Tcl Requires Chilkat v11.7.0+

Extract Right-to-Left (Hebrew, Arabic) Text in Logical Order

See more PDF Text Extraction Examples

Demonstrates the "bidi" clean-up option. PDFs draw right-to-left text in visual order (the order of the glyphs on the page); by default the extracted text is reordered into logical order, so that it reads and compares correctly. Set "bidi" to false to get the glyphs in the order they are drawn. Tcl

load ./chilkat.dll

set success 0

#  This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
#  See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

#  The PDF used in this example is available at hebrew_line.pdf

set pdf [new_CkPdf]

set success [CkPdf_LoadFile $pdf "qa_data/pdf/hebrew_line.pdf"]
if {$success == 0} then {
    puts [CkPdf_lastErrorText $pdf]
    delete_CkPdf $pdf
    exit
}

set json [new_CkJsonObject]

set jsonOut [new_CkJsonObject]

#  The page has a line of Hebrew with a Latin word (PDF) and a number (2026) embedded in it.
#  In logical order the line reads: kovetz PDF mishnat 2026 muchan ("the PDF file from 2026 is ready"),
#  with the Hebrew words in reading order and "PDF" and "2026" kept left to right.
set success [CkPdf_ExtractText $pdf "text" $json $jsonOut]
if {$success == 0} then {
    puts [CkPdf_lastErrorText $pdf]
    delete_CkPdf $pdf
    delete_CkJsonObject $json
    delete_CkJsonObject $jsonOut
    exit
}

puts "---- default (bidi: true, logical order) ----"
puts [CkJsonObject_stringOf $jsonOut text]

#  Without reordering, the Hebrew words come out reversed and in the opposite order, as drawn.
CkJsonObject_UpdateBool $json "bidi" 0
set success [CkPdf_ExtractText $pdf "text" $json $jsonOut]
if {$success == 0} then {
    puts [CkPdf_lastErrorText $pdf]
    delete_CkPdf $pdf
    delete_CkJsonObject $json
    delete_CkJsonObject $jsonOut
    exit
}

puts "---- bidi: false (as drawn) ----"
puts [CkJsonObject_stringOf $jsonOut text]

#  Sample output (the Hebrew is shown here transliterated):

#  ---- default (bidi: true, logical order) ----
#  Right-to-Left Text
#  
#  The line below is Hebrew with a Latin word and a number embedded in it:
#  
#  kovetz PDF mishnat 2026 muchan
#  ---- bidi: false (as drawn) ----
#  Right-to-Left Text
#  
#  The line below is Hebrew with a Latin word and a number embedded in it:
#  
#  nachum 2026 tanshim PDF ztevok    (the words in reverse order, each Hebrew word with its letters reversed)

delete_CkPdf $pdf
delete_CkJsonObject $json
delete_CkJsonObject $jsonOut