PDF Processing Guide

Overview

This guide covers essential PDF processing operations using Python libraries and command-line tools. For advanced features, JavaScript libraries, and detailed examples, see reference.md. If you need to fill out a PDF form, read forms.md and follow its instructions.

Quick Start

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

Read a PDF

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf") print(f"Pages: {len(reader.pages)}")

Extract text

text = "" for page in reader.pages: text += page.extract_text()

Python Libraries

pypdf - Basic Operations

Merge PDFs

from pypdf import PdfWriter, PdfReader

writer = PdfWriter() for pdf_file in ["doc1.pdf", "doc2.pdf", "doc3.pdf"]: reader = PdfReader(pdf_file) for page in reader.pages: writer.add_page(page)

with open("merged.pdf", "wb") as output: writer.write(output)

Split PDF

reader = PdfReader("input.pdf") for i, page in enumerate(reader.pages): writer = PdfWriter() writer.add_page(page) with open(f"page_{i+1}.pdf", "wb") as output: writer.write(output)

Extract Metadata

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf") meta = reader.metadata print(f"Title: {meta.title}") print(f"Author: {meta.author}") print(f"Subject: {meta.subject}") print(f"Creator: {meta.creator}")

Rotate Pages

reader = PdfReader("input.pdf") writer = PdfWriter()

page = reader.pages[0] page.rotate(90) # Rotate 90 degrees clockwise writer.add_page(page)

with open("rotated.pdf", "wb") as output: writer.write(output)

pdfplumber - Text and Table Extraction

Extract Text with Layout

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf: for page in pdf.pages: text = page.extract_text() print(text)

Extract Tables

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf: for i, page in enumerate(pdf.pages): tables = page.extract_tables() for j, table in enumerate(tables): print(f"Table {j+1} on page {i+1}:") for row in table: print(row)

Advanced Table Extraction

import pandas as pd

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf: all_tables = [] for page in pdf.pages: tables = page.extract_tables() for table in tables: if table: # Check if table is not empty df = pd.DataFrame(table[1:], columns=table[0]) all_tables.append(df)

Combine all tables

if all_tables: combined_df = pd.concat(all_tables, ignore_index=True) combined_df.to_excel("extracted_tables.xlsx", index=False)

reportlab - Create PDFs

Basic PDF Creation

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas

c = canvas.Canvas("hello.pdf", pagesize=letter) width, height = letter

Add text

c.drawString(100, height - 100, "Hello World!") c.drawString(100, height - 120, "This is a PDF created with reportlab")

Add a line

c.line(100, height - 140, 400, height - 140)

Save

c.save()

Create PDF with Multiple Pages

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph, Spacer, PageBreak from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet

doc = SimpleDocTemplate("report.pdf", pagesize=letter) styles = getSampleStyleSheet() story = []

Add content

title = Paragraph("Report Title", styles['Title']) story.append(title) story.append(Spacer(1, 12))

body = Paragraph("This is the body of the report. " * 20, styles['Normal']) story.append(body) story.append(PageBreak())

Page 2

story.append(Paragraph("Page 2", styles['Heading1'])) story.append(Paragraph("Content for page 2", styles['Normal']))

Build PDF

doc.build(story)

Korean Font Support (한글 폰트 지원)

CRITICAL: reportlab은 기본적으로 한글을 지원하지 않습니다. 한글을 사용하려면 시스템의 한글 폰트를 찾아서 등록해야 합니다.

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas from reportlab.pdfbase import pdfmetrics from reportlab.pdfbase.ttfonts import TTFont import platform import os

def get_korean_font_path(): """시스템의 한글 폰트 경로를 찾습니다.""" system = platform.system()

if system == 'Darwin':  # macOS
    fonts = [
        '/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/AppleGothic.ttf',
        '/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/AppleMyungjo.ttf',
        '/Library/Fonts/NanumGothic.ttf'
    ]
elif system == 'Windows':
    fonts = [
        'C:\\Windows\\Fonts\\malgun.ttf',  # 맑은 고딕
        'C:\\Windows\\Fonts\\gulim.ttc',   # 굴림
        'C:\\Windows\\Fonts\\batang.ttc'   # 바탕
    ]
else:  # Linux
    fonts = [
        '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/nanum/NanumGothic.ttf',
        '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/nanum/NanumMyeongjo.ttf',
        '/usr/share/fonts/opentype/noto/NotoSansCJK-Regular.ttc'
    ]

# 존재하는 첫 번째 폰트 반환
for font_path in fonts:
    if os.path.exists(font_path):
        return font_path

raise FileNotFoundError("한글 폰트를 찾을 수 없습니다. 시스템에 한글 폰트를 설치해주세요.")

