nawalgupta / pdf_parser_c

Parse pdf file using libpoppler

This program extract pdf file, save data to json file to use later. It use poppler as PDF parser.

Following steps of setup instructions is for reference, adjust yourself with your Linux distro and folder structure to not mess up the source code directory.

PDF Implementation Reference

Step 1:

• checkout pdf_reader source code

Step 2:

• install poppler-data and poppler at freedesktop git
  • checkout poppler-data
  • install poppler-data
  • checkout poppler
  • Due to bug pdftotext only outputs first page content with -bbox-layout option, apply patch to fix: git apply poppler.patch, poppler.patch is in pdf_reader checkout folder
  • run cmake using following configuration: cmake poppler_checkout_directory -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DENABLE_XPDF_HEADERS=ON
  • (optional) install packages: sudo apt install libfreetype6-dev libfontconfig1-dev libnss3-dev libjpeg-dev libopenjp2-7-dev or config to disable all of it. You can use cmake-gui and disable all additional features easily
  • make test and make install

Step 3:

• checkout, config, make and install nlohmann/json

Step 4:

• config and make pdf_reader

Done!

Run with

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib64 pdf_reader file.pdf

Or in Ubuntu (look at poppler install output for more detail)

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib pdf_reader file.pdf