Extract text using extractText in the ASP.NET MVC PDF Viewer

28 Oct 20254 minutes to read

The ExtractText APIs let you retrieve text from one or more pages, returning either plain text or text with bounds for each element. Use them on the server or in the standalone viewer depending on your scenario.

NOTE

From Volume 2 2019 release Syncfusion.Pdf.Net.Core and Syncfusion.Compression.Net.Core packages are added as dependency for PDF Viewer control. Ensure the dependency packages are referred in your application properly.

Extract text on the server (optional)

The server-side ExtractText() method returns text along with bounds so you can process it outside the viewer.

//Uses the Syncfusion.EJ2.PdfViewer assembly
PdfRenderer pdfExtractText = new PdfRenderer();
pdfExtractText.Load("../../Data/HTTP Succinctly.pdf");
//Returns the bounds of the text
List<Syncfusion.EJ2.PdfViewer.TextData> textCollection = new List<Syncfusion.EJ2.PdfViewer.TextData>();
//Extracts the text from the first page of the PDF document along with its bounds
string text = pdfExtractText.ExtractText(0, out textCollection);
System.IO.File.WriteAllText("../../Data/data.txt", text);

Download ExtractText sample

NOTE

Ensure the document path and output locations are updated for your application.

extractText method (standalone mode)

The viewer’s extractText method retrieves text from a single page or a range of pages. Use the optional arguments to choose between plain text (TextOnly) and detailed text data (TextAndBounds).

Parameters

• startIndex: The starting page index (0-based).

• endIndex or isOptions: Either the ending page index for multi-page extraction or an option for single-page extraction.

• options (optional): Additional settings such as 'TextOnly' or 'TextAndBounds'.

• TextOnly: Extracts only the plain text content without bounds or additional information.

• TextAndBounds: Extracts text content along with its bounds (coordinates) within the PDF.

Returns

A Promise that resolves with:

• textData: An array of TextDataSettingsModel entries containing detailed text information, including bounds.

• pageText: A concatenated string of text from the requested page range.

Usage example

Standalone

@using Syncfusion.EJ2
@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Home Page";
}

<div>
    <!-- Render PDF Viewer -->
    <button onclick="ExtractText()">Extract Text</button>
    <button onclick="ExtractTexts()">Extract Texts</button>
    @Html.EJS().PdfViewer("pdfviewer").DocumentPath("https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf").Render()
</div>

<!-- Ensure necessary Syncfusion scripts and styles are included -->
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/31.2.2/dist/ej2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

    function ExtractText() {
        var viewer = document.getElementById('pdfviewer').ej2_instances[0];
        viewer.extractText(1, 'TextOnly').then((val) => {
            console.log('Extracted Text from Page 1:');
            console.log(val);  // Logs the extracted text from page 1
        });
    }
    function ExtractTexts() {
        var viewer = document.getElementById('pdfviewer').ej2_instances[0];
        viewer.extractText(0, 2, 'TextOnly').then((val) => {
            console.log('Extracted Text from Pages 0 to 2:');
            console.log(val);  // Logs the extracted text from pages 0 to 2
        });
    }
</script>

Explanation

• Single page extraction: Extracts text from page 1 (startIndex = 1) using the 'TextOnly' option.

• Multiple page extraction: Extracts text from pages 0–2 (startIndex = 0, endIndex = 2) using the 'TextOnly' option.

View sample in GitHub