한글 폰트 등록

korean_font_path = get_korean_font_path() pdfmetrics.registerFont(TTFont('KoreanFont', korean_font_path))

PDF 생성

c = canvas.Canvas("korean.pdf", pagesize=letter) width, height = letter

한글 폰트 설정

c.setFont('KoreanFont', 12)

한글 텍스트 추가

c.drawString(100, height - 100, "안녕하세요! 한글 PDF 생성 테스트입니다.") c.drawString(100, height - 120, "시스템의 한글 폰트를 자동으로 찾아서 사용합니다.")

c.save()

Platypus (고급 레이아웃)에서 한글 사용:

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph, Spacer from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet, ParagraphStyle from reportlab.pdfbase import pdfmetrics from reportlab.pdfbase.ttfonts import TTFont import platform import os

def get_korean_font_path(): """시스템의 한글 폰트 경로를 찾습니다.""" system = platform.system()

if system == 'Darwin':  # macOS
    fonts = [
        '/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/AppleGothic.ttf',
        '/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/AppleMyungjo.ttf',
        '/Library/Fonts/NanumGothic.ttf'
    ]
elif system == 'Windows':
    fonts = [
        'C:\\Windows\\Fonts\\malgun.ttf',  # 맑은 고딕
        'C:\\Windows\\Fonts\\gulim.ttc',   # 굴림
        'C:\\Windows\\Fonts\\batang.ttc'   # 바탕
    ]
else:  # Linux
    fonts = [
        '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/nanum/NanumGothic.ttf',
        '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/nanum/NanumMyeongjo.ttf',
        '/usr/share/fonts/opentype/noto/NotoSansCJK-Regular.ttc'
    ]

for font_path in fonts:
    if os.path.exists(font_path):
        return font_path

raise FileNotFoundError("한글 폰트를 찾을 수 없습니다.")

한글 폰트 등록

korean_font_path = get_korean_font_path() pdfmetrics.registerFont(TTFont('KoreanFont', korean_font_path))

한글용 스타일 생성

styles = getSampleStyleSheet() korean_style = ParagraphStyle( 'Korean', parent=styles['Normal'], fontName='KoreanFont', fontSize=12, leading=18 )

korean_title = ParagraphStyle( 'KoreanTitle', parent=styles['Title'], fontName='KoreanFont', fontSize=24, leading=30 )

PDF 생성

doc = SimpleDocTemplate("korean_report.pdf", pagesize=letter) story = []

한글 콘텐츠 추가

title = Paragraph("한글 리포트 제목", korean_title) story.append(title) story.append(Spacer(1, 12))

body = Paragraph("이것은 한글로 작성된 본문입니다. 시스템의 한글 폰트를 자동으로 찾아서 사용합니다.", korean_style) story.append(body)

doc.build(story)

IMPORTANT:

• 한글 텍스트가 포함된 PDF를 생성할 때는 반드시 위의 get_korean_font_path() 함수를 사용하여 한글 폰트를 등록해야 합니다.

• Canvas 사용 시: c.setFont('KoreanFont', font_size)

• Platypus 사용 시: ParagraphStyle 에서 fontName='KoreanFont' 지정

Command-Line Tools

pdftotext (poppler-utils)

Extract text

pdftotext input.pdf output.txt

Extract text preserving layout

pdftotext -layout input.pdf output.txt

Extract specific pages

pdftotext -f 1 -l 5 input.pdf output.txt # Pages 1-5

qpdf

Merge PDFs

qpdf --empty --pages file1.pdf file2.pdf -- merged.pdf

Split pages

qpdf input.pdf --pages . 1-5 -- pages1-5.pdf qpdf input.pdf --pages . 6-10 -- pages6-10.pdf

Rotate pages

qpdf input.pdf output.pdf --rotate=+90:1 # Rotate page 1 by 90 degrees

Remove password

qpdf --password=mypassword --decrypt encrypted.pdf decrypted.pdf

pdftk (if available)

Merge

pdftk file1.pdf file2.pdf cat output merged.pdf

Split

pdftk input.pdf burst

Rotate

pdftk input.pdf rotate 1east output rotated.pdf

Common Tasks

Extract Text from Scanned PDFs

Requires: pip install pytesseract pdf2image

import pytesseract from pdf2image import convert_from_path

Convert PDF to images

images = convert_from_path('scanned.pdf')

OCR each page

text = "" for i, image in enumerate(images): text += f"Page {i+1}:\n" text += pytesseract.image_to_string(image) text += "\n\n"

print(text)

Add Watermark

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

Create watermark (or load existing)

watermark = PdfReader("watermark.pdf").pages[0]

Apply to all pages

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf") writer = PdfWriter()

for page in reader.pages: page.merge_page(watermark) writer.add_page(page)

with open("watermarked.pdf", "wb") as output: writer.write(output)

Extract Images

Using pdfimages (poppler-utils)

pdfimages -j input.pdf output_prefix

This extracts all images as output_prefix-000.jpg, output_prefix-001.jpg, etc.

Password Protection

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

reader = PdfReader("input.pdf") writer = PdfWriter()

for page in reader.pages: writer.add_page(page)

Add password

writer.encrypt("userpassword", "ownerpassword")

with open("encrypted.pdf", "wb") as output: writer.write(output)

Quick Reference

Task Best Tool Command/Code

Merge PDFs pypdf writer.add_page(page)

Split PDFs pypdf One page per file

Extract text pdfplumber page.extract_text()

Extract tables pdfplumber page.extract_tables()

Create PDFs reportlab Canvas or Platypus

Command line merge qpdf qpdf --empty --pages ...

OCR scanned PDFs pytesseract Convert to image first

Fill PDF forms pdf-lib or pypdf (see forms.md) See forms.md

Next Steps

• For advanced pypdfium2 usage, see reference.md

• For JavaScript libraries (pdf-lib), see reference.md

• If you need to fill out a PDF form, follow the instructions in forms.md

• For troubleshooting guides, see reference.md