PDF Extraction Skill

Overview

This skill enables precise extraction of text, tables, and metadata from PDF documents using pdfplumber - the go-to library for PDF data extraction. Unlike basic PDF readers, pdfplumber provides detailed character-level positioning, accurate table detection, and visual debugging.

How to Use

Provide the PDF file you want to extract from
Specify what you need: text, tables, images, or metadata
I'll generate pdfplumber code and execute it

Example prompts:

"Extract all tables from this financial report"
"Get text from pages 5-10 of this document"
"Find and extract the invoice total from this PDF"
"Convert this PDF table to CSV/Excel"

Domain Knowledge

pdfplumber Fundamentals

import pdfplumber

# Open PDF
with pdfplumber.open('document.pdf') as pdf:
    # Access pages
    first_page = pdf.pages[0]
    
    # Document metadata
    print(pdf.metadata)
    
    # Number of pages
    print(len(pdf.pages))

PDF Structure

PDF Document
├── metadata (title, author, creation date)
├── pages[]
│   ├── chars (individual characters with position)
│   ├── words (grouped characters)
│   ├── lines (horizontal/vertical lines)
│   ├── rects (rectangles)
│   ├── curves (bezier curves)
│   └── images (embedded images)
└── outline (bookmarks/TOC)

Text Extraction

Basic Text

with pdfplumber.open('document.pdf') as pdf:
    # Single page
    text = pdf.pages[0].extract_text()
    
    # All pages
    full_text = ''
    for page in pdf.pages:
        full_text += page.extract_text() or ''

Advanced Text Options

# With layout preservation
text = page.extract_text(
    x_tolerance=3,      # Horizontal tolerance for grouping
    y_tolerance=3,      # Vertical tolerance
    layout=True,        # Preserve layout
    x_density=7.25,     # Chars per unit width
    y_density=13        # Chars per unit height
)

# Extract words with positions
words = page.extract_words(
    x_tolerance=3,
    y_tolerance=3,
    keep_blank_chars=False,
    use_text_flow=False
)

# Each word includes: text, x0, top, x1, bottom, etc.
for word in words:
    print(f"{word['text']} at ({word['x0']}, {word['top']})")

Character-Level Access

# Get all characters
chars = page.chars

for char in chars:
    print(f"'{char['text']}' at ({char['x0']}, {char['top']})")
    print(f"  Font: {char['fontname']}, Size: {char['size']}")

Table Extraction

Basic Table Extraction

with pdfplumber.open('report.pdf') as pdf:
    page = pdf.pages[0]
    
    # Extract all tables
    tables = page.extract_tables()
    
    for i, table in enumerate(tables):
        print(f"Table {i+1}:")
        for row in table:
            print(row)

Advanced Table Settings

# Custom table detection
table_settings = {
    "vertical_strategy": "lines",      # or "text", "explicit"
    "horizontal_strategy": "lines",
    "explicit_vertical_lines": [],     # Custom line positions
    "explicit_horizontal_lines": [],
    "snap_tolerance": 3,
    "snap_x_tolerance": 3,
    "snap_y_tolerance": 3,
    "join_tolerance": 3,
    "edge_min_length": 3,
    "min_words_vertical": 3,
    "min_words_horizontal": 1,
    "intersection_tolerance": 3,
    "text_tolerance": 3,
    "text_x_tolerance": 3,
    "text_y_tolerance": 3,
}

tables = page.extract_tables(table_settings)

Table Finding

# Find tables (without extracting)
table_finder = page.find_tables()

for table in table_finder:
    print(f"Table at: {table.bbox}")  # (x0, top, x1, bottom)
    
    # Extract specific table
    data = table.extract()

Visual Debugging

# Create visual debug image
im = page.to_image(resolution=150)

# Draw detected objects
im.draw_rects(page.chars)        # Character bounding boxes
im.draw_rects(page.words)        # Word bounding boxes
im.draw_lines(page.lines)        # Lines
im.draw_rects(page.rects)        # Rectangles

