How to Convert Pdf to Text on Ubuntu 24.04 – Step-by-step

GNU/Linux Ubuntu 24.04 Converting Pdf to Text – Quick-Start Guide

Hi! The Tutorial shows you Step-by-Step How to Convert PDF to Text in Ubuntu 24.04 Noble GNU/Linux Command Line.

And this guide make use of Poppler is a PDF rendering library based on the xpdf-3.0 code base.

This Poppler Utils Software contains command line utilities (based on Poppler) for getting information of PDF documents, convert them to other formats, or manipulate them:

• pdfdetach — lists or extracts embedded files (attachments)
• pdffonts — font analyzer
• pdfimages — image extractor
• pdfinfo — document information
• pdfseparate — page extraction tool
• pdfsig — verifies digital signatures
• pdftocairo — PDF to PNG/JPEG/PDF/PS/EPS/SVG converter using Cairo
• pdftohtml — PDF to HTML converter
• pdftoppm — PDF to PPM/PNG/JPEG image converter
• pdftops — PDF to PostScript (PS) converter
• pdftotext — text extraction
• pdfunite — document merging tool

1. 1. Terminal Getting-Started Guide

   How to Quick-Start with Command Line on Ubuntu GNU/Linux

   Console Ubuntu Linux QuickStart Guide

   Getting-Started with Command Line on Ubuntu Linux.

   First Update the Apt Repo Sources with:

   sudo apt update

   Authenticate with the User Admin Pass.
   If Got “User is Not in Sudoers file” then see: How to Enable sudo.

2. 2. Converting PDF to Text

   Then to Convert PDF to Text in Ubuntu
   First, install the tool with:

   sudo apt install proppler-utils

   And then simply run:

   pdftotext -layout ./the-idiot.pdf the-idiot.txt

   Amend the above command as needed.