How to read the text of a pdf file?

[Momergil]

Hello!

I already know how to read a text from a .txt file using QFile, QTextStream and so forth, but I don't know how to open a .pdf file and read its content. I tried to do it in the same way recently, and what I got was:

"%PDF-1.5
%µµµµ
1 0 obj
<</Type/Catalog/Pages 2 0 R/Lang(pt-BR) /StructTreeRoot 8 0 R/MarkInfo<</Marked true>>>>
endobj
2 0 obj
<</Type/Pages/Count 1/Kids[ 3 0 R] >>
endobj
3 0 obj
<</Type/Page/Parent 2 0 R/Resources<</Font<</F1 5 0 R>>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 595.2 841.92] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<</Type/Group/S/Transparency/CS/DeviceRGB>>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>>
endobj
4 0 obj
<</Filter/FlateDecode/Length 147>>
stream
xœM±
Â0„÷@ÞáÆ?C“üiÓ8”M«(²AÁÇ7YTnø8îƒÙ£ëÌ·#lßc#†$…Y3˜µmÎR0lN&¶Õu@^7é&…Å¥ÔFŠ…’ªxE'U3½Ÿªj讜#djé˜ÛÑ£€×Uq *H;)¦,+¯·ÚûÅ’/~[LsÄì_#ó
endstream
endobj
5 0 obj
<</Type/Font/Subtype/TrueType/Name/F1/BaseFont/Times#20New#20Roman/Encoding/WinAnsiEncoding/FontDescriptor 6 0 R/FirstChar 32/LastChar 120/Widths 14 0 R>>
endobj
6 0 obj
<</Type/FontDescriptor/FontName/Times#20New#20Roman/Flags 32/ItalicAngle 0/Ascent 891/Descent -216/CapHeight 693/AvgWidth 401/MaxWidth 2568/FontWeight 400/XHeight 250/Leading 42/StemV 40/FontBBox[ -568 -216 2000 693] >>
endobj
7 0 obj
<</Author(Martin)/Creator(þÿ

"%PDF-1.5
%µµµµ
1 0 obj
<</Type/Catalog/Pages 2 0 R/Lang(pt-BR) /StructTreeRoot 8 0 R/MarkInfo<</Marked true>>>>
endobj
2 0 obj
<</Type/Pages/Count 1/Kids[ 3 0 R] >>
endobj
3 0 obj
<</Type/Page/Parent 2 0 R/Resources<</Font<</F1 5 0 R>>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 595.2 841.92] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<</Type/Group/S/Transparency/CS/DeviceRGB>>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>>
endobj
4 0 obj
<</Filter/FlateDecode/Length 147>>
stream
xœM±
Â0„÷@ÞáÆ?C“üiÓ8”M«(²AÁÇ7YTnø8îƒÙ£ëÌ·#lßc#†$…Y3˜µmÎR0lN&¶Õu@^7é&…Å¥ÔFŠ…’ªxE'U3½Ÿªj讜#djé˜ÛÑ£€×Uq *H;)¦,+¯·ÚûÅ’/~[LsÄì_#ó
endstream
endobj
5 0 obj
<</Type/Font/Subtype/TrueType/Name/F1/BaseFont/Times#20New#20Roman/Encoding/WinAnsiEncoding/FontDescriptor 6 0 R/FirstChar 32/LastChar 120/Widths 14 0 R>>
endobj
6 0 obj
<</Type/FontDescriptor/FontName/Times#20New#20Roman/Flags 32/ItalicAngle 0/Ascent 891/Descent -216/CapHeight 693/AvgWidth 401/MaxWidth 2568/FontWeight 400/XHeight 250/Leading 42/StemV 40/FontBBox[ -568 -216 2000 693] >>
endobj
7 0 obj
<</Author(Martin)/Creator(þÿ

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while the text inside was "texto aqui".

So how do I open a .pdf file and read its content inside a Qt software?

Thanks!

Momergil

[ChrisW67]

Like you do when you are not using Qt... you use a third party library or utility, e.g. Poppler or PoDoFo, or you write your own based on the public PDF reference material. Qt does not contain any ability to interpret PDF files.

[Momergil]

Like you do when you are not using Qt... you use a third party library or utility, e.g. Poppler or PoDoFo, or you write your own based on the public PDF reference material. Qt does not contain any ability to interpret PDF files.

Hello Chris,

thanks very much.


God bless,

Momergil

[peterlee]

Did you mean to extract text from pdf files? I wonder whether there are any differences between pdf extraction and pdf to text conversion process? Whose way of processing is much simpler and faster?　Any suggestion will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.



Best regards,
Lee

[anda_skoa]

Running a converter tool is likely easier, as this just means running a child process and gathering its output or reading its result file.

Using a PDF library is more code but also potentially gives you information on paging, formatting, etc.

Cheers,
_