| name | pdf-to-text |
| description | Extract layout-preserving plain text from a PDF — best for TABLES, INVOICES, columnar/financial PDFs where cell values and alignment must survive. Parse each PDF ONCE to a file. To find a specific fact, prefer a bounded `grep -n -i -C2 "term" file | head`. Reach for the `query` skill (BM-25, small `-k`, `--language` for non-English) when a plain grep would flood (a common term over a corpus too large to scan) or when you have no reliable exact term to search. Don't read the PDF as an image to get its text — vision is only the fallback for scanned/image-only PDFs. Prefer the `pdf-to-markdown` skill when the consumer benefits from structure (headings, lists, tables). |
| license | Proprietary |
Rules for agents (read first)
- Best for tables, invoices, columnar/financial PDFs — layout and cell values survive.
- Parse once, then default to bounded grep:
grep -n -i -C2 "term" file | head.
- Use the
query skill only when grep would flood — a common term over a corpus too large to scan; then small -k, and --language <lang> for non-English.
- Don't read the source PDF as an image to get its text — this extractor is faster and more accurate for extractable text. (For a scanned/image-only PDF with no text layer, a vision tool is the right fallback — see Troubleshooting.)
PDF to Text
Convert PDFs into layout-preserving plain text. Each word is placed on a character grid that mirrors its on-page position, so columns, indentation, and tabular alignment survive the conversion. This is significantly higher quality than reading a PDF directly with the read tool, which only extracts loose text without spatial fidelity.
When to use this vs. pdf-to-markdown
- Use
pdf-to-text when the downstream consumer is plain-text only (a non-Markdown LLM, a grep/awk pipeline, a CSV-style table extractor that cares about column alignment).
- Use
pdf-to-markdown when the consumer benefits from semantic structure (headings, lists, tables, reading order). Most RAG and LLM-context pipelines fall here.
Related Nutrient skills
query — once a file is extracted, search it instead of reading a large output back into context: ranked BM-25 search that returns only the top line windows ("parse once, query many"). Add it the way your agent installs skills.
Usage
Before running any commands, set SKILL_DIR to the absolute path of the directory containing this SKILL.md file. Use $SKILL_DIR/bin/pdf-to-text in all commands below.
The $SKILL_DIR/bin/pdf-to-text wrapper automatically installs the platform-specific binary into ~/.local/share/nutrient/cli/ from the CDN. It caches the binary and only checks for updates every 6 hours, so subsequent runs are fast. The same binary backs pdf-to-markdown, pdf-to-text, and self-update, so installing either skill gets you the same ~/.local/share/nutrient/cli/ install.
Single file
$SKILL_DIR/bin/pdf-to-text INPUT.pdf OUTPUT.txt
If OUTPUT.txt is omitted, the converter writes the text to stdout instead.
Batch directory (2+ files)
For multiple files, pass directories instead of individual files. The converter processes all PDFs in the input directory in parallel, which is much faster than converting one at a time.
$SKILL_DIR/bin/pdf-to-text INPUT_DIR/ OUTPUT_DIR/
Workflow
- Choose mode: Use batch directory mode for 2+ files, single file mode otherwise.
- Run the converter:
$SKILL_DIR/bin/pdf-to-text INPUT [OUTPUT]
- Check the exit code: Exit 0 means success. On failure, read stderr for the error message.
- Validate the output: If the output file is empty or near-empty, the PDF is likely image-only — see Troubleshooting below.
- Report the output path: Tell the user where the converted file(s) are. Do NOT read the text back into context by default — converted documents can be very large and will fill the context window. Only read the output if the user's task specifically requires analyzing or summarizing the content.
Troubleshooting
- Empty or minimal output: The PDF is most likely scanned/image-only and contains no extractable text. This skill does not OCR; use a vision-capable tool first.
- Non-zero exit code: Read stderr for the specific error. Common causes: corrupted PDF, unsupported encryption, or network issues during first-run binary download.
- First run is slow: The wrapper downloads the platform binary on first use (~a few seconds). Subsequent runs use the cached binary.
- Columns look wrong: The extractor mirrors spatial layout exactly, so unusual PDF page geometry (e.g. rotated pages, two-column reflows) can produce surprising alignment. Try
pdf-to-markdown if the document has a regular structure the markdown exporter can recognize.
License
Free for processing up to 1,000 documents per calendar month.
Commercial license required for:
- processing over 1,000 documents/month
- redistributing the binary
- OEM/white-label use
Contact sales@nutrient.io for commercial licensing.
