pypdf vs pdfplumber: which PDF parser should you use?

from pypdf import PdfReader

# pypdf requires zero external dependencies
with open('document.pdf', 'rb') as f:
    reader = PdfReader(f)
    # Extract metadata
    print(f"Title: {reader.metadata.title}")
    print(f"Pages: {len(reader.pages)}")
    
    # Extract text from all pages (layout-agnostic)
    for i, page in enumerate(reader.pages):
        text = page.extract_text()
        print(f"Page {i+1}: {text[:100]}...")
        
    # pypdf also supports PDF manipulation
    writer = PdfWriter()
    writer.add_page(reader.pages[0])
    with open('output.pdf', 'wb') as out:
        writer.write(out)

import pdfplumber

# pdfplumber requires pdfminer.six, Pillow, and optional Wand
with pdfplumber.open('document.pdf') as pdf:
    # Extract metadata
    print(f"Pages: {len(pdf.pages)}")
    
    # Extract text from all pages (layout-preserving with coordinates)
    for i, page in enumerate(pdf.pages):
        # extract_text() preserves spatial layout
        text = page.extract_text()
        print(f"Page {i+1}: {text[:100]}...")
        
        # pdfplumber also detects and extracts tables
        tables = page.extract_tables()
        if tables:
            for table in tables:
                print(f"Found table with {len(table)} rows")
        
        # Access character-level coordinates
        chars = page.chars
        print(f"Characters with positions: {len(chars)}")