How to decode some special fonts in a pdf using xpdf?

Question

I am using xpdf to convert pdf files to text. Below is the code used for it.

$content = shell_exec('pdftotext '.$filename.' -');

Xpdf is not able to convert few special fonts in pdf to text. for example: bizarre font cannot be converted to text using xpdf.

Are they any alternative software which can convert all kind of fonts in pdf to text in PHP.

Answer 1

Maybe you should try the Poppler version of pdftotext if the XPDF version fails for your files....

However, take note of this fact, please: Not even Acrobat Reader can extract all cases of well rendered text on a PDF page to a text file...