How to search a PDF file in Java (Tutorial)

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2 Why can’t I just search the PDF file directly?

This tutorial shows you how to find words in a PDF file in simple steps using JPedal Java PDF library. JPedal includes a PDF search engine which provides an easy to use Java PDF api to find words and phrases in a pdf document.

How to search PDF file in Java

Download JPedal trial jar.
Create a File handle, InputStream or URL pointing to the PDF file
Include a password if file password protected
Open the PDF file
Scan the pages
Close the PDF file

and the Java code to search a PDF…

File file = new File("/path/to/document.pdf"));
FindTextInRectangle extract=new FindTextInRectangle(file);
//extract.setPassword("password");

if (extract.openPDFFile()) {
  int pageCount = extract.getPageCount();
  for (int page = 1; page <= pageCount; page++) {
    float[] coords = extract.findTextOnPage(page"textToFind",
          SearchType.MUTLI_LINE_RESULTS ) ;
  }
}
extract.closePDFfile();

Why can’t I just search the PDF file directly?

You cannot simply search inside a PDF file because the text data is stored in a special binary format.

Related tutorials

If you are looking to search PDF files in JPedal, we recommend you start with this tutorials:-

How to Find Text in a PDF File using Java

The JPedal PDF library allows you to solve these problems in Java

Viewer viewer = new Viewer();
viewer.setupViewer();
viewer.executeCommand(ViewerCommands.OPENFILE, "pdfFile.pdf");

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ExtractClippedImages.writeAllClippedImagesToDir("inputFileOrDirectory", "outputDir", "outputImageFormat", new String[] {"imageHeightAsFloat", "subDirectoryForHeight"});

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ExtractTextAsWordList.writeAllWordlistsToDir("inputFileOrDirectory", "outputDir", -1);

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ArrayList resultsForPages = FindTextInRectangle.findTextOnAllPages("/path/to/file.pdf", "textToFind");

PrintPdfPages print = new PrintPdfPages("C:/pdfs/mypdf.pdf");

if (print.openPDFFile()) {
    print.printAllPages("Printer Name");
}

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ExtractClippedImages.writeAllClippedImagesToDir("inputFileOrDirectory", "outputDir", "outputImageFormat", new String[] {"imageHeightAsFloat", "subDirectoryForHeight"});

What is JPedal?

JPedal is a commercial Java PDF Library that makes it easy for Java developers to work with PDF Documents in Java.

Why use JPedal?

JPedal makes it much easier to work with PDF files from Java. Because we have been actively developing our Java PDF Toolkit for over 20 years, it works with all those problem PDF files out there.

What licenses are available?

We have 2 licenses available:
'Server' for on premises and cloud servers and 'OEM' for use in a named end user applications. Both are one time fees with options support renewal after 12 months.

How to use JPedal?

Want to learn more about JPedal and how to use it, we have plenty of tutorials and guides to help you.