[100% Working] 3 Best PDF Scrapers for Extracting Data from PDFs

PDFs have become a go-to format for sharing and archiving documents. They are exceptional at compressing large content without compromising quality. Although PDFs are made to be human-readable, their structure makes it challenging to extract data directly. That's where PDF scraping comes to the rescue.

A PDF scraper is a tool that can help scrape data from PDF without much manual effort. In this guide, we will shed light on the best PDF scrapers and discuss the steps on how to extract data from PDFs with minimal effort.

Part 1. Can You Scrape a PDF?

Extracting data from PDFs is often challenging due to multiple reasons, as follows:

• The PDF is human-readable, but the data is unstructured.
• The PDF is scanned.
• The PDF is image-based.
• And many more.

No matter the complexity of a PDF, you can scrape data from PDF easily if you use a reliable PDF scraper. A PDF scraper can intelligently identify the data from a PDF and allow you to extract it easily. Head to the next part to learn one such top-notch AI PDF scraper.

Part 2. The Best PDF Scraper for Extracting Data from PDFs

In the era when there are plenty of PDF scrapers, UPDF dominates with its AI-powered PDF scraping.

UPDF is a powerful PDF scraper tool that provides modernized and intuitive features to scrape from PDFs. Its AI-powered OCR functionality can convert scanned or image-based PDFs into searchable/editable and extractable PDFs. This makes it easy to extract data from non-editable PDFs.

Below is a list of all the exceptional features UPDF offers that make it the best PDF scraper:

• Intuitive Interface: It provides a unified, click-based interface to read and scrape PDFs.
• AI OCR: Its OCR technology can intelligently convert scanned/image-based PDF to editable PDF and also supports 38 languages.
• Chat with Image: Its "Chat with Image" feature can help extract data confined in the image.
• Batch Scrape: Its "Batch Combine" feature can help scrape data from multiple PDFs at once.
• File Conversion: It can convert PDF to 10+ formats, like Word, Excel, HTML, PPT, XML, CSV, and more.
• Multi-Platform Compatibility: It is compatible across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices. It also provides web-based access to its AI assistant.
• Cloud Storage: It provides dedicated cloud storage to easily save PDFs in the cloud and access them wherever you want.

In short, UPDF is the ultimate AI PDF scraper that can fulfill scraping needs without any technicalities. So, why not install UPDF right now and see its above features in action?

1. Steps to Scrape from Scanned PDF

Follow the below steps to scrape data from PDF with the UPDF's OCR feature:

Step 1. Install and launch UPDF on your computer (Windows/Mac). Click "Open File" to select and open the PDF to scrape.

Step 2. Click the "OCR" icon in the right sidebar. A menu for OCR settings will open. Under "Document Type," choose "Searchable PDF."

Select your preferred layout and adjust settings like document language, image resolution, and page range.

For advanced layout options, click the gear icon next to the Layout dropdown. This will open additional settings, including MRC compression. Once finished, click "Perform OCR."

Step 3. After the OCR, the scanned or image-based PDF has now become editable. You can now easily select and extract the text, images, tables, and other elements from the PDF.

This way, a three-step process with UPDF OCR feature makes it effortless to scrape data from scanned or image-based PDFs.

2. Steps to Scrape from PDF by Providing Screenshots

You can also use UPDF's "chat with images" feature to scrape data from the image. The steps are as follows:

Step 1. Launch UPDF and open any PDF to access the UPDF AI feature.

Step 2. Click the "UPDF AI" icon and tap "Chat".

Step 3. Select the "Image" icon from the chat box and upload the image.

Step 4. Write a prompt like "Extract text from the image" or specify the particular information you want to extract.

UPDF will instantly execute the prompt and scrape data from the image as required.

That's it! This way, UPDF offers an advanced way to scrape data directly from images. Feel impressed? Upgrade to the paid version of UPDF to unlock all premium features.

To learn more about what else you can do with UPDF, watch this video:

Part 3. Other PDF Scrapers

Other than the top-notch UPDF AI PDF scraper, you can fulfill the scraping needs from other tools as well. Below, we have shortlisted two other PDF scrapers that you can use:

1. Docparser

Docparser is a cloud-based PDF scraper tool that can pull data from PDFs automatically. It incorporates built-in OCR capabilities and pre-designed templates to make the tool automatically scrape data from PDFs. You can even use smart filters and pattern-matching algorithms to extract data from various locations.

2. Nanonets

Nanonets is a PDF scraper for businesses. It can extract and convert unstructured data from PDFs into structured data to streamline your relevant business activities. It also offers built-in OCR and templates. You can train the tool to automatically scrape data from PDFs at scale.

Conclusion

PDF documents are easily readable by humans, but only limited documents come with machine-readable metadata. Therefore, the use of PDF scrapers has become essential for such tools. Above, we have discussed three different PDF scrapers you can use. Out of all of them, UPDF seems to be the most intuitive and reliable solution, especially if you are dealing with scanned PDFs. So, what are you waiting for? Install UPDF AI PDF scraper and scrape data from PDF effortlessly.