# Save debug image
im.save('debug.png')

# Debug tables
im.reset()
im.debug_tablefinder()
im.save('table_debug.png')

Cropping and Filtering

Crop to Region

# Define bounding box (x0, top, x1, bottom)
bbox = (0, 0, 300, 200)

# Crop page
cropped = page.crop(bbox)

# Extract from cropped area
text = cropped.extract_text()
tables = cropped.extract_tables()

Filter by Position

# Filter characters by region
def within_bbox(obj, bbox):
    x0, top, x1, bottom = bbox
    return (obj['x0'] >= x0 and obj['x1'] <= x1 and
            obj['top'] >= top and obj['bottom'] <= bottom)

bbox = (100, 100, 400, 300)
filtered_chars = [c for c in page.chars if within_bbox(c, bbox)]

Filter by Font

# Get text by font
def extract_by_font(page, font_name):
    chars = [c for c in page.chars if font_name in c['fontname']]
    return ''.join(c['text'] for c in chars)

# Extract bold text (often "Bold" in font name)
bold_text = extract_by_font(page, 'Bold')

# Extract by size
large_chars = [c for c in page.chars if c['size'] > 14]

Metadata and Structure

with pdfplumber.open('document.pdf') as pdf:
    # Document metadata
    meta = pdf.metadata
    print(f"Title: {meta.get('Title')}")
    print(f"Author: {meta.get('Author')}")
    print(f"Created: {meta.get('CreationDate')}")
    
    # Page info
    for i, page in enumerate(pdf.pages):
        print(f"Page {i+1}: {page.width} x {page.height}")
        print(f"  Rotation: {page.rotation}")

Best Practices

Debug Visually: Use to_image() to understand PDF structure
Tune Table Settings: Adjust tolerances for your specific PDF
Handle Scanned PDFs: Use OCR first (this skill is for native text)
Process Page by Page: For large PDFs, avoid loading all at once
Check for Text: Some PDFs are images - verify text exists

Common Patterns

Extract All Tables to DataFrames

import pandas as pd

def pdf_tables_to_dataframes(pdf_path):
    """Extract all tables from PDF as pandas DataFrames."""
    dfs = []
    
    with pdfplumber.open(pdf_path) as pdf:
        for i, page in enumerate(pdf.pages):
            tables = page.extract_tables()
            
            for j, table in enumerate(tables):
                if table and len(table) > 1:
                    # First row as header
                    df = pd.DataFrame(table[1:], columns=table[0])
                    df['_page'] = i + 1
                    df['_table'] = j + 1
                    dfs.append(df)
    
    return dfs

Extract Specific Region

def extract_invoice_amount(pdf_path):
    """Extract amount from typical invoice layout."""
    with pdfplumber.open(pdf_path) as pdf:
        page = pdf.pages[0]
        
        # Search for "Total" and get nearby numbers
        words = page.extract_words()
        
        for i, word in enumerate(words):
            if 'total' in word['text'].lower():
                # Look at next few words
                for next_word in words[i+1:i+5]:
                    text = next_word['text'].replace(',', '').replace('$', '')
                    try:
                        return float(text)
                    except ValueError:
                        continue
    
    return None

Multi-column Layout

def extract_columns(page, num_columns=2):
    """Extract text from multi-column layout."""
    width = page.width
    col_width = width / num_columns
    
    columns = []
    for i in range(num_columns):
        x0 = i * col_width
        x1 = (i + 1) * col_width
        
        cropped = page.crop((x0, 0, x1, page.height))
        columns.append(cropped.extract_text())
    
    return columns

Examples

Example 1: Financial Report Table Extraction

import pdfplumber
import pandas as pd

def extract_financial_tables(pdf_path):
    """Extract tables from financial report and save to Excel."""
    
    with pdfplumber.open(pdf_path) as pdf:
        all_tables = []
        
        for page_num, page in enumerate(pdf.pages):
            # Debug: save table visualization
            im = page.to_image()
            im.debug_tablefinder()
            im.save(f'debug_page_{page_num+1}.png')
            
