Extracting text from PDF. No really

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

Before you copy-paste a Super Search response, hear me out.

This question has been asked many times : how do you extract text from a PDF document? The answer is always "use CAM::PDF". And believe me, I've tried.

I have never yet seen it produce anything usable. Instead, it produces a string of meaningless characters. I've tried using the included utility getpdftext.pl on various PDFs, including a very simple one created from Open Office, and the result is always meaningless jumble.

Take this PDF for example. It is PDF version 1.3, not encrypted and not optimized. getpdftext.pl produces this:

7A P6. A.X+"NP>. +CRAPZ +CRMP + Q _ JU A ^0 A. GG e + [ m + /? ++Z @7>
+>.M 6C@.N >7@7P.- + Q _ JU _ Z /
_ Z" .-.A KMCK.MP7.N >7@7P.- - +8+Z" _ Z / K # ^ w ++"JZ? & JZ / G+ _m
+ ^ > +U _ // + #? JQQ m +G + _ # " _ // G+ A + ? w_ &/ Q+ 8 m^Z P A Z
++ + ^ 8 Z /A + ^ 8#/ _ / P G+ >_ ? + ^ 8#/& ~L 8 _ A& J"+ ~A + ? w_ &
+/ Q+ 8 m^Z P A Z+ ^Z } : -_ / + } = / G" _ A ^8 " m # JQ 6GG 0 P JU+ 
+} e G r 1G _ U " Z A m+ #& ^Z G _ > JZ? _ ZJ Z / + # + &/ JZ / G+ & +
+m # ^ w ++"JZ? & _ Z" JZ / +Z"JZ? / ^ _ mm+ _ #& G^ 8 Q" "^ & ^^ Z / 
+G+ _m ^ > + " _ / +r
P G+ + Q _ JU _ Z /  && ^QJ w J / ^ #& _ # + X_ # " 6_ " _ ? _ A ^8 N
+_ Z"? _ / + 6 ^ 8& + ~ e G6 L 8 _ A& J"+ ~A + ? w_ &/ Q+ 8 m^Z P A Z+
+ ~A . e 1 -Y~ / +Q } G e[e 6G == GGG ~ # +8 } .4 r << r @7> e0er 6* :
+e
[download]

pdftotext -layout from xpdf produces this:

   IN THE NEWCASTLE COUNTY COURT
           Claim No 8NE00169
                     between

           MILLER HOMES LIMITED
                     Claimant
                       and

         EDEN PROPERTIES LIMITED
                     Defendant
Proceedings in the above matter will be heard at the
 ewcastle upon Tyne County Court at The Law
 ourts, Quayside, Newcastle upon Tyne on:&#8722;
    Date: 4th day of April 2008
    Time: 10.30am
 ny person having an interest in these proceedings
 nd intending to appear should do so on the above
 ate.
 he Claimant’s solicitors are Ward Hadaway of
 andgate House, 102 Quayside, Newcastle upon
 yne, NE1 3DX, tel: 0191 204 4000, ref:
 F.JJ.MIL181.2751
[download]

... clearly dropping the first character on several lines. (It does this in -raw mode as well). And yet xpdf and evince both display this PDF correctly.

So where to from here? I need something that works on linux, preferably OOS, preferably Perl. The other PDF modules on CPAN (such as PDF::API2, PDF::Reuse and PDFLib seem to be intended for generating new PDFs, not extracting the contained text).

So what else can I try? Any suggestions?

Clint

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