PDF Processing

Overview

PDF processing involves extracting content from existing PDFs, creating new PDF documents, and modifying or transforming PDF files. This skill should be invoked when working with PDF files for operations like text extraction, table data extraction, document generation, merging, splitting, or watermarking.

Core Principles

• Library Selection: Choose the right library for your specific task (pypdf, pdfplumber, reportlab)
• Text Extraction: Use pdfplumber for text with layout preservation, pypdf for simple extraction
• Creation: Use reportlab for programmatic PDF generation with precise control
• Transformation: Understand that PDFs are final-form documents - editing is limited

Preparation Checklist

• Identify the operation type: extraction, creation, or transformation
• For extraction: Determine if you need text, tables, or metadata
• For creation: Define the document structure and content
• Install required libraries: pypdf, pdfplumber, reportlab