PdfReadWarning: Superfluous whitespace found in object header b'1' b'0' [pdf.py:1666]

[kalkovid19]

Hi all,
I coverting pdf file to text for processing. code was workig fine an drecently it started giving errors like below and not text extraction
PdfReadWarning: Superfluous whitespace found in object header b'1' b'0' [pdf.py:1666]

MCVE

from PyPDF2 import PdfReader

reader = PdfReader("TN_24.08.2020.pdf")
text = reader.pages[0].extract_text()
assert "Directorate" in text, text

my pdf file and process code are attached
pdf2txt.py.txt
TN_24.08.2020.pdf

Thanks in advance

[luke4u]

got the same issue. Can any please advise how to resolve it?

[Grazx]

Well I had the same problem, since I was trying to stamp a template PDF (made by me), on an existing one.
The solution:
I used Foxit Phatom to convert my Template file from PDF_1.4 to PDF_1.7 and the error "PdfReadWarning:" stopped showing.

Hope it helps.

EDIT:
I forgot to mention I also use the "PDF Optimizer" option in Phantom to "flatten" text and objects (more on that in https://www.foxitsoftware.com/blog/pdf-toolkit-pdf-optimizer/)

[lmw0320]

Well I had the same problem, since I was trying to stamp a template PDF (made by me), on an existing one. The solution: I used Foxit Phatom to convert my Template file from PDF_1.4 to PDF_1.7 and the error "PdfReadWarning:" stopped showing.

Hope it helps.

EDIT: I forgot to mention I also use the "PDF Optimizer" option in Phantom to "flatten" text and objects (more on that in https://www.foxitsoftware.com/blog/pdf-toolkit-pdf-optimizer/)

Hi, for I have plenty of pdffiles, I want to find out all the content in pdffiles, but your solution can not be used as normal operation. Do you have any better code solution instead of treating the file by hand. Thanks

[MartinThoma]

Could somebody add a minimal Python script that shows the issue with the given files?

[JGMSPY]

Here is the code that gave me the subjected problem. I more or less randomly added a pdf file with 4 pages. I also got the error when using a single-paged PDF-file, and where the resulting file was OK.

from PyPDF2 import PdfFileReader, PdfFileWriter,PdfFileMerger

template = PdfFileReader(open('PythonHelp.pdf','rb'))
watermark = PdfFileReader(open("FactuurModelIkke.pdf", 'rb'))
output = PdfFileWriter()

for i in range(template.getNumPages()):
   page = template.getPage(i)
   page.mergePage(watermark.getPage(0))
   output.addPage(page)
file = open('waterMarked_PDF.pdf', 'wb')
output.write(file)

FactuurModelIkke.pdf
PythonHelp.pdf

Hope you can solve this.

[Rapid1898-code]

Hello - i have the same problem.
When anybody find a solution for that - this would be great.

[MartinThoma]

@Rapid1898-code "me too" comments don't provide any value. They distract and prevent devs from working on the issue.

If you want to help, please provide a full minimal example:

• code
• pdf
• traceback
• environment (python version, py-pdf version)

[prz38573485]

I met the same issue.
PdfReadWarning: Superfluous whitespace found in object header b'225' b'0' [_reader.py:891]

[pubpub-zz]

All,
What you are reporting are some warnings that are not stopping the program. The PdfReadWarnings will not be reported if you set strict=False when