Contents
What is pdf2xml?
Usage
  Compiling pdf2xml
  Running pdf2xml
  Output file format
Licensing and distribution
Download sources

What is pdf2xml?

pdf2xml is an Open Source project based on the Xpdf 3.01 project. It is a command line utility that converts Portable Document Format (PDF) files into XML files. pdf2xml was compiled and tested on Win32 but it should compile and run on many other POSIX compliant OSes (UNIX, VMS, OS/2, Linux, MacOS X...).

The main goal of pdf2xml is to convert PDF files into files that are a lot easier to manipulate. To do this, pdf2xml:

Groups contiguous text blocks into a single <text> tag, so that separate small text elements (usually a few characters at a time) are grouped into complete lines of text.
Removes overprinted text (sometimes text is printed several times a few pixels aside to create a dropped shadow effect).
Groups contiguous lines of text that use the same font under the same  tag.
Detects italic text created using the transform matrix to slant the text
Outputs images in the PDF either as JPG or PNG files. Images that are flipped in the PDF are output as flipped in the picture file. Images that appear several times in the same PDF are only output once as a picture file.
Output links

What pdf2xml DOES NOT do:

It does not output vector graphics.
It does not recognize tables (lines in tables are vector graphics).

Usage

Compiling pdf2xml

Linking to a specific location of another ebook

Download the zipped sources. Unzip all files.

You probably want to define the two macros PNG_NO_READ_SUPPORTED and PNG_NO_MNG_FEATURES using -D or /D compiler options tho minimize the code generated by the pnglib.

You have to add the following include paths using -I or /I compiler options:

./xpdf
./xpdf/fofi
./xpdf/goo
./xpdf/xpdf
./image/zlib
./image/png

Once that is setup, simply compile and link all cpp files.

You may also want to download the latest version of xpdf and libpng to compile pxdf2xml.cpp against them

Running pdf2xml

On the command line, type:

pdf2xml file

If the file if of the form my_file.pdf, then a file named my_file.xml is created. The XML file and the image files are created in the current directory independently from the directlory in which the PDF file is contained.

Image file are named my_file_pic0001.png or my_file_pic0002.jpg, etc...

Ouput file format

XML files produced by pdf2xml have a very simple format:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <pdf2xml pages="3"> <title>My Title</title> <page width="780" height="1152"> <text x="324" y="37" width="132" height="10">Friday, September 27, 2002</text> <img x="324" y="232" width="277" height="340" src="text_pic0001.png"/> <link x="324" y="232" width="277" height="340" dest_page="2" dest_x="141" dest_y="187"/> <text x="509" y="68" width="121" height="12">This is a test PDF file</text> <link x="509" y="68" width="121" height="12" href="www.mobipocket.com"/> </page> </pdf2xml>

The topmost node is <pdf2xml> with a pages attribute that contains the number of pages.
This topmost node contains a <title> with the title in the PDF, if the PDF file has a title.
Apart from that, the topmost node only contains <page> nodes which have width and height attributes.
Some  tags can appear in <page> tags.  tags should always have a face attribute and a size attribute. The color attribute is an hexadecimal 6 digit value and is there only if the color is not black.
The italic and the bold attributes are there only if their value is true.
All <text> tags appear in  tags. They always have x, y, width and height attributes. The text is contained in the tag itself.
<img> tags can appear in either  tags or directly in <page> tags. <img> tags have x, y, width, height and src attributes.
<link> tags can appear in either  tags or directly in <page> tags. <img> tags always have x, y, width and height attributes. They either have dext_page, dest_x and dest_y attributes for internal links or a href attribute that is a URL.

Licensing and distribution

pdf2xml program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

pdf2xml uses the open source project xpdf,
xpdf is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)

Copyright © 1996-2005 Glyph & Cog, LLC.
derekn@foolabs.com
http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/

pdf2xml uses the open source project libpng

Copyright © 1998-2004 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
Copyright © 1996-1997 Andreas Dilger
Copyright © 1995-1996 Guy Eric Schalnat, Group 42, Inc.
glennrp@users.sourceforge.net
http://www.libpng.org/

The libpng uses the open source project zlib

Copyright © 1995-2003 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler
jloup@gzip.org
madler@alumni.caltech.edu
http://www.zlib.org/

PDF is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.

Download sources

Download pdf2xml here