AgentSkillsCN

pdftotext

使用 pdftotext CLI（来自 poppler-utils）从 PDF 中提取文本。速度快、可靠性高，输出纯文本内容。

SKILL.md
--- frontmatter
name: pdftotext
description: Extract text from PDF using pdftotext CLI (poppler-utils). Fast, reliable, plain text output.

pdftotext

Extract plain text from PDF files using the pdftotext command-line utility.

When to Use

  • •For very large PDFs where speed is a priority
  • •When you only need raw text without markdown formatting
  • •For scanned PDFs with embedded text layers

Basic Usage

bash
# Extract text to a file
pdftotext input.pdf output_pdftotext.txt

# Extract text to stdout
pdftotext input.pdf -

# Maintain original physical layout (useful for tables/columns)
pdftotext -layout input.pdf output_pdftotext.txt

Options

OptionDescription
-f <int>First page to convert
-l <int>Last page to convert
-layoutMaintain original physical layout
-rawKeep strings in content stream order
-nopgbrkDon't insert page breaks between pages
-enc <string>Output text encoding (e.g., UTF-8)

Examples

bash
# Extract pages 1-5 only
pdftotext -f 1 -l 5 input.pdf output_pdftotext.txt

# Preserve layout for tables
pdftotext -layout input.pdf output_pdftotext.txt

# UTF-8 encoding
pdftotext -enc UTF-8 input.pdf output_pdftotext.txt

Notes

  • •Part of poppler-utils package
  • •Install: brew install poppler (macOS) or apt install poppler-utils (Linux)
  • •Output is plain text (.txt), not markdown