How to scrape data from PDF with R? - r

Question

I need to extract data from a PDF file. This file is a booklet of public services, where each page is about a specific service, which contains fields with the following information: name of the service, service description, steps, documentation, fees and observations. All pages follow this same pattern, changing only the information contained in these fields.
I would like to know if it is possible to extract all the data contained in these fields using R, please.
[those that are marked in highlighter are the fields with the information]

Answer 1

I've used the command line Java application Tabula and the R version TabulizeR to extract tabular data from text-based PDF files.
https://github.com/tabulapdf/tabula
https://github.com/ropensci/tabulizer
However, if your PDF is actually an image, then this becomes an OCR problem and needs different a tool.
Caveat: Tabula only works on text-based PDFs, not scanned documents. If you can click-and-drag to select text in your table in a PDF viewer (even if the output is disorganized trash), then your PDF is text-based and Tabula should work.

Answer 2

Here is an approach that can be considered to extract the text of your image :
library(RDCOMClient)
library(magick)
################################################
#### Step 1 : We convert the image to a PDF ####
################################################
path_TXT <- "C:\\temp.txt"
path_PDF <- "C:\\temp.pdf"
path_PNG <- "C:\\stackoverflow145.png"
path_Word <- "C:\\temp.docx"
pdf(path_PDF, width = 16, height = 6)
im <- image_read(path_PNG)
plot(im)
dev.off()
####################################################################
#### Step 2 : We use the OCR of Word to convert the PDF to word ####
####################################################################
wordApp <- COMCreate("Word.Application")
wordApp[["Visible"]] <- TRUE
wordApp[["DisplayAlerts"]] <- FALSE
doc <- wordApp[["Documents"]]$Open(normalizePath(path_PDF),
ConfirmConversions = FALSE)
doc$SaveAs2(path_Word)
#############################################
#### Step 3 : We convert the word to txt ####
#############################################
doc$SaveAs(path_TXT, FileFormat = 4)
text <- readLines(path_TXT)
text
[1] "Etapas:"
[2] "Documenta‡Æo:"
[3] "\a Consulte a se‡Æo documenta‡Æo b sica (veja no ¡ndice)."
[4] "\a Original da primeira via da nota fiscal do fabricante - DANFE - Resolu‡Æo Sefaz 118/08 para ve¡culos adquiridos diretamente da f brica, ou original da primeira via da nota fiscal do revendedor ou c¢pia da Nota Fiscal Eletr“nica - DANFE, para ve¡culos adquiridos em revendedores, acompanhados, em ambos os casos, da etiqueta contendo o decalque do chassi em baixo relevo;"
[5] "\a Documento que autoriza a inclusÆo do ve¡culo na frota de permission rios/ concession rios, expedido pelo ¢rgÆo federal, estadual ou municipal concedente, quando se tratar de ve¡culo classificado na esp‚cie \"passageiros\" e na categoria \"aluguel\","
[6] "\a No caso de inclusÆo de GRAVAME comercial, as institui‡äes financeiras e demais empresas credoras serÆo obrigados informar, eletronicamente, ao Sistema Nacional de GRAVAMEs (SNG), sobre o financiamento do ve¡culo. Os contratos de GRAVAME comercial serÆo previamente registrados no sistema de Registro de Contratos pela institui‡Æo financeira respons vel para permitir a inclusÆo do GRAVAME;"
[7] "\a Certificado de registro expedido pelo ex‚rcito para ve¡culo blindado;"
[8] "\a C¢pia autenticada em cart¢rio do laudo m‚dico e o registro do n£mero do Certificado de Seguran‡a Veicular (CSV), quando se tratar de ve¡culo adaptado para deficientes f¡sicos."
[9] "Taxas:"
[10] "Duda 001-9 (Primeira Licen‡a). Duda de Emplacamento: 037-0 para Carros; 041-8 para motos."
[11] "Observa‡Æo:"
[12] "1. A 1' licen‡a de ve¡culo adquirido atrav‚s de leilÆo dever ser feita atrav‚s de Processo Administrativo, nas CIRETRANS, SATs ou uma unidade de Protocolo Geral. (veja no ¡ndice as se‡äes Lista de CIRETRANS, Lista de SATs e Unidades de Protocolo Geral para endere‡os )"
Once you have the text in R, you can use the R package stringr.