pdf2docx

Warnings

• deprecated The `pdf2docx` library is no longer actively maintained by its original developer, Artifex. While the repository is open for community contributions, active development and official maintenance by Artifex have ceased.
  Fix: Be aware that new features or prompt bug fixes from the original maintainers are unlikely. Consider community forks or alternative libraries if active development and support are critical for your project.
• gotcha The library primarily processes text-based PDFs and does not perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Scanned PDF documents, which are essentially images, will not have their text content extracted or converted to editable DOCX text.
  Fix: For scanned PDFs, you must run an OCR tool on the PDF first to convert images of text into actual text before using `pdf2docx` for conversion.
• gotcha Complex PDF layouts, especially those with intricate tables, multi-column designs, or unusual text flows, may not be perfectly replicated in the converted DOCX file due to the library's rule-based parsing method.
  Fix: Test with representative PDF documents to assess conversion fidelity. For critical layout preservation, manual adjustments to the output DOCX might be necessary, or consider alternative conversion methods for highly complex documents.
• gotcha The library is primarily designed for left-to-right languages and standard reading directions. Documents with right-to-left languages or significant text transformations/rotations might not convert accurately.
  Fix: Verify output for documents in non-left-to-right languages or with complex text orientations. No direct fix within `pdf2docx` for these limitations.

Install

• pip install pdf2docx Install latest version

Imports

• Converter

  from pdf2docx import Converter

• parse

  from pdf2docx import parse

  The `parse` function is directly available from the top-level package, not as a method of a class.

Quickstart

This quickstart demonstrates how to convert a PDF file to a DOCX file using the `Converter` class. It shows how to initialize the converter with a PDF file, perform the conversion, and close the converter. The example includes creating a simple dummy PDF if no existing file is provided to ensure it's runnable.

import os
from pdf2docx import Converter

# Create a dummy PDF file for demonstration if it doesn't exist
dummy_pdf_content = b"%PDF-1.4\n1 0 obj <</Type /Page /Contents 2 0 R>> endobj\n2 0 obj <</Length 11>> stream\nBT /F1 12 Tf 72 712 Td (Hello World) Tj ET\nendstream endobj\nxref\n0 3\n0000000000 65535 f\n0000000009 00000 n\n0000000074 00000 n\ntrailer <</Size 3 /Root 1 0 R>> startxref 122\n%%EOF"

pdf_file_path = "sample.pdf"
docx_file_path = "output.docx"

if not os.path.exists(pdf_file_path):
    with open(pdf_file_path, "wb") as f:
        f.write(dummy_pdf_content)
    print(f"Created dummy PDF: {pdf_file_path}")

try:
    # Create a Converter object
    cv = Converter(pdf_file_path)

    # Convert the PDF to DOCX
    cv.convert(docx_file_path, start=0, end=None) # start and end are 0-based, None means to the end
    cv.close()
    print(f"Conversion successful: {pdf_file_path} -> {docx_file_path}")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"An error occurred during conversion: {e}")
finally:
    # Clean up dummy PDF if it was created
    if os.path.exists(pdf_file_path) and dummy_pdf_content:
        os.remove(pdf_file_path)
        print(f"Cleaned up dummy PDF: {pdf_file_path}")
    if os.path.exists(docx_file_path):
        # In a real scenario, you might want to keep the output, but for a quickstart, we clean up.
        # os.remove(docx_file_path)
        pass # Keep the output docx for user inspection