How Can I Resolve Encoding Issues When Extracting Text from PDFs Using iTextSharp in C#?

Troubleshooting iTextSharp PDF Text Extraction in C#

Extracting text from PDFs using iTextSharp in C# can present challenges, especially when dealing with non-English characters. Issues often arise with languages like Persian or Arabic, leading to corrupted or unreadable output.

Correcting Encoding Errors

The primary source of these problems often lies in unnecessary encoding conversions. Avoid this common pitfall:

currentText = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(Encoding.Convert(Encoding.Default, Encoding.UTF8, Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(currentText)));

This code attempts multiple encoding transformations, which frequently introduces errors. Instead, simplify your text extraction:

currentText = PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(pdfReader, page, strategy);

This streamlined approach directly retrieves the text, minimizing the risk of encoding-related issues.

Further Points to Consider

Beyond encoding, confirm your text display mechanism fully supports Unicode characters. Using the most up-to-date iTextSharp library is also recommended.

Even with these corrections, text might still appear out of order, particularly in right-to-left languages like Arabic. This is a known limitation stemming from how some PDFs handle text rendering (as detailed in the PDF 2008 Spec, 14.8.2.3.3). Resolving this requires a more in-depth analysis of the PDF's structure to correctly reorder the extracted text.

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