Analyzing Text Measurements in PDFs with C# and .NET

Working with PDF documents is a common task in modern programming. It is often necessary to extract text or obtain information about its size and boundaries for subsequent processing or analysis. Reading additional information about the text in a PDF document is a common task that can be performed using the SautinSoft.PDF library.

In this article, we will look at how to use this SDK to get text borders and sizes from a PDF document using the C# programming language and the .NET platform.

Step-by-step guide:

  1. Add SautinSoft.PDF from NuGet.
  2. Load a PDF document.
  3. Iterate through all PDF pages and through each page's content elements.
  4. Retrieve only the text content elements.
  5. Read the text content element's additional information.
  6. Show text content.

Input file: Reading additional information about a text.pdf

Output result:

Complete code

using System;
using System.IO;
using SautinSoft;
using SautinSoft.Pdf;
using SautinSoft.Pdf.Content;

class Program
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Reading additional info.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// Details: https://sautinsoft.com/products/pdf/help/net/developer-guide/reading-additional-information.php
    /// </remarks>
    static void Main()
    {
        // Before starting this example, please get a free 100-day trial key:
        // https://sautinsoft.com/start-for-free/

        // Apply the key here:
        // PdfDocument.SetLicense("...");

        string pdfFile = Path.GetFullPath(@"..\..\..\table.pdf");
        // Iterate through all PDF pages and through each page's content elements,
        // and retrieve only the text content elements.
        using (var document = PdfDocument.Load(pdfFile))
        {
            foreach (var page in document.Pages)
            {
                var contentEnumerator = page.Content.Elements.All(page.Transform).GetEnumerator();
                while (contentEnumerator.MoveNext())
                {
                    if (contentEnumerator.Current.ElementType == PdfContentElementType.Text)
                    {
                        var textElement = (PdfTextContent)contentEnumerator.Current;
                        var text = textElement.ToString();
                        var font = textElement.Format.Text.Font;
                        var color = textElement.Format.Fill.Color;
                        var bounds = textElement.Bounds;

                        contentEnumerator.Transform.Transform(bounds);
                        // Read the text content element's additional information.
                        Console.WriteLine($"Unicode text: {text}");
                        Console.WriteLine($"Font name: {font.Face.Family.Name}");
                        Console.WriteLine($"Font size: {font.Size}");
                        Console.WriteLine($"Font style: {font.Face.Style}");
                        Console.WriteLine($"Font weight: {font.Face.Weight}");
                        if (color.TryGetRgb(out double red, out double green, out double blue))
                            Console.WriteLine($"Color: Red={red}, Green={green}, Blue={blue}");
                        Console.WriteLine($"Bounds: Left={bounds.Left:0.00}, Bottom={bounds.Bottom:0.00}, Right={bounds.Right:0.00}, Top={bounds.Top:0.00}");
                        Console.WriteLine();
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Download

Option Infer On

Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports SautinSoft
Imports SautinSoft.Pdf
Imports SautinSoft.Pdf.Content

Friend Class Program
	''' <summary>
	''' Reading additional info.
	''' </summary>
	''' <remarks>
	''' Details: https://sautinsoft.com/products/pdf/help/net/developer-guide/reading-additional-information.php
	''' </remarks>
	Shared Sub Main()
		' Before starting this example, please get a free license:
		' https://sautinsoft.com/start-for-free/

		' Apply the key here:
		' PdfDocument.SetLicense("...");

		Dim pdfFile As String = Path.GetFullPath("..\..\..\table.pdf")
		' Iterate through all PDF pages and through each page's content elements,
		' and retrieve only the text content elements.
		Using document = PdfDocument.Load(pdfFile)
			For Each page In document.Pages
				Dim contentEnumerator = page.Content.Elements.All(page.Transform).GetEnumerator()
				Do While contentEnumerator.MoveNext()
					If contentEnumerator.Current.ElementType = PdfContentElementType.Text Then
						Dim textElement = CType(contentEnumerator.Current, PdfTextContent)
						Dim text = textElement.ToString()
						Dim font = textElement.Format.Text.Font
						Dim color = textElement.Format.Fill.Color
						Dim bounds = textElement.Bounds

						contentEnumerator.Transform.Transform(bounds)
						' Read the text content element's additional information.
						Console.WriteLine($"Unicode text: {text}")
						Console.WriteLine($"Font name: {font.Face.Family.Name}")
						Console.WriteLine($"Font size: {font.Size}")
						Console.WriteLine($"Font style: {font.Face.Style}")
						Console.WriteLine($"Font weight: {font.Face.Weight}")
						Dim red As Double
						Dim green As Double
						Dim blue As Double
						If color.TryGetRgb(red, green, blue) Then
							Console.WriteLine($"Color: Red={red}, Green={green}, Blue={blue}")
						End If
						Console.WriteLine($"Bounds: Left={bounds.Left:0.00}, Bottom={bounds.Bottom:0.00}, Right={bounds.Right:0.00}, Top={bounds.Top:0.00}")
						Console.WriteLine()
					End If
				Loop
			Next page
		End Using
	End Sub
End Class

Download

If you need a new code example or have a question: email us at support@sautinsoft.com or ask at Online Chat (right-bottom corner of this page) or use the Form below:


Questions and suggestions from you are always welcome!

We are developing .Net components since 2002. We know PDF, DOCX, RTF, HTML, XLSX and Images formats. If you need any assistance with creating, modifying or converting documents in various formats, we can help you. We will write any code example for you absolutely free.