PDF Form Data Extractor

Get the answers out of a filled PDF form

A returned form is data trapped in a document. PDF Form Data Extractor reads the values out of one form — or thirty — and gives you JSON, CSV, FDF or XFDF, entirely in your browser.

Values with the right type

• Text fields come out as strings, multiline text included.
• Checkboxes come out as a boolean and the export value they actually submit. That value comes from the widget's /AP /N key: it is regularly 1, On or a product code, so assuming Yes quietly produces wrong data.
• Radio buttons come out as the selected export value, not the label printed beside the dot.
• Dropdowns give the selected option; list boxes give an array.
• Signature fields report signed or unsigned, with the signer name when the signature dictionary carries one.

Batch mode is the point

Drop in every returned copy of an application form and the tool builds one wide table: a row per document, a column per field name, with the union of all field names as the header. Export it as CSV and open it in a spreadsheet. Forms that gained or lost an optional section still line up — a document that lacks a field simply leaves that cell blank.

XFA forms

Some PDFs — LiveCycle-era government and banking forms in particular — keep their answers in an XFA XML dataset instead of in the AcroForm field values. A static XFA form mirrors both; a dynamic one does not, and most extractors return nothing for it. This tool reads the datasets packet as well, merges it with the AcroForm values, and labels every answer with the source it came from — including flagging the cases where the two sources disagree.

FDF and XFDF

Both are the standard interchange formats for form data, and both are written properly here: fields nested through /Kids so an import lands on the right nested field, non-Latin text as UTF-16BE, multi-select values as repeated <value> elements. Import one back into a blank copy of the form in Acrobat and the answers reappear.

Privacy

Every document is parsed in your browser with pdf-lib. Filled forms usually contain personal data; nothing here is uploaded, and every export file is generated locally.