pypdf is a free and open-source pure-python PDF library capable of splitting, merging, cropping, and transforming the pages of PDF files. It can also add custom data, viewing options, and passwords to PDF files. pypdf can retrieve text and metadata from PDFs as well.

See pdfly for a CLI application that uses pypdf to interact with PDFs.

Install pypdf using pip:

pip install pypdf

For using pypdf with AES encryption or decryption, install extra dependencies:

pip install pypdf[crypto]

NOTE: pypdf 3.1.0 and above include significant improvements compared to previous versions. Please refer to the migration guide for more information.

from pypdf import PdfReader

reader = PdfReader("example.pdf")
number_of_pages = len(reader.pages)
page = reader.pages[0]
text = page.extract_text()

pypdf can do a lot more, e.g. splitting, merging, reading and creating annotations, decrypting and encrypting, and more. Check out the documentation for additional usage examples!

For questions and answers, visit StackOverflow (tagged with pypdf).

Maintaining pypdf is a collaborative effort. You can support the project by writing documentation, helping to narrow down issues, and submitting code. See the CONTRIBUTING.md file for more information.

The experience pypdf users have covers the whole range from beginners who want to make their live easier to experts who developed software before PDF existed. You can contribute to the pypdf community by answering questions on StackOverflow, helping in discussions, and asking users who report issues for MCVE's (Code + example PDF!).

A good bug ticket includes a MCVE - a minimal complete verifiable example. For pypdf, this means that you must upload a PDF that causes the bug to occur as well as the code you're executing with all of the output. Use print(pypdf.__version__) to tell us which version you're using.

All code contributions are welcome, but smaller ones have a better chance to get included in a timely manner. Adding unit tests for new features or test cases for bugs you've fixed help us to ensure that the Pull Request (PR) is fine.

pypdf includes a test suite which can be executed with pytest:

$ pytest
===================== test session starts =====================
platform linux -- Python 3.6.15, pytest-7.0.1, pluggy-1.0.0
rootdir: /home/moose/GitHub/Martin/pypdf
plugins: cov-3.0.0
collected 233 items

tests/test_basic_features.py ..                         [  0%]
tests/test_constants.py .                               [  1%]
tests/test_filters.py .................x.....           [ 11%]
tests/test_generic.py ................................. [ 25%]
.............                                           [ 30%]
tests/test_javascript.py ..                             [ 31%]
tests/test_merger.py .                                  [ 32%]
tests/test_page.py .........................            [ 42%]
tests/test_pagerange.py ................                [ 49%]
tests/test_papersizes.py ..................             [ 57%]
tests/test_reader.py .................................. [ 72%]
...............                                         [ 78%]
tests/test_utils.py ....................                [ 87%]
tests/test_workflows.py ..........                      [ 91%]
tests/test_writer.py .................                  [ 98%]
tests/test_xmp.py ...                                   [100%]

========== 232 passed, 1 xfailed, 1 warning in 4.52s ==========