PDFTextGenie

📄 PDFTextGenie

Smart, Modern, and Extensible PDF-to-Text Converter with Advanced OCR and GUI

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🚀 Project Vision

PDFTextGenie is a next-generation, user-friendly Python application for extracting clean, accurate text from scanned or image-based PDFs. It leverages state-of-the-art OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engines and advanced post-processing to deliver high-fidelity text output, even from noisy or complex documents. Designed for researchers, students, archivists, and anyone who needs reliable text extraction, PDFTextGenie offers batch processing, smart formatting, and a modern, cross-platform GUI.

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✨ Key Features

• Batch PDF Input: Select and queue multiple PDFs for conversion.
• Advanced OCR: Uses EasyOCR (with modular backend for future engines like TrOCR, Tesseract, LLaMA OCR).
• Image Preprocessing: Binarization, denoising, and contrast enhancement for better OCR accuracy.
• Smart Text Cleanup: Removes extra newlines, fixes hyphenated line breaks, merges paragraphs.
• Modern GUI: Built with PyQt5, featuring drag & drop, live status, output preview, and persistent settings.
• Error Handling: User-friendly feedback for failed conversions, with detailed error dialogs.
• Persistent Settings: Remembers your last-used options and output folder.
• Extensible Architecture: Modular codebase for easy addition of new OCR engines or output formats.
• Offline & Cross-Platform: No API keys or internet required. Works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

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🧩 Architecture Overview

pdftextgenie/
├── gui/
│   └── main_window.py          # PyQt5 GUI
├── ocr/
│   ├── llama_ocr.py            # OCR backend (EasyOCR, extensible)
│   └── postprocess.py          # Text cleanup utilities
├── utils/
│   └── pdf_utils.py            # PDF to image conversion & preprocessing
├── output/
│   └── (Generated .txt files)
├── tests/
│   └── test_pdftextgenie.py    # Automated tests
├── app.py                      # Main launcher
├── requirements.txt            # Dependencies
└── README.md                   # This file

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⚙️ Installation

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/-------
cd pdftextgenie

2. Install Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Note: You may need additional system packages for pdf2image (e.g., poppler). See pdf2image docs for details.

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🏁 Quick Start

python app.py

• Use the GUI to select PDFs, set options, and start conversion.
• Extracted text files will appear in your chosen output folder.

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🖥️ GUI Usage Guide

• Add PDFs: Click 'Add PDFs' or drag & drop files into the list.
• Remove/Clear: Remove selected or clear all PDFs from the list.
• Choose Output Folder: Set where extracted text files will be saved.
• Options:
  • Fix hyphens: Reconstruct words split across lines.
  • Merge paragraphs: Combine lines into paragraphs.
  • DPI: Set image resolution for PDF-to-image conversion.
• Image Preprocessing:
  • Binarize: Convert images to black & white for better OCR.
  • Denoise: Apply median filter to reduce noise.
  • Enhance Contrast: Boost contrast (set factor).
• Start Conversion: Begin batch processing. Progress and errors are shown live.
• Preview: See a snippet of the extracted text and any errors.
• Help/About: Access app info from the menu bar.

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🧠 Advanced Options & Extensibility

• OCR Backend:
  • Currently uses EasyOCR. The code is modular—add new engines (Tesseract, TrOCR, etc.) in ocr/llama_ocr.py.
• Image Preprocessing:
  • Easily extend utils/pdf_utils.py to add more filters or preprocessing steps.
• Output Formats:
  • Add DOCX, HTML, or other formats by extending the output logic in the GUI and backend.
• Settings:
  • Persistent via QSettings. Add more options as needed.

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🧪 Testing

• Automated tests are provided in tests/test_pdftextgenie.py.
• Run all tests:

  python -m pytest tests/

• Tests cover:
  • Image preprocessing (binarize, denoise, contrast)
  • Text cleanup (hyphens, paragraphs)
  • OCR backend interface (mocked)
  • Error handling for invalid files

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🛠️ Troubleshooting

• pdf2image errors:
  • Ensure Poppler is installed and on your PATH (Windows).
• OCR accuracy issues:
  • Try enabling preprocessing options or increasing DPI.
• GUI not launching:
  • Check Python and PyQt5 installation.
• Other issues:
  • Run tests and check error dialogs for details.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! To propose a feature, fix a bug, or add a new OCR backend:

1. Fork the repo and create a new branch.
2. Add your changes and tests.
3. Open a pull request with a clear description.

Ideas for contribution:

• Add new OCR engines (Tesseract, TrOCR, LLaMA OCR)
• Multilingual support
• Export to DOCX/HTML
• Table/column structure preservation
• GUI enhancements and accessibility

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👤 Author

• Author: @SK8-infi

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