Working with PDFs in Python

Gaurav Kumar
8 min readJan 26, 2024

Portable Document Format (PDF) files are a ubiquitous format for document exchange due to their platform independence and consistent formatting. In Python, several libraries provide tools to work with PDFs, allowing developers to manipulate, extract information, and create PDF files programmatically. In this article, we’ll explore some popular Python libraries for working with PDFs.

How to Work With a PDF in Python

Working with PDFs in Python can be a valuable skill for tasks such as extracting information, manipulating content, or creating new documents. In this guide, we’ll explore the basic steps and some popular Python libraries to help you get started with PDF operations.

1. Understanding PDFs in Python:

Before diving into the code, it’s essential to have a basic understanding of how PDFs work. PDFs, or Portable Document Format files, are a standardized format for document exchange. They can contain text, images, hyperlinks, forms, and more. In Python, several libraries simplify the process of working with PDFs.

2. Installing PDF Libraries:

To begin, you need to install a PDF manipulation library. Two commonly used libraries are PyPDF2 and PyMuPDF. You can install them using the following commands:

pip install PyPDF2…

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