pdftext — PDF text — openbash

A PDF's text as markdown, with a readability check that runs without extracting.

pdftext

pdftext is a command on the openbash shell, reachable over HTTP, SSH and MCP with one key. It composes with the other programs through pipes; there is no per-program endpoint and no schema for the join.

pdftext -i /dropbox/reports/*.pdf

/dropbox/reports/2025-q1.pdf   readable (12 pages, 41k chars)
/dropbox/reports/scan-04.pdf   no extractable text (likely scanned)

help

pdftext: a PDF's text, as markdown.

USAGE
  pdftext [-i] FILE...

RETURNS
  Markdown on stdout. With `-i`, reports how readable each file is and
  extracts nothing: worth spending on a scanned document before spending a
  whole pass on text that turns out not to be there.

DOES NOT COVER
  Optical character recognition. A PDF that is images of text has no text, and
  `-i` is how you find that out cheaply.

• This program as JSON, with its full help text
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• llms.txt — how to call it