PyPDF2 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. PyPDF2 can retrieve text and metadata from PDFs as well.

You can install PyPDF2 via pip:

pip install PyPDF2

If you plan to use PyPDF2 for encrypting or decrypting PDFs that use AES, you will need to install some extra dependencies. Encryption using RC4 is supported using the regular installation.

pip install PyPDF2[crypto]

from PyPDF2 import PdfReader

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

PyPDF2 can do a lot more, e.g. splitting, merging, reading and creating annotations, decrypting and encrypting, and more.

Please see the documentation for more usage examples!

A lot of questions are asked and answered on StackOverflow.

Maintaining PyPDF2 is a collaborative effort. You can support PyPDF2 by writing documentation, helping to narrow down issues, and adding code.

The experience PyPDF2 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 PyPDF2 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 PyPDF2, 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(PyPDF2.__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.

PyPDF2 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/PyPDF2
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 ==========