How to Extract Tables from PDF Files as Table Itself using PDF.co Web API

PDF.co PDF Extractor is a tool provided by PDF.co that allows you to extract data from PDF documents quickly and easily. This tool uses AI and Machine Learning algorithms to automate the extraction process, making it a fast and reliable way to extract data from PDFs.

PDF.co PDF Extractor can extract a wide range of data types from PDF documents, including text, images, tables, and even barcodes. The tool is also able to extract data from scanned PDFs using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology.

Now, we will show you how to extract tables from PDF files as the table itself using PDF.co Web API. Kindly check out the easy step-by-step tutorial below.

  1. Open PDF.co Account
  2. Request Tester Page
  3. Run Request Result
  4. Extracted Table Output

We will use this sample PDF invoice and will extract the table as the table itself.

Sample PDF Document
Sample PDF Document

Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to extracting a table from a PDF file.

Step 1: Open PDF.co Account

  • Let’s start by logging into your PDF.co account and clicking on the Request Tester menu.

Open PDF.co Account

Step 2: Request Tester Page

Let’s set up the Request Tester configuration.

  • For the PDF.co API Endpoint field, search and select the /v1/pdf/convert/to/csv. This endpoint will extract PDF and scanned images into CSV representation with layout, columns, rows, and tables.
  • For the Input parameters field, override your URL param with a link or input with a file.
  • Now, let’s add the JSON code to define coordinates for table extraction and the rectangular area value of the table. You can easily get the rectangular area value using the Bytescout PDF Multitool at this link.

Request Tester Page

After setting up the configuration, click the Run Request button to send a request to PDF.co.

Step 3: Run Request Result

  • Excellent! The PDF.co processed our request successfully and return a temporary URL. Kindly click on the resulting URL to view the output or directly download the output file.

Run Request Result

Step 4: Extracted Table Output

  • Here’s the extracted table from a PDF document using PDF.co Web API.
Extracted Table Output

In this tutorial, you learned how to extract tables from PDF files (as the table itself) using PDF.co Web API. You learned how to use the PDF to CSV API endpoint to extract tables from PDF files. You also learned how to get the rectangular area value of a table using the Bytescout PDF Multitool.