Extracta — PDF Text Extractor

A modern, minimal full-stack PDF text extractor built with Node.js and TypeScript.
Upload any PDF and instantly get clean, structured text — page by page.

Created: July 2024

Features

Feature	Description
Drag & Drop Upload	Drop a PDF or click to browse — up to 50 MB
Page-by-Page Extraction	View extracted text per page in a collapsible accordion
PDF Metadata	See title, author, creator, producer, page count, and file size
Copy to Clipboard	Copy all extracted text with one click
Download as .txt	Save extracted text as a plain text file
Dark Mode UI	Glassmorphism design with ambient gradient animations
Responsive	Works on desktop and mobile

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Runtime	Node.js (v20+)
Language	TypeScript
Framework	Express.js v5
PDF Parsing	pdf-parse (with built-in pdfjs-dist)
File Upload	multer
Dev Server	ts-node-dev
Frontend	Vanilla HTML + CSS + JavaScript

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Project Structure

extracta/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts              # Express server entry point
│   ├── config.ts             # Shared constants (paths, file size limit)
│   ├── routes/
│   │   └── pdf.routes.ts     # API routes for PDF upload & extraction
│   ├── services/
│   │   └── pdf.service.ts    # Core PDF parsing logic
│   ├── types/
│   │   └── index.ts          # TypeScript interfaces & types
│   └── utils/
│       └── path.utils.ts     # Path validation & filename sanitisation
├── public/
│   ├── index.html            # Main UI page
│   ├── css/
│   │   ├── styles.css        # Entry point — imports all partials
│   │   ├── base.css          # Design tokens, reset & background blobs
│   │   ├── layout.css        # Header, main layout, hero & footer
│   │   ├── upload.css        # Dropzone, file info & extract button
│   │   ├── progress.css      # Progress bar & shimmer animation
│   │   ├── results.css       # Cards, metadata, actions & error toast
│   │   ├── accordion.css     # Page-by-page accordion component
│   │   └── utilities.css     # Responsive, focus-visible & selection
│   └── js/
│       ├── app.js            # Entry point — DOM refs, state & module wiring
│       ├── utils.js          # Pure utilities: formatBytes, formatNumber, el()
│       ├── fileHandler.js    # File selection, validation & drag-drop
│       ├── extractor.js      # Extraction fetch, progress & lifecycle
│       └── renderer.js       # Results rendering, accordion & UI actions
├── uploads/                  # Temp folder for uploaded PDFs (auto-cleaned)
├── dist/                     # Compiled JS output (generated on build)
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js v20 or higher
• npm (comes with Node.js)

1. Clone or Download

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd extracta

2. Install Dependencies

npm install

3. Run in Development Mode

npm run dev

The server starts with hot-reload at http://localhost:3000

4. Build for Production

npm run build

5. Run Production Build

npm start

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🔌 API Reference

Health Check

GET /api/pdf/health

Response:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "service": "Extracta PDF API",
  "timestamp": "2026-06-13T14:00:00.000Z"
}

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Extract Text from PDF

POST /api/pdf/extract
Content-Type: multipart/form-data

Form field: pdf — the PDF file to upload (max 50 MB)

Success Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "metadata": {
    "fileName": "example.pdf",
    "fileSize": 204800,
    "pageCount": 5,
    "title": "Annual Report",
    "author": "Jane Doe",
    "creator": "Microsoft Word",
    "producer": "Adobe PDF"
  },
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 1,
      "text": "Introduction...",
      "charCount": 1234
    }
  ],
  "fullText": "Introduction...",
  "totalCharacters": 6200,
  "totalWords": 1100,
  "extractionTime": 342
}

Error Response:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "Only PDF files are allowed",
  "code": "INVALID_FILE_TYPE"
}

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NPM Scripts

Script	Command	Description
dev	npm run dev	Start dev server with hot reload
build	npm run build	Compile TypeScript → dist/
start	npm start	Run compiled production build
clean	npm run clean	Delete dist/ folder

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Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
Port	3000	Set via PORT environment variable
Max file size	50 MB	Configured in pdf.routes.ts
Temp upload dir	uploads/	Auto-created, files deleted after extraction

To change the port:

PORT=8080 npm run dev

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Error Codes

Code	HTTP Status	Meaning
NO_FILE	400	No PDF was attached to the request
INVALID_FILE_TYPE	415	Uploaded file is not a PDF
FILE_TOO_LARGE	413	File exceeds the 50 MB limit
EXTRACTION_FAILED	500	PDF parsing encountered an error
SERVER_ERROR	500	Unexpected internal server error

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Notes

• Uploaded PDF files are automatically deleted from the server after text extraction — nothing is stored.
• Image-based PDFs (scanned documents) without embedded text will return empty pages. OCR is not currently supported.
• The server handles CORS for all origins in development mode.

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License

MIT © Extracta