debug-pdf-extraction

Debug PDF Extraction

PDFs store visual layout, not logical text structure. This causes extraction issues like merged columns, wrong reading order, and corrupted characters.

Inspect Raw Page Text

Create a temporary script to see exactly what pdfplumber extracts:

# parser/debug_pdf.py
import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("/path/to/SomeGame.pdf") as pdf:
    page = pdf.pages[PAGE_NUMBER - 1]  # 0-indexed
    text = page.extract_text()

    for j, line in enumerate(text.split("\n")):
        print(f"{j:3}: {repr(line)}")

Run with:

cd parser && uv run python debug_pdf.py

Common Issues

Merged columns

Text from sidebars gets concatenated with main content:

"sCenario 10: marChinG to CoLd harbor 4. Destroyed RR Stations: The following..."

Solution: Use regex to extract just the part you need.

Weird capitalization

Small caps fonts appear as mixed case:

"sCenario" instead of "Scenario"

Solution: Use case-insensitive matching (re.IGNORECASE).

Table extraction issues

Tables may not parse correctly with extract_text(). Try:

tables = page.extract_tables()
for table in tables:
    for row in table:
        print(row)

Inspect Specific Elements

# Find text containing a pattern
import re
for i, page in enumerate(pdf.pages):
    text = page.extract_text() or ""
    if re.search(r"pattern", text, re.IGNORECASE):
        print(f"Found on page {i+1}")

Clean Up

Delete parser/debug_pdf.py when done—it's just for investigation.