            # Extract tables
            tables = page.extract_tables({
                "vertical_strategy": "lines",
                "horizontal_strategy": "lines",
                "snap_tolerance": 5,
            })
            
            for table in tables:
                if table and len(table) > 1:
                    # Clean data
                    clean_table = []
                    for row in table:
                        clean_row = [cell.strip() if cell else '' for cell in row]
                        clean_table.append(clean_row)
                    
                    df = pd.DataFrame(clean_table[1:], columns=clean_table[0])
                    df['Source Page'] = page_num + 1
                    all_tables.append(df)
        
        # Save to Excel with multiple sheets
        with pd.ExcelWriter('extracted_tables.xlsx') as writer:
            for i, df in enumerate(all_tables):
                df.to_excel(writer, sheet_name=f'Table_{i+1}', index=False)
        
        return all_tables

tables = extract_financial_tables('annual_report.pdf')
print(f"Extracted {len(tables)} tables")

Example 2: Invoice Data Extraction

import pdfplumber
import re
from datetime import datetime

def extract_invoice_data(pdf_path):
    """Extract structured data from invoice PDF."""
    
    data = {
        'invoice_number': None,
        'date': None,
        'total': None,
        'line_items': []
    }
    
    with pdfplumber.open(pdf_path) as pdf:
        page = pdf.pages[0]
        text = page.extract_text()
        
        # Extract invoice number
        inv_match = re.search(r'Invoice\s*#?\s*:?\s*(\w+)', text, re.IGNORECASE)
        if inv_match:
            data['invoice_number'] = inv_match.group(1)
        
        # Extract date
        date_match = re.search(r'Date\s*:?\s*(\d{1,2}[/-]\d{1,2}[/-]\d{2,4})', text)
        if date_match:
            data['date'] = date_match.group(1)
        
        # Extract total
        total_match = re.search(r'Total\s*:?\s*\$?([\d,]+\.?\d*)', text, re.IGNORECASE)
        if total_match:
            data['total'] = float(total_match.group(1).replace(',', ''))
        
        # Extract line items from table
        tables = page.extract_tables()
        for table in tables:
            if table and any('description' in str(row).lower() for row in table[:2]):
                # Found line items table
                for row in table[1:]:  # Skip header
                    if row and len(row) >= 3:
                        data['line_items'].append({
                            'description': row[0],
                            'quantity': row[1] if len(row) > 1 else None,
                            'amount': row[-1]
                        })
    
    return data

invoice = extract_invoice_data('invoice.pdf')
print(f"Invoice #{invoice['invoice_number']}")
print(f"Total: ${invoice['total']}")

Example 3: Resume/CV Parser

import pdfplumber

def parse_resume(pdf_path):
    """Extract structured sections from resume."""
    
    with pdfplumber.open(pdf_path) as pdf:
        full_text = ''
        for page in pdf.pages:
            full_text += (page.extract_text() or '') + '\n'
        
        # Common resume sections
        sections = {
            'contact': '',
            'summary': '',
            'experience': '',
            'education': '',
            'skills': ''
        }
        
        # Split by common headers
        import re
        section_patterns = {
            'summary': r'(summary|objective|profile)',
            'experience': r'(experience|employment|work history)',
            'education': r'(education|academic)',
            'skills': r'(skills|competencies|technical)'
        }
        
        lines = full_text.split('\n')
        current_section = 'contact'
        
        for line in lines:
            line_lower = line.lower().strip()
            
            # Check if line is a section header
            for section, pattern in section_patterns.items():
                if re.match(pattern, line_lower):
                    current_section = section
                    break
            
            sections[current_section] += line + '\n'
        
        return sections

resume = parse_resume('resume.pdf')
print("Skills:", resume['skills'])

Limitations

Cannot extract from scanned/image PDFs (use OCR first)
Complex layouts may need manual tuning
Some PDF encryption types not supported
Embedded fonts may affect text extraction
No direct PDF editing capability

Installation

pip install pdfplumber

# For image debugging (optional)
pip install Pillow

pdf-extraction