A fork of pdftotext from Xpdf, modified and compiled as a DLL to allow for text extraction of PDF in VB6.
Private Declare Function getNumPages Lib "pdftotext.dll" (ByVal lpFileName As String, Optional ByVal lpLogCallbackFunc As Long, Optional ByVal lpOwnerPassword As String, Optional ByVal lpUserPassword As String) As Integer
Private Declare Function extractText Lib "pdftotext.dll" (ByVal lpFileName As String, ByVal lpTextOutput As Long, Optional ByVal iFirstPage As Integer, Optional ByVal iLastPage As Integer, Optional ByVal lpTextOutEnc As String, Optional ByVal lpLayout As String, Optional ByVal lpLogCallbackFunc As Long, Optional ByVal lpOwnerPassword As String, Optional ByVal lpUserPassword As String) As Integer
Private Declare Function extractTextSlice Lib "pdftotext.dll" (ByVal lpFileName As String, ByVal lpTextOutput As Long, ByVal iPage As Integer, ByVal iSliceX As Integer, ByVal iSliceY As Integer, ByVal iSliceW As Integer, ByVal iSliceH As Integer, Optional ByVal lpTextOutEnc As String, Optional ByVal lpLayout As String, Optional ByVal lpLogCallbackFunc As Long, Optional ByVal lpOwnerPassword As String, Optional ByVal lpUserPassword As String) As Integer
Private Declare Function getPageSize Lib "pdftotext.dll" (ByVal lpFileName As String, ByVal iPage as Integer, ByRef dWidth as Double, ByRef dHeight as Double, Optional ByVal lpLogCallbackFunc As Long, Optional ByVal lpOwnerPassword As String, Optional ByVal lpUserPassword As String) As Integer
Dim strOutput as String
Dim Width as Double, Height as Double
pages = getNumPages("filename.pdf", AddressOf LogCallback, "pass", "anotherpass")
ret = extractText("filename.pdf", VarPtr(strOutput), 1, 3, "UTF-8", "rawOrder", AddressOf LogCallback, "pass", "anotherpass")
ret = extractTextSlice("filename.pdf", VarPtr(strOutput), 1, 207, 100, 300, 200, "UTF-8", "table", AddressOf LogCallback, "pass", "anotherpass")
ret = getPageSize("filename.pdf", 1, Width, Height, AddressOf LogCallback, "pass", "anotherpass")
' Must be in a standard module (not Form or Class)
Public Sub LogCallback(ByVal str As String)
Debug.Print "Log: " & str
End SubAlmost all arguments are optional. For example, the following works:
Dim strOutput as String
Dim Width as Double, Height as Double
pages = getNumPages("filename.pdf")
ret = extractText("filename.pdf", VarPtr(strOutput))
ret = extractTextSlice("filename.pdf", VarPtr(strOutput), 1, 207, 100, 300, 200) 'However, you probably want to use the "table" layout
ret = getPageSize("filename.pdf", 1, Width, Height)- UTF-8 (default)
- Latin1
- ASCII7
- Symbol
- ZapfDingbats
- UCS-2
| lpLayout | Description |
|---|---|
| NULL (default) | format into reading order |
| rawOrder | keep strings in content stream order |
| table | similar to PhysLayout, but optimized for tables |
| phys | maintain original physical layout |
| simple | simple one-column physical layout |
| simple2 | simple one-column physical layout (alternative) |
| linePrinter | strict fixed-pitch/height layout |
git clone https://github.com/peterdey/xpdf-dll
cd xpdf
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cd ..
cmake --build build --config releaseOutput is in build/xpdf/Release/pdftotext.dll
- Visual Studio 2019
- cmake version 3.21.3
Xpdf, and therefore this project, is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2 or 3. This means that you can distribute derivatives of Xpdf under any of the following:
- GPL v2 only
- GPL v3 only
- GPL v2 or v3
The Xpdf source package includes the text of both GPL versions: COPYING for GPL v2, COPYING3 for GPL v3.
Please note that Xpdf is NOT licensed under "any later version" of the GPL, as I have no idea what those versions will look like.
If you are redistributing unmodified copies of Xpdf (or any of the Xpdf tools) in binary form, you need to include all of the documentation: README, man pages (or help files), COPYING, and COPYING3.
If you want to incorporate the Xpdf source code into another program (or create a modified version of Xpdf), and you are distributing that program, you have two options: release your program under the GPL (v2 and/or v3), or purchase a commercial Xpdf source license.
If you're interested in commercial licensing, please see the Glyph & Cog web site:
http://www.glyphandcog.com/
Xpdf uses the following libraries:
- FreeType [http://www.freetype.org/]
- libpng [http://www.libpng.com/pub/png/libpng.html] (used by pdftohtml and pdftopng)
- zlib [http://zlib.net/] (used by pdftohtml)