What is pdf-processing?

This Claude skill provides a comprehensive suite of tools for PDF manipulation and data recovery. It enables users to programmatically extract text and complex tables, fill out interactive forms, and perform structural operations like merging or splitting documents. By integrating industry-standard libraries such as pdfplumber and pypdf, it transforms static PDF files into dynamic, actionable data sources.

When should I use pdf-processing?

pdf-processing is useful in the following scenarios: • 1. Automated Data Entry: Extracting structured data from invoices, receipts, and financial statements to populate databases or spreadsheets without manual typing. • 2. Legal and Compliance Workflow: Merging multiple legal briefs into a single document or splitting large contracts into specific sections for targeted review. • 3. Form Automation: Programmatically filling out standardized PDF forms for HR, insurance, or government applications to increase administrative efficiency. • 4. Academic and Market Research: Converting multi-page research papers or industry reports into searchable text and extracting tabular data for statistical analysis.

name	PDF Processing
description	Extract text and tables from PDF files, fill forms, merge documents. Use when working with PDF files or when the user mentions PDFs, forms, or document extraction.

PDF Processing

Quick start

Use pdfplumber to extract text from PDFs:

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:
    text = pdf.pages[0].extract_text()
    print(text)

Extracting tables

Extract tables from PDFs with automatic detection:

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("report.pdf") as pdf:
    page = pdf.pages[0]
    tables = page.extract_tables()

    for table in tables:
        for row in table:
            print(row)

Extracting all pages

Process multi-page documents efficiently:

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:
    full_text = ""
    for page in pdf.pages:
        full_text += page.extract_text() + "\n\n"

    print(full_text)

Form filling

For PDF form filling, see FORMS.md for the complete guide including field analysis and validation.

Merging PDFs

Combine multiple PDF files:

from pypdf import PdfMerger

merger = PdfMerger()

for pdf in ["file1.pdf", "file2.pdf", "file3.pdf"]:
    merger.append(pdf)

merger.write("merged.pdf")
merger.close()

Splitting PDFs

Extract specific pages or ranges:

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

reader = PdfReader("input.pdf")
writer = PdfWriter()

# Extract pages 2-5
for page_num in range(1, 5):
    writer.add_page(reader.pages[page_num])

with open("output.pdf", "wb") as output:
    writer.write(output)

Available packages

pdfplumber - Text and table extraction (recommended)
pypdf - PDF manipulation, merging, splitting
pdf2image - Convert PDFs to images (requires poppler)
pytesseract - OCR for scanned PDFs (requires tesseract)

Common patterns

Extract and save text:

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("input.pdf") as pdf:
    text = "\n\n".join(page.extract_text() for page in pdf.pages)

with open("output.txt", "w") as f:
    f.write(text)

Extract tables to CSV:

import pdfplumber
import csv

with pdfplumber.open("tables.pdf") as pdf:
    tables = pdf.pages[0].extract_tables()

    with open("output.csv", "w", newline="") as f:
        writer = csv.writer(f)
        for table in tables:
            writer.writerows(table)

Error handling

Handle common PDF issues:

import pdfplumber

try:
    with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:
        if len(pdf.pages) == 0:
            print("PDF has no pages")
        else:
            text = pdf.pages[0].extract_text()
            if text is None or text.strip() == "":
                print("Page contains no extractable text (might be scanned)")
            else:
                print(text)
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Error processing PDF: {e}")

Performance tips

Process pages in batches for large PDFs
Use multiprocessing for multiple files
Extract only needed pages rather than entire document
Close PDF objects after use

pdf-processing

When & Why to Use This Skill

Use Cases