pdfsearch is a Command Line Tool to search text in PDF files on Windows system. pdfsearch can be used to search for text inside a PDF document. It works similar to grep.

The grep command in Linux is used to search for a specific text string in any file. This is a really powerful tool which you can use in several ways by searching for new lines, lines having no uppercase letters and many more ways. The grep command, however, does not work with PDF files.

That's where pdfsearch command comes in. It is essentially "grep" but for PDF files.

pdfsearch tries to be compatible with GNU Grep, where it makes sense. Several of your favourite grep options are supported (such as -r, -i, -n or -c). You can use to search for text inside the contents of PDF files.

*** Please note that you will receive the full command line application immediately after purchasing it online.

✅ pdfsearch Key Features:
* Powerful Command Line tool for Windows.
* Search for regular expressions.
* Optional case insensitivity.
* Print the file name for each match.
* Suppress the prefixing of file name on output.
* Print page number with output lines.
* Print only a count of matches per file.
* Print at most NUM chars of context.
* Use colors for highlighting.
* Print only a count of matches per page.
* Stop reading after NUM matching lines (per file).
* Suppress normal output.
* Search many PDFs at once, even recursively in directories.
* Print this help.
* include matching files when recursing.
* exclude matching files when recursing.
* Remove accents and ligatures from both the search pattern and the PDF documents.
* Regular expressions: Posix or PCRE.
* Colored output.
* Support for password protected PDFs.

Grep compatible
pdfsearch tries to be compatible with GNU Grep, where it makes sense. Many of your favourite grep options are supported (such as -r, -i, -n or -c).

Search multiple PDFs
Forgot which PDF contained some information? No problem, just search all of them for the relevant keywords.

Regular expressions
Use the full power of regular expressions for your search! pdfsearch supports POSIX as well as perl compatible regular expressions (PCRE).

✅ Usage of pdfsearch Command Line Tool

-- Basic Search. If you have used the grep command before, then this utility will feel familiar to you. The basic usage of this command is as follows:

pdfsearch Search_String FILENAME.pdf

-- Print filename. Use –with-filename or -H option to display pdf file name along with the output when there is one file to search.

pdfsearch -H dns test.pdf

-- Case-insensitive search. Perhaps you would want to perform a case-insensitive search because the search string can be capitalized in the document. You can use the --ignore-case flag with the command.

pdfsearch --ignore-case Search_Strng FILENAME.pdf

pdfsearch -i dns test.pdf

-- Print total number of search results. You can also get the total number of search results directly in the terminal by using the -c option along with the full command:

pdfsearch --ignore-case Search_Strng FILENAME.pdf --count

-- Print page numbers. Since PDF documents have page numbers, you can also get the page number on which your search string is present. You can use the --page-number option along with the whole command:

pdfsearch --page-number --ignore-case Search_String FILENAME.pdf

-- Support password protected PDF file. There is also a way through which you can search in a password-protected PDF file. Keep the rest of the command same and then just add --password option to it along with the password of the locked document.

pdfsearch --password YOUR-PASSWORD Search_String FILENAME.pdf

-- Get the match count. Use –count or -c to see the count for the matches.

pdfsearch -ic dns test.pdf

-- Show the page number. Use –page-number or -n to show the page number. This option would prefix each match with the page number where the pattern got matched.

pdfsearch -in dns test.pdf

-- Show match-count per page. Use –page-count or -p option to print the number of matches per page. This option implies page number (-n).

pdfsearch -ip dns test.pdf

-- Stop match count. Use –max-count or -m option to stop reading the file when the number of pages crossed. This option can be used when the user doesn’t want to read the file after crossing the NUM matches.

pdfsearch -inm 10 dns test.pdf

-- Use colors for highlighting. WHEN can be `always', `never' or `auto' matched contents.

pdfsearch.exe --color always the test.pdf

✅ More Command Line options in pdfsearch.exe application

pdfsearch.exe --help
Usage: pdfsearch.exe [OPTION]... PATTERN FILE...
See 'pdfsearch.exe --help' for more information

Search for PATTERN in each FILE.
PATTERN is an extended regular expression.

Options:
  -i, --ignore-case              Ignore case distinctions
  -P, --pcre                     Use Perl compatible regular expressions (PCRE)
  -H, --with-filename            Print the file name for each match
  -h, --no-filename              Suppress the prefixing of file name on output
  -n, --page-number              Print page number with output lines
  -c, --count                    Print only a count of matches per file
  -C, --context NUM              Print at most NUM chars of context
      --color WHEN               Use colors for highlighting;
                                 WHEN can be `always', `never' or `auto'
  -p, --page-count               Print only a count of matches per page
  -m, --max-count NUM            Stop reading after NUM matching lines (per file)
  -q, --quiet                    Suppress normal output
  -r, --recursive                Search directories recursively
  -R, --dereference-recursive    Likewise, but follow all symlinks
      --help                     Print this help
  -V, --version                  Show version information

✅ Summary
What makes pdfsearch great, in my opinion, is its similarity with the grep command, therefore making it easier for the users, by not making them remember new command and options for basically the same functionality.