please run this code and tell me if it works?

It is same code as yours. Since I can't upload my pdf file, I have searched and found another pdf file it fails on. I don't know if it has to do with tables.

If you run u'r code on this, it will not work.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Data::Dumper;
use LWP::UserAgent;

my $pdf_filename="/tmp/file.pdf";
my $pdf_link = "http://investor.google.com/pdf/2010Q1_earnings_google.
+pdf";

$client = LWP::UserAgent->new();

my $capture = $client->get("$pdf_link", ":content_file" => "$pdf_filen
+ame");

convert_pdf_to_text();

sub convert_pdf_to_text
{
    use CAM::PDF;
    use CAM::PDF::PageText;

    my $pdf = CAM::PDF->new($pdf_filename) || die "$CAM::PDF::errstr\n
+";
    foreach (1..($pdf->numPages()))
    {
        my $x=CAM::PDF::PageText->render($pdf->getPageContentTree($_))
+;
        print "$x\n";
    }
}
[download]

As requested:

Took the trouble to actually download the cited .pdf; saved to my \pl_test dir.

Modified your script to use the .pdf from the local dir as above.

W2k; perl -v: v5.8.8 built (819) for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread.

Using PPM, d/loaded and installed from Bribes: CAM-PDF-1.52 & various prereqs.

>perl -c F:\_wo\pl_test\pdftest.pl
F:\_wo\pl_test\pdftest.pl syntax OK

>perl F:\_wo\pl_test\pdftest.pl
Invalid xref stream: could not decode objstream 68
[download]

Looks familiar. Sorry, 5.10.1/linux not avail; hot weather cooked that box rather thoroughly.

You're right---it doesn't work:); however, as I see it, the problem isn't with CAM::PDF but rather with the google pdf. I think that google is great for searching the web, but when it comes to anything else, it's not so good. I've tried the code with my own non-google pdf's and it works. Try this, and let me know if it works or not:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use CAM::PDF;
use LWP::UserAgent;

my $pdf_filename = '/root/Desktop/perl.pdf';
my $pdf_link = 'http://www.greenteapress.com/perl/perl.pdf';

my $client = LWP::UserAgent->new();

my $capture = $client->get("$pdf_link", ":content_file" => "$pdf_filen
+ame");

convert_pdf_to_text();

sub convert_pdf_to_text {
    use CAM::PDF::PageText;
    my $pdf_filename = '/root/Desktop/perl.pdf';
    my $pdf          = CAM::PDF->new($pdf_filename);
    my $y            = $pdf->getPageContentTree(1);
    print CAM::PDF::PageText->render($y);
}
[download]

Same procedure as in prior reply; print what appears to be the entire multi-page text.

the problem isn't with CAM::PDF but rather with the google pdf

In other words, the problem is with CAM::PDF, for example