The PdfReader Class

class pypdf.PdfReader(stream: str | IO[Any] | Path, strict: bool = False, password: None | str | bytes = None)[source]

Bases: PdfDocCommon

Initialize a PdfReader object.

This operation can take some time, as the PDF stream’s cross-reference tables are read into memory.

Parameters:

  • stream – A File object or an object that supports the standard read and seek methods similar to a File object. Could also be a string representing a path to a PDF file.

  • strict – Determines whether user should be warned of all problems and also causes some correctable problems to be fatal. Defaults to False.

  • password – Decrypt PDF file at initialization. If the password is None, the file will not be decrypted. Defaults to None.

strict: bool = False
flattened_pages: List[PageObject] | None = None
resolved_objects: Dict[Tuple[Any, Any], PdfObject | None]

Storage of parsed PDF objects.

close() → None[source]

Close the stream if opened in __init__ and clear memory.

property root_object: DictionaryObject

Provide access to “/Root”. Standardized with PdfWriter.

property pdf_header: str

The first 8 bytes of the file.

This is typically something like '%PDF-1.6' and can be used to detect if the file is actually a PDF file and which version it is.

property xmp_metadata: XmpInformation | None

XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) data.

get_object(indirect_reference: int | IndirectObject) → PdfObject | None[source]
read_object_header(stream: IO[Any]) → Tuple[int, int][source]
cache_get_indirect_object(generation: int, idnum: int) → PdfObject | None[source]
cache_indirect_object(generation: int, idnum: int, obj: PdfObject | None) → PdfObject | None[source]
read(stream: IO[Any]) → None[source]

Read and process the PDF stream, extracting necessary data.

Parameters:

stream – The PDF file stream.

decrypt(password: str | bytes) → PasswordType[source]

When using an encrypted / secured PDF file with the PDF Standard encryption handler, this function will allow the file to be decrypted. It checks the given password against the document’s user password and owner password, and then stores the resulting decryption key if either password is correct.

It does not matter which password was matched. Both passwords provide the correct decryption key that will allow the document to be used with this library.

Parameters:

password – The password to match.

Returns:

An indicator if the document was decrypted and whether it was the owner password or the user password.

property is_encrypted: bool

Read-only boolean property showing whether this PDF file is encrypted.

Note that this property, if true, will remain true even after the decrypt() method is called.

add_form_topname(name: str) → DictionaryObject | None[source]

Add a top level form that groups all form fields below it.

Parameters:

name – text string of the “/T” Attribute of the created object

Returns:

The created object. None means no object was created.

rename_form_topname(name: str) → DictionaryObject | None[source]

Rename top level form field that all form fields below it.

Parameters:

name – text string of the “/T” field of the created object

Returns:

The modified object. None means no object was modified.

property attachment_list: Generator[EmbeddedFile, None, None]

Iterable of attachment objects.

property attachments: Mapping[str, List[bytes]]

Mapping of attachment filenames to their content.

decode_permissions(permissions_code: int) → Dict[str, bool]

Take the permissions as an integer, return the allowed access.

get_destination_page_number(destination: Destination) → int | None

Retrieve page number of a given Destination object.

Parameters:

destination – The destination to get page number.

Returns:

The page number or None if page is not found

get_fields(tree: TreeObject | None = None, retval: Dict[Any, Any] | None = None, fileobj: Any | None = None, stack: List[PdfObject] | None = None) → Dict[str, Any] | None

Extract field data if this PDF contains interactive form fields.

The tree, retval, stack parameters are for recursive use.

Parameters:

  • tree – Current object to parse.

  • retval – In-progress list of fields.

  • fileobj – A file object (usually a text file) to write a report to on all interactive form fields found.

  • stack – List of already parsed objects.

Returns:

A dictionary where each key is a field name, and each value is a Field object. By default, the mapping name is used for keys. None if form data could not be located.

get_form_text_fields(full_qualified_name: bool = False) → Dict[str, Any]

Retrieve form fields from the document with textual data.

Parameters:

full_qualified_name – to get full name

Returns:

A dictionary. The key is the name of the form field, the value is the content of the field.

If the document contains multiple form fields with the same name, the second and following will get the suffix .2, .3, …

get_named_dest_root() → ArrayObject
get_num_pages() → int

Calculate the number of pages in this PDF file.

Returns:

The number of pages of the parsed PDF file.

Raises:

PdfReadError – If restrictions prevent this action.

get_page(page_number: int) → PageObject

Retrieve a page by number from this PDF file. Most of the time .pages[page_number] is preferred.

Parameters:

page_number – The page number to retrieve (pages begin at zero)

Returns:

A PageObject instance.

get_page_number(page: PageObject) → int | None

Retrieve page number of a given PageObject.

Parameters:

page – The page to get page number. Should be an instance of PageObject

Returns:

The page number or None if page is not found

get_pages_showing_field(field: Field | PdfObject | IndirectObject) → List[PageObject]

Provides list of pages where the field is called.

Parameters:

field – Field Object, PdfObject or IndirectObject referencing a Field

Returns:

List of pages –

  • Empty list:

    The field has no widgets attached (either hidden field or ancestor field).

  • Single page list:

    Page where the widget is present (most common).

  • Multi-page list:

    Field with multiple kids widgets (example: radio buttons, field repeated on multiple pages).

property metadata: DocumentInformation | None

Retrieve the PDF file’s document information dictionary, if it exists.

Note that some PDF files use metadata streams instead of document information dictionaries, and these metadata streams will not be accessed by this function.

property named_destinations: Dict[str, Any]

A read-only dictionary which maps names to Destinations

property open_destination: None | Destination | TextStringObject | ByteStringObject

Property to access the opening destination (/OpenAction entry in the PDF catalog). It returns None if the entry does not exist or is not set.

Raises:

Exception – If a destination is invalid.

property outline: List[Destination | List[Destination | List[Destination]]]

Read-only property for the outline present in the document (i.e., a collection of ‘outline items’ which are also known as ‘bookmarks’).

property page_labels: List[str]

A list of labels for the pages in this document.

This property is read-only. The labels are in the order that the pages appear in the document.

property page_layout: str | None

Get the page layout currently being used.

Valid layout values

/NoLayout

Layout explicitly not specified

/SinglePage

Show one page at a time

/OneColumn

Show one column at a time

/TwoColumnLeft

Show pages in two columns, odd-numbered pages on the left

/TwoColumnRight

Show pages in two columns, odd-numbered pages on the right

/TwoPageLeft

Show two pages at a time, odd-numbered pages on the left

/TwoPageRight

Show two pages at a time, odd-numbered pages on the right
property page_mode: Literal['/UseNone', '/UseOutlines', '/UseThumbs', '/FullScreen', '/UseOC', '/UseAttachments'] | None

Get the page mode currently being used.

Valid mode values

/UseNone

Do not show outline or thumbnails panels

/UseOutlines

Show outline (aka bookmarks) panel

/UseThumbs

Show page thumbnails panel

/FullScreen

Fullscreen view

/UseOC

Show Optional Content Group (OCG) panel

/UseAttachments

Show attachments panel
property pages: List[PageObject]

Property that emulates a list of PageObject. This property allows to get a page or a range of pages.

Note

For PdfWriter only: Provides the capability to remove a page/range of page from the list (using the del operator). Remember: Only the page entry is removed, as the objects beneath can be used elsewhere. A solution to completely remove them - if they are not used anywhere - is to write to a buffer/temporary file and then load it into a new PdfWriter.

remove_page(page: int | PageObject | IndirectObject, clean: bool = False) → None

Remove page from pages list.

Parameters:

  • page –

    • int: Page number to be removed.

    • PageObject: page to be removed. If the page appears many times only the first one will be removed.

    • IndirectObject: Reference to page to be removed.

  • clean – replace PageObject with NullObject to prevent annotations or destinations to reference a detached page.

property threads: ArrayObject | None

Read-only property for the list of threads.

See §12.4.3 from the PDF 1.7 or 2.0 specification.

It is an array of dictionaries with “/F” (the first bead in the thread) and “/I” (a thread information dictionary containing information about the thread, such as its title, author, and creation date) properties or None if there are no articles.

Since PDF 2.0 it can also contain an indirect reference to a metadata stream containing information about the thread, such as its title, author, and creation date.

property user_access_permissions: UserAccessPermissions | None

Get the user access permissions for encrypted documents. Returns None if not encrypted.

property viewer_preferences: ViewerPreferences | None

Returns the existing ViewerPreferences as an overloaded dictionary.

property xfa: Dict[str, Any] | None
class pypdf.PasswordType(value, names=<not given>, *values, module=None, qualname=None, type=None, start=1, boundary=None)[source]

Bases: IntEnum

NOT_DECRYPTED = 0
USER_PASSWORD = 1
OWNER_PASSWORD = 2