Can you view pdf as pure text in terminal/ nox?
reddit / emacs

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manho1e · 2022-04-10 06:20

I have seen some plugins that convert pdf pages into images but is
there one that converts them into text?

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Phil-Hudson · 2022-04-10 07:53

There are command line tools such as pdftotext. Nothing to do with
Emacs though.

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kiki_lamb · 2022-04-10 10:31

Yup, sure. I used to use something like this for that purpose:
https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/UnPdf

It looks like someone's now created a mode to do the same thing:
https://github.com/tecosaur/pdftotext.el

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Phil-Hudson · 2022-04-10 11:01

Looks like the latter is (unsurprisingly) a wrapper for the command-
line tool of the same name.

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kiki_lamb · 2022-04-10 11:04

Indeed. Should get the job done, though. :)

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NoisyFrequency · 2022-04-10 12:06

You'll need to use a converting tool of some sort since PDF files are
binary files.

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manho1e · 2022-04-11 02:11

would you mind explaining what a mode/wrapper is? does it mean I
should download the original one or the mode?

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manho1e · 2022-04-11 02:29

Hi! Thank you! Is it within emacs or a terminal tool? Should I
download the pdf first and then I can view it in emacs?

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manho1e · 2022-04-11 02:30

Thanks! i see, is viewing pdf while using eww doable?