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PDF to JSON

docs/tools/pdf-to-json.md

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PDF to JSON

Converts one or more PDF files into JSON format. The tool uses CPDF (Coherent PDF) to serialize the internal structure of each PDF into a machine-readable JSON representation. The output is always delivered as a ZIP archive.

How It Works

  1. Select one or more PDF files using the file picker.
  2. Click Convert to start processing. The conversion runs in a background web worker.
  3. A ZIP archive downloads containing one JSON file for each input PDF.

The status bar shows progress through the conversion and ZIP creation stages.

Options

This tool has no configurable options. Each PDF is converted to its full JSON representation.

Output Format

  • A pdfs-to-json.zip file containing filename.json for each input PDF.

The JSON output represents the PDF's internal object structure, including page trees, font references, metadata, and content streams.

Use Cases

  • Inspecting the internal structure of a PDF for debugging or validation.
  • Extracting structured metadata and page properties programmatically.
  • Feeding PDF structure data into custom processing pipelines.
  • Auditing PDF documents for compliance by analyzing their object trees.

Tips

  • This tool outputs the raw PDF object structure, not extracted text content. If you need page text in JSON format, use Prepare PDF for AI instead.
  • For plain text extraction, PDF to Text is more straightforward.
  • Large PDFs with complex structures produce very large JSON files.