PDF Finder with OCR

A tool to search for text in PDF files using multiple methods, including OCR (Optical Character Recognition).

Purpose

This project was created to solve a common problem: searching through dozens of PDF files quickly and efficiently. For example, when you need to find a specific transaction in your credit card history across multiple statements:

1. Download all your PDF statements from your bank
2. Place them in the /pdf folder
3. Run ./run.sh "search term" to locate the exact page and file where the term appears

I personally use this tool all the time to search through financial documents, receipts, and statements, and thought it would be valuable to share with the world.

Features

• Basic text extraction using PyPDF2
• Advanced text extraction with pdfplumber (better at handling complex layouts)
• OCR-based text extraction using Tesseract (can read text from images/scans)
• Table data extraction for structured content

Requirements

• Python 3.6+
• Tesseract OCR engine
• poppler (for pdf2image)

Quick Installation

The easiest way to install is using the provided installation script:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/pdf-finder.git
cd pdf-finder

# Run the installation script
./install.sh

The installation script will:

1. Create a Python virtual environment
2. Install all required Python dependencies
3. Install Tesseract OCR and Poppler if on a supported system (macOS or Debian/Ubuntu)
4. Create a convenient run script for daily use

Manual Installation

If you prefer to install manually:

1. Clone the repository

2. Create a virtual environment: python -m venv venv

3. Activate the virtual environment:

   • macOS/Linux: source venv/bin/activate
   • Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

4. Install Python dependencies: pip install -r requirements.txt

5. Install external dependencies:

   macOS

   brew install tesseract poppler
   

   Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

   apt-get install tesseract-ocr poppler-utils
   

   Windows

   • Download and install Tesseract from https://github.com/UB-Mannheim/tesseract/wiki
   • Download and install poppler from http://blog.alivate.com.au/poppler-windows/
   • Add both to your PATH

Usage

1. Place your PDF files in the pdf directory

2. Run the script with your search term:

   # Quick usage
   ./run.sh "your search term"
   
   # Or with manual activation
   source venv/bin/activate
   python pdf_finder.py "your search term"

3. The script will search using all three methods (basic extraction, advanced extraction, and OCR) and display where your term was found

Example Use Cases

• Finding specific transactions in bank or credit card statements
• Searching through tax documents for specific amounts or references
• Locating mentions of certain terms across multiple research papers
• Finding information in scanned documents that aren't text-searchable

How It Works

The tool uses three different approaches to find text in PDFs:

1. PyPDF2: Fast basic text extraction
2. pdfplumber: More advanced extraction that handles tables and complex layouts
3. Tesseract OCR: Converts PDF pages to images and applies OCR to read text from scanned documents or images

This multi-method approach helps find text that might be missed by any single method alone.

Troubleshooting

If macOS Preview can find text that this tool cannot, it might be because:

1. The PDF contains text in images that requires better OCR
2. The text is using a special font or encoding
3. The PDF has complex formatting or structure

If Tesseract OCR is installed correctly but still not finding text, you might need to:

• Improve the image quality before OCR
• Try different Tesseract parameters or language settings
• Use a cloud-based OCR service for better results

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Created by Aemal Sayer