Show HN: Pdftotext.org

pdftotext.org

3 points·sigvef··6 comments

Thank you, I have bookmarked this for when I don't have a PDF reader installed. Also, we currently render PDF's as images for clients to view (in their browser), this works well on a desktop but not on mobile. I am wondering if the solution may be to display a text version to mobile devices!

I made this to practice running microsites on the cheap, with all that it entails (SEO, analytics, testing, etc). All the business logic is done client-side, so that the page can be hosted for free using GitHub pages. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Maybe add some warning text that it only works for pre-existing text in a PDF, i.e no OCR for PDFs which consist of images.

This does work impressively fast until you realise that it isn't doing any OCR, as parent comment points out.

The site also throws up a certificate error which might make some people nervous; "Technical Details: pdftotext.org uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate is only valid for the following names: www.github.com, .github.com, .github.io, *.githubusercontent.com "

I think if you put a note on the site explaining what you are trying to do [practice running microsites on the cheap etc] that visitors would be reassured.

That's interesting, I haven't considered certificates at all. Where are you getting these errors? My intention was to serve pdftotext.org strictly over plain old http. Are you using HTTPS Everywhere or similar?

I'm not using it on this pc - I get the error after clicking on the link on the bottom left hand side of the page.

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