- Copying
This refers to opening a document and then saving it to a new file. This test measures the speed of reading a PDF and re-writing as a new PDF. This process is also at the core of functions like merging / joining multiple documents. The numbers below therefore apply to PDF joining and merging.
The results for all 7,031 pages are:
600
500
400
300
200
100
⏱
seconds
3.05
10.54
33.57
494.04
PyMuPDF
PDFrw
PikePDF
PyPDF2
fastest
←
←
slowest
- Text Extraction
This refers to extracting simple, plain text from every page of the document and storing it in a text file.
The results for all 7,031 pages are:
400
300
200
100
⏱
seconds
8.01
27.42
101.64
227.27
PyMuPDF
XPDF
PyPDF2
PDFMiner
fastest
←
←
slowest
- Rendering
This refers to making an image (like PNG) from every page of a document at a given DPI resolution. This feature is the basis for displaying a document in a GUI window.
The results for all 7,031 pages are:
1000
800
600
400
200
⏱
seconds
367.04
646
851.52
PyMuPDF
XPDF
PDF2JPG
fastest
←
slowest