Converting PDF to plain text

ahmad has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello Monks,

actually i want to convert PDF files into TXT files , to be able to convert it later to work in MySQL Database

PDF files i am trying to convert contain tables Like :

and i want to exratct each value put in txt file to insert it in a DB

i think i wrote too much with out telling you what is my problem

i want a way to convert the whole file from PDF to TXT , and i need it to support Arabic Language , or just Extract the values from the tables

Regards,
ahmad

2005-10-11 Retitled by g0n, as per Monastery guidelines
Original title: 'Converting PDF Files ? How To!'

Comment on Converting PDF to plain text

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Re: Converting PDF to plain text by marto (Cardinal) on Oct 11, 2005 at 13:24 UTC
ahmad, You may want to do a Super Search on this topic. However, if you are running linux I would suggest using the utility pdftotext. I am not sure how this will cope with the Arabic language. Read how to extract text from PDF. Hope this helps Martin	[reply]
Re: Converting PDF to plain text by jfroebe (Parson) on Oct 11, 2005 at 14:41 UTC
Marto is correct with the xpdf recommendation. If I were you, I would store text in XML format so that you know where various emphasis and place markers are (images, etc). You would be able to extract the XML out and format it for TXT, HTML, etc. Jason L. Froebe Team Sybase member No one has seen what you have seen, and until that happens, we're all going to think that you're nuts. - Jack O'Neil, Stargate SG-1	[reply]
Re: Converting PDF to plain text by ahmad (Hermit) on Oct 12, 2005 at 21:54 UTC
Thanks for your replyes i have tryed all the solutions you gave me but it did not work with arabic language even adobe online converter did not work but i have installed the latest Acrobat reader and tryed to copy the whole document and past it in word , and it works ... even though the output was not good enough some letters mis-spilled(Converted into another letters) if anyone has any sugesstion about this problem please post it over here , beacuse i really need it Thanks, ahmad	[reply]