PdfViewerControl.GetText(PdfDocumentArea) Method

Gets the text contained in the specified document area.

Namespace: DevExpress.Xpf.PdfViewer

Assembly: DevExpress.Xpf.PdfViewer.v25.2.dll

NuGet Package: DevExpress.Wpf.PdfViewer

Declaration

C#

public string GetText(
    PdfDocumentArea area
)

VB.NET

Public Function GetText(
    area As PdfDocumentArea
) As String

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
area	PdfDocumentArea	A PdfDocumentArea value.

Returns

Type	Description
String	The text contained in the specified document area.

Remarks

The GetText method uses the page coordinate system.

You can select the text from code using the PdfViewerControl.Select method. Call the PdfViewer.GetSelectionContent() method to retrieve the selected text.

The code sample below retrieves the text located under the mouse selection.

C#

bool mouseButtonPressed = false;
PdfDocumentPosition startPosition;
PdfDocumentPosition endPosition;

void pdfViewer1_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)

{
    if (e.LeftButton == MouseButtonState.Pressed)
    {
        //Retrieve the pointer's initial position
        e.GetPosition(pdfViewer);
        startPosition = pdfViewer.ConvertPixelToDocumentPosition(e.GetPosition(pdfViewer));
        endPosition = null;
        mouseButtonPressed = true;
    }
}

void pdfViewer1_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
    if (mouseButtonPressed)
    {
        //Obtain the pointer's final position
        endPosition = pdfViewer.ConvertPixelToDocumentPosition(e.GetPosition(pdfViewer));
    }
}


void pdfViewer1_MouseUp(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
    mouseButtonPressed = false;
    if (startPosition == null || endPosition == null)
        return;

    //Retrieve the content between two positions
    string text = pdfViewer.GetText(PdfDocumentArea.Create(startPosition,endPosition));
    MessageBox.Show(string.Format("You selected the following text:\r\n {0}", text));
}

VB.NET

Private mouseButtonPressed As Boolean = False
Private startPosition As PdfDocumentPosition
Private endPosition As PdfDocumentPosition

Private Sub pdfViewer1_MouseDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As MouseEventArgs)
    If e.LeftButton = MouseButtonState.Pressed Then
        e.GetPosition(pdfViewer)
        ' Obtain the pointer's initial position
        startPosition = pdfViewer.ConvertPixelToDocumentPosition(e.GetPosition(pdfViewer))
        endPosition = Nothing
        mouseButtonPressed = True
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub pdfViewer1_MouseMove(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As MouseEventArgs)
    If mouseButtonPressed Then
        'Retrieve the pointer's final position
        endPosition = pdfViewer.ConvertPixelToDocumentPosition(e.GetPosition(pdfViewer))
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub pdfViewer1_MouseUp(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As MouseEventArgs)
    mouseButtonPressed = False
    If startPosition Is Nothing OrElse endPosition Is Nothing Then Return

    ' Get text located between two positions
    Dim text As String = pdfViewer.GetText(PdfDocumentArea.Create(startPosition, endPosition))
    MessageBox.Show(String.Format("You selected the following text:" & vbCrLf & " {0}", text))
End Sub

Related GitHub Examples

The following code snippet (auto-collected from DevExpress Examples) contains a reference to the GetText(PdfDocumentArea) method.

Note

The algorithm used to collect these code examples remains a work in progress. Accordingly, the links and snippets below may produce inaccurate results. If you encounter an issue with code examples below, please use the feedback form on this page to report the issue.

C#

wpf-pdf-viewer-draw-a-rectangle-over-a-document/CS/MainWindow.xaml.cs#L35

txtText.Text = pdfView.GetText(pdfDocumentArea);
txtPositions.Text = $"Start position: {args.StartPosition.Point.X}, {args.StartPosition.Point.Y}\nEnd Position: " +

VB.NET

wpf-pdf-viewer-draw-a-rectangle-over-a-document/VB/MainWindow.xaml.vb#L24

Dim pdfDocumentArea As PdfDocumentArea = New PdfDocumentArea(args.StartPosition.PageNumber, rect)
Me.txtText.Text = Me.pdfView.GetText(pdfDocumentArea)
Me.txtPositions.Text = $"Start position: {args.StartPosition.Point.X}, {args.StartPosition.Point.Y}