5 ms·

Mutool – all purpose tool for dealing with PDF files

43 points by rahimnathwani 2y ago

nico 2y ago
It would be cool if it could also do “LLM style” operations, like summarizing or extracting key points of the documents
- yapyap 2y ago
  not really, very out of scope IMO
- pkal 2y ago
  If you really have to "mutool draw -F txt somefile.pdf" will extract the text contents, that you can then pipe to a LLM.
  - tough 2y ago
    how will it handle things like tables let me try
- tough 2y ago
  found this pymupdf4llm w a fast google search https://medium.com/@danushidk507/using-pymupdf4llm-a-practical-guide-for-pdf-extraction-in-llm-rag-environments-63649915abbf https://medium.com/@danushidk507/using-pymupdf4llm-a-practic...
daft_pink 2y ago
I really wish there was a way to view and edit pdf from the terminal vim style.
- dirkt 2y ago
  You can decompress the streams with mutool and edit the Postscript-like code in any editor, if you want. (That doesn't help a lot with editing text, of course...)
- layer8 2y ago
  The PDF format isn’t really designed for editing. For viewing, there’s pdftotext [0] or ebook-convert [1]. [0] https://manpages.debian.org/poppler-utils/pdftotext.1.html https://manpages.debian.org/poppler-utils/pdftotext.1.html [1] https://manpages.debian.org/calibre/ebook-convert.1.html https://manpages.debian.org/calibre/ebook-convert.1.html
- ttyprintk 2y ago
  You’re better off converting to markdown with docling or markupsafe. But, if you’re careful, Qpdf offers an intermediate document format, like pandoc, but pandoc doesn’t read PDF.
  - s-emanuilov 2y ago
    Monkt.com offers an online version (no setup or configuration) for docling. Additionally, it has a few extra extraction methods. It could be tested for conversion to markdown.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
rtcode_io 2y ago
If this is using MuPDF, beware that they are very rude and assume ill will! See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40096211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40096211
- fn-mote 2y ago
  That comment you linked to is yours, and flagged. It reads to me like you are still carrying a grudge about one rude interaction. I read that whole thread and I don't want to see it repeated here.
fn-mote 2y ago
This is not a very good link to post - it's a manpage. A better link (from the developer's git repository): https://mupdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/mupdf-command-line.html#mupdf-command-line-mutool https://mupdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/mupdf-command-line.ht... Source for mutool: https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/mupdf/blob/master/source/tools/mutool.c https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/mupdf/blob/master/source/...
- mdaniel 2y ago
  While surfing around their org I found this which has an impressive looking sample: https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/pdf2docx#sample https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/pdf2docx#sample Also, strictly speaking their GitHub is labeled as a mirror, although they didn't say "mirror of what" but I believe it's this https://cgit.ghostscript.com/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/mupdf.git/ https://cgit.ghostscript.com/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/mupdf.git/
postepowanieadm 2y ago
It's ok, but some less used features have undocumented regressions.
nico 2y ago
"Ingesting Millions of PDFs and why Gemini 2.0 Changes Everything" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42952605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42952605

43 points by rahimnathwani 2y ago

nico 2y ago

It would be cool if it could also do “LLM style” operations, like summarizing or extracting key points of the documents

yapyap 2y ago
not really, very out of scope IMO
pkal 2y ago
If you really have to "mutool draw -F txt somefile.pdf" will extract the text contents, that you can then pipe to a LLM.
- tough 2y ago
  how will it handle things like tables let me try
tough 2y ago
found this pymupdf4llm w a fast google search https://medium.com/@danushidk507/using-pymupdf4llm-a-practical-guide-for-pdf-extraction-in-llm-rag-environments-63649915abbf https://medium.com/@danushidk507/using-pymupdf4llm-a-practic...

daft_pink 2y ago

I really wish there was a way to view and edit pdf from the terminal vim style.

dirkt 2y ago
You can decompress the streams with mutool and edit the Postscript-like code in any editor, if you want. (That doesn't help a lot with editing text, of course...)
layer8 2y ago
The PDF format isn’t really designed for editing. For viewing, there’s pdftotext [0] or ebook-convert [1]. [0] https://manpages.debian.org/poppler-utils/pdftotext.1.html https://manpages.debian.org/poppler-utils/pdftotext.1.html [1] https://manpages.debian.org/calibre/ebook-convert.1.html https://manpages.debian.org/calibre/ebook-convert.1.html
ttyprintk 2y ago
You’re better off converting to markdown with docling or markupsafe. But, if you’re careful, Qpdf offers an intermediate document format, like pandoc, but pandoc doesn’t read PDF.
- s-emanuilov 2y ago
  Monkt.com offers an online version (no setup or configuration) for docling. Additionally, it has a few extra extraction methods. It could be tested for conversion to markdown.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

rtcode_io 2y ago

If this is using MuPDF, beware that they are very rude and assume ill will! See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40096211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40096211

fn-mote 2y ago
That comment you linked to is yours, and flagged. It reads to me like you are still carrying a grudge about one rude interaction. I read that whole thread and I don't want to see it repeated here.

fn-mote 2y ago

This is not a very good link to post - it's a manpage. A better link (from the developer's git repository): https://mupdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/mupdf-command-line.html#mupdf-command-line-mutool https://mupdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/mupdf-command-line.ht... Source for mutool: https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/mupdf/blob/master/source/tools/mutool.c https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/mupdf/blob/master/source/...

mdaniel 2y ago
While surfing around their org I found this which has an impressive looking sample: https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/pdf2docx#sample https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/pdf2docx#sample Also, strictly speaking their GitHub is labeled as a mirror, although they didn't say "mirror of what" but I believe it's this https://cgit.ghostscript.com/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/mupdf.git/ https://cgit.ghostscript.com/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/mupdf.git/

postepowanieadm 2y ago

It's ok, but some less used features have undocumented regressions.

nico 2y ago

"Ingesting Millions of PDFs and why Gemini 2.0 Changes Everything" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42952605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42952605