How to extract image captions from a PDF file using perl

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

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Re: How to extract image captions from a PDF file using perl by MidLifeXis (Monsignor) on Nov 16, 2010 at 18:17 UTC
PDF modules on CPAN would probably be a good start. CAM::PDF, iirc, can do that (well, the image part - the caption is iffy). ~~Also see HTML::HTMLDoc. (what was I yammering here?)~~ --MidLifeXis	[reply]
Re: How to extract image captions from a PDF file using perl by LanX (Saint) on Nov 16, 2010 at 18:56 UTC
Normally captions have a separate font-setting, which should help identifying them, especially when located near to an image. See "Parsing PDFs by text position?" and included links for a start. HTH! Cheers Rolf	[reply]
Re: How to extract image captions from a PDF file using perl by chrestomanci (Priest) on Nov 17, 2010 at 10:01 UTC
Perhaps you could convert your PDF files to SVG using inkscape, and then parse the resultant SVG using one of the standard XML processing libraries. Inkscape has a command line mode that can do almost anything that you can do with the GUI. `inkscape -f Input_file.pdf -l Output_file.svg`	[reply] [d/l]