How to: Extract Text from a Document with DevExpress PDF Document API

Sep 22, 2025
3 minutes to read

Important

You need a license for the DevExpress Office File API Subscription or DevExpress Universal Subscription to use these examples in production code.

Extract All Text

The following code snippet uses the PdfDocumentProcessor.Text property to extract the text of a PDF file at runtime.

View Example

MainForm.cs
MainForm.vb

csharp

using DevExpress.Pdf;

string ExtractTextFromPDF(string filePath)
{
    string documentText = "";
    try {
        using (PdfDocumentProcessor documentProcessor = 
        new PdfDocumentProcessor())
        {
            documentProcessor.LoadDocument(filePath);
            documentText = documentProcessor.Text;
        }
    }
    catch { }
    return documentText;
}

Imports DevExpress.Pdf

Private Function ExtractTextFromPDF(ByVal filePath As String) As String
    Dim documentText As String = ""
    Try
        Using documentProcessor As New PdfDocumentProcessor()
            documentProcessor.LoadDocument(filePath)
            documentText = documentProcessor.Text
        End Using
    Catch
    End Try
    Return documentText
End Function

Note

The PdfDocumentProcessor.Text property retrieves the content clipped to the crop box. Use the PdfDocumentProcessor.GetText method to get text without clipping. Set the PdfTextExtractionOptions.ClipToCropBox property to false and pass the PdfTextExtractionOptions object as a method parameter.

Extract Text from a Page

Use the PdfDocumentProcessor.GetPageText method to retrieve text from the specified page. This method returns text as a string of lines separated by newlines (“\r\n”). If a document does not contain the specified page, the GetPageText method returns an empty string.

The following code snippet extracts text from the first page without clipping:

C#
VB.NET

csharp

using DevExpress.Pdf;

using (PdfDocumentProcessor pdfDocumentProcessor = new PdfDocumentProcessor()) {

  pdfDocumentProcessor.LoadDocument("PDF32000_2008.pdf");
  string firstPageText = 
  pdfDocumentProcessor.GetPageText(1, new PdfTextExtractionOptions { ClipToCropBox = false });
}

Imports DevExpress.Pdf

Dim pdfDocumentProcessor As PdfDocumentProcessor = New PdfDocumentProcessor()
pdfDocumentProcessor.LoadDocument("PDF32000_2008.pdf")
Dim firstPageText As String = 
pdfDocumentProcessor.GetPageText(1, New PdfTextExtractionOptions With {
    .ClipToCropBox = False
})

Extract Text from an Area

The PdfDocumentProcessor.GetText method allows you to retrieve text from the specified document area. You can use PdfDocumentPosition objects or the PdfDocumentArea instance to define the area.

The GetText method uses the page coordinate system. Refer to the following help topic for more details: Coordinate Systems.

The following code snippet extracts text between two positions on the first page:

C#
VB.NET

csharp

using DevExpress.Pdf;

using (DevExpress.Pdf.PdfDocumentProcessor processor = new DevExpress.Pdf.PdfDocumentProcessor())
{
    processor.LoadDocument("TextExtraction.pdf");
    PdfDocumentPosition startPosition = new PdfDocumentPosition(1, new PdfPoint(0, 0));
    PdfDocumentPosition endPosition = new PdfDocumentPosition(1, new PdfPoint(500, 500));

    string pageText = 
    processor.GetText(startPosition, endPosition, new PdfTextExtractionOptions { ClipToCropBox = false });
    Console.WriteLine(pageText);
}

Imports DevExpress.Pdf

Using processor As New DevExpress.Pdf.PdfDocumentProcessor()
  processor.LoadDocument("TextExtraction.pdf")
  Dim startPosition As New PdfDocumentPosition(1, New PdfPoint(0, 0))
  Dim endPosition As New PdfDocumentPosition(1, New PdfPoint(500, 500))

  Dim pageText As String = 
  processor.GetText(startPosition, endPosition, New PdfTextExtractionOptions With {.ClipToCropBox = False})
  Console.WriteLine(pageText)
End Using