PDFLayoutTextStripper

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JavaStaleTested

Subclass of Apache PDFBox's own `PDFTextStripper` specifically built to preserve a PDF's original layout and spatial positioning when converting it to plain text — where PDFBox's default stripper reflows text into reading order and loses column/table alignment, this one keeps whitespace positioned to match the source layout. Makes it noticeably easier to extract structured data such as tables and form content from the resulting plain text, at the cost of extra leading whitespace in the output.

Sample Results

Real output from running this tool against a sample PDF, as part of PDFog's open-source PDF tooling benchmark.

Input: sample-brochure.pdf

Loading PDF…

java -cp "bin/classes:bin/PDFLayoutTextStripper-2.2.4.jar:bin/pdfbox-2.0.24.jar:bin/fontbox-2.0.24.jar:bin/commons-logging-1.2.jar" \
PdfLayoutStripperExtract "sample-brochure.pdf" "sample-brochure--pdflayouttextstripper-java.txt"

Output: sample-brochure--pdflayouttextstripper-java.txt

                                                                                                                                                    
       221  Queen      Street,   Melbourne       VIC   3000                                                                                         
       apartment       2       1       1                                                                                  $1,000,000                
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                  Prince   Cascading                
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                       1234-5678                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                 Additional   Information                           
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                 Land Size                 1171m2                   
                                                                                                 House  Size               -                        
                                                                                                 Map  Ref.                 -                        
                                                                                                 Energy Rating             -                        
                                                                                                 Council Rates             -                        
                                                                                                 Water Rates               -                        
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
       WARM     BEAUTIFUL       APARTMENT                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    
       Lorem  ipsum  dolor  sit  amet,  consectetur  adipiscing  elit.  Nunc  turpis  ante,  fermentum  ac                                          
       cursus vitae,  tempus  vel  ipsum.  Proin  justo lorem,  mattis sed  pharetra  ac,  vehicula                                                 
       tincidunt  sem.  Mauris  est leo,  scelerisque  at  gravida vel,  interdum quis  felis.  Nullam                                              
       nibh magna,  consectetur eu aliquet ac,  sollicitudin  eget nisl. Praesent  nibh  tellus,                                                    
       elementum   ut  scelerisque  a, pretium  eget  libero.  Morbi sodales  tincidunt  turpis  et                                                 
       sagittis.  Aenean  sed  dictum  nisi.                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                    
       Phasellus quis metus  lectus.  Donec  varius  pellentesque  purus,  et  ornare  enim                                                         
       pellentesque sed. Morbi quam   augue, pulvinar sit  amet  mollis  in, euismod  porta orci.                                                   
       Quisque  rutrum egestas  enim ac viverra.  Mauris  blandit  tristique  feugiat.  Ut  molestie                                                
       molestie turpis  sed  elementum.  Lorem  ipsum  dolor  sit amet,  consectetur  adipiscing  elit.                                             
       Maecenas   in  nunc  odio.  Nunc  sagittis,  mi  ut ornare  pellentesque,  orci  augue  dapibus                                              
       est,  vel  rutrum  elit orci  vel  augue.