailed security operations and comprehensive metadata management, see:

• [Metadata, Security, and OCR Reference](./references/metadata-security-ocr.md)

Basic OCR

```python

from pdf2image import convert_from_path

import pytesseract

images = convert_from_path("scanned.pdf")

for i, image in enumerate(images):

text = pytesseract.image_to_string(image)

print(f"Page {i+1}:\n{text}")

```

Multi-Language OCR

```python

text = pytesseract.image_to_string(image, lang='eng+fra+deu')

```

For searchable PDF creation and OCR preprocessing, see:

• [Metadata, Security, and OCR Reference](./references/metadata-security-ocr.md)

Add Text Watermark

```python

import fitz

doc = fitz.open("document.pdf")

for page in doc:

page.insert_textbox(

page.rect,

"CONFIDENTIAL",

fontsize=50,

rotate=45,

opacity=0.3,

color=(0.7, 0.7, 0.7)

)

doc.save("watermarked.pdf")

doc.close()

```

Add Annotations

```python

page.add_highlight_annot(rect) # Highlight

page.add_text_annot(point, "Note") # Text note

page.add_underline_annot(rect) # Underline

```

For stamps and image watermarks, see:

• [Metadata, Security, and OCR Reference](./references/metadata-security-ocr.md)

Rotate Pages

```python

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")

writer = PdfWriter()

for page in reader.pages:

page.rotate(90)

writer.add_page(page)

with open("rotated.pdf", 'wb') as f:

writer.write(f)

```

Extract Images

```python

import fitz

doc = fitz.open("document.pdf")

for page_num in range(len(doc)):

page = doc[page_num]

for img_index, img in enumerate(page.get_images()):

xref = img[0]

base_image = doc.extract_image(xref)

with open(f"image_{page_num}_{img_index}.png", "wb") as f:

f.write(base_image["image"])

doc.close()

```

Convert Images to PDF

```python

from PIL import Image

from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas

c = canvas.Canvas("output.pdf")

for img_path in ["img1.jpg", "img2.jpg"]:

img = Image.open(img_path)

c.setPageSize(img.size)

c.drawImage(img_path, 0, 0, width=img.width, height=img.height)

c.showPage()

c.save()

```

For detailed page operations, see:

• [PDF Operations Reference](./references/pdf-operations.md)

Compress PDF

```python

import fitz

doc = fitz.open("large.pdf")

doc.save(

"optimized.pdf",

garbage=4,

deflate=True,

clean=True

)

doc.close()

```

Memory Management

Process large PDFs in chunks:

```python

from pypdf import PdfReader

import gc

reader = PdfReader("large.pdf")

for i, page in enumerate(reader.pages):

text = page.extract_text()

# Process text

if i % 10 == 0:

gc.collect()

```

Error Handling

Always handle encryption and errors:

```python

from pypdf import PdfReader

try:

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")

if reader.is_encrypted:

reader.decrypt(password)

for page in reader.pages:

text = page.extract_text()

except Exception as e:

print(f"Error: {e}")

```

OCR Fallback

Detect and handle scanned documents:

```python

import fitz

doc = fitz.open("document.pdf")

text = doc[0].get_text()

if not text.strip():

# Use OCR for scanned document

from pdf2image import convert_from_path

import pytesseract

images = convert_from_path("document.pdf")

text = pytesseract.image_to_string(images[0])

```

For comprehensive best practices, common pitfalls, and troubleshooting, see:

• [Best Practices and Common Pitfalls](./references/best-practices.md)

Scanned Documents: Text extraction returns empty for scanned PDFs. Use OCR (pytesseract).

Table Detection: Tables not detected correctly. Adjust table_settings strategies.

Encrypted PDFs: Operations fail. Check and decrypt with password first.

Form Fields: Can't find field names. Use debug helper to list all fields.

Memory Issues: Large PDFs cause crashes. Process in chunks with garbage collection.

Encoding Issues: Special characters corrupted. Handle with UTF-8 encoding explicitly.

For detailed solutions and debugging strategies, see:

• [Best Practices and Common Pitfalls](./references/best-practices.md)

Text Extraction:

• Simple: pypdf - page.extract_text()
• Advanced: pdfplumber - page.extract_text() + page.extract_words()

Table Extraction:

• Always use: pdfplumber - page.extract_tables()

PDF Creation:

• Use: reportlab - canvas.Canvas() or SimpleDocTemplate()

Advanced Operations:

• Use: PyMuPDF (fitz) - forms, annotations, compression

OCR:

• Use: pytesseract + pdf2image

Merging/Splitting:

• Use: pypdf - PdfMerger() and PdfWriter()

The skill includes helper scripts for common operations:

```bash

# See scripts directory for utilities

python scripts/pdf_helper.py --help

```

Comprehensive References:

• [Library Installation](./references/library-installation.md) - Setup and dependencies
• [Text Extraction](./references/text-extraction.md) - All extraction methods
• [Table Extraction](./references/table-extraction.md) - Table detection strategies
• [PDF Operations](./references/pdf-operations.md) - Forms, merge, split, pages
• [PDF Creation](./references/pdf-creation.md) - Creating PDFs from scratch
• [Metadata, Security, OCR](./references/metadata-security-ocr.md) - Advanced operations
• [Best Practices](./references/best-practices.md) - Pitfalls and solutions

Practical Examples:

• [Invoice Generator](./examples/invoice-generator.md) - Professional invoice templates
• [Report Automation](./examples/report-automation.md) - Automated report generation

When working with PDFs:

1. Choose the right library for your task (see Quick Reference)
2. Handle errors with try-except blocks
3. Check for encryption before processing
4. Use OCR fallback for scanned documents
5. Process large files in chunks to manage memory
6. Validate input files before operations
7. Close documents to free resources: doc.close()

For production use, always implement proper error handling, validate inputs, and test with various PDF types and versions.