PDF Search Text

Explore Samples

Search text in PDF and get coordinates. Supports regular expressions.

Available Methods

[POST] /pdf/find

[POST] /pdf/find

url required. URL to the source file. Supports links from Google Drive, Dropbox and from built-in PDF.co files storage.

For uploading files via API please check Files Upload section.

If you are randomly getting Too Many Requests or Access Denied error for your input url, please try to add cache: to enable built-in url caching.

You can also encrypt data for output files and decrypt data input files with user-controlled data encryption (uses strong AES encryption with your own keys). Click here to learn more.
httpusername optional - http auth user name if required to access source url.
httppassword optional - http auth password if required to access source url.
searchString text to search. Can contain regular expressions if you set regexSearch param to true.
pages optional. Comma-separated list of page indices (or ranges) to process. IMPORTANT: the very first page starts at 0 (zero). To set a range use the dash -, for example: 0,2-5,7-. To set a range from index to the last page use range like this: 2- (from page #3 as the index starts at zero and till the of the document). For ALL pages just leave this param empty. Example: 0,2-5,7- means first page, then 3rd page to 6th page, and then the range from 8th (index = 7) page till the end of the document. Must be a String.
inline optional. Must be one of: true, false.
wordMatchingMode optional. Must be a String. Values can be either ‘SmartMatch’, ‘ExactMatch’ or ‘None’.
password optional. Password of PDF file. Must be a String
regexSearch optional. Must be one of: true, false.
async optional. Runs processing asynchronously. Returns JobId that you may use with /job/check to check state of the background job (possible states: working, failed, aborted and success). Must be one of: true, false.
name optional. File name for generated output. Must be a String.
expiration optional. Output link expiration in minutes. Default is 60 (i.e. 60 minutes or 1 hour). After this delay generated output file(s) (if any) will be auto-removed from PDF.co temporary files storage. Max allowed expiration period depends on your current subscription plan. To store permanent input files (e.g. re-usable images, pdf, documents), please use PDF.co built-in Files Storage instead.
profiles optional. Must be a String. Use this parameter to set additional configuration for fine tuning and extra options. Explore PDF.co knowledgebase for profile examples.
Method: POST
URL: /v1/pdf/find

Query parameters

No query parameters accepted.

Body payload

{
    "async": "false",
    "encrypt": "false",
    "url": "https://bytescout-com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/demo-files/cloud-api/pdf-to-text/sample.pdf",
    "searchString": "Invoice Date \\d+/\\d+/\\d+",
    "regexSearch": "true",
    "name": "output",
    "pages": "0-",
    "inline": "true",
    "wordMatchingMode": "",
    "password": ""
}

Example responses

/pdf/find

{
    "body": [
        {
            "text": "Invoice Date 01/01/2016",
            "left": 436.5400085449219,
            "top": 130.4599995137751,
            "width": 122.85311957550027,
            "height": 11.040000486224898,
            "pageIndex": 0,
            "bounds": {
                "location": {
                    "isEmpty": false,
                    "x": 436.54,
                    "y": 130.46
                },
                "size": "122.853119, 11.0400009",
                "x": 436.54,
                "y": 130.46,
                "width": 122.853119,
                "height": 11.0400009,
                "left": 436.54,
                "top": 130.46,
                "right": 559.3931,
                "bottom": 141.5,
                "isEmpty": false
            },
            "elementCount": 1,
            "elements": [
                {
                    "index": 0,
                    "left": 436.5400085449219,
                    "top": 130.4599995137751,
                    "width": 122.85311957550027,
                    "height": 11.040000486224898,
                    "angle": 0,
                    "text": "Invoice Date 01/01/2016",
                    "isNewLine": true,
                    "fontIsBold": true,
                    "fontIsItalic": false,
                    "fontName": "Helvetica-Bold",
                    "fontSize": 11,
                    "fontColor": "0, 0, 0",
                    "fontColorAsOleColor": 0,
                    "fontColorAsHtmlColor": "#000000",
                    "bounds": {
                        "location": {
                            "isEmpty": false,
                            "x": 436.54,
                            "y": 130.46
                        },
                        "size": "122.853119, 11.0400009",
                        "x": 436.54,
                        "y": 130.46,
                        "width": 122.853119,
                        "height": 11.0400009,
                        "left": 436.54,
                        "top": 130.46,
                        "right": 559.3931,
                        "bottom": 141.5,
                        "isEmpty": false
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "pageCount": 1,
    "error": false,
    "status": 200,
    "name": "output",
    "remainingCredits": 59970
}

Code Snippet

CURL

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/find' \
--header 'x-api-key: ' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "async": "false",
    "encrypt": "false",
    "url": "https://bytescout-com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/demo-files/cloud-api/pdf-to-text/sample.pdf",
    "searchString": "Invoice Date \\d+/\\d+/\\d+",
    "regexSearch": "true",
    "name": "output",
    "pages": "0-",
    "inline": "true",
    "wordMatchingMode": "",
    "password": ""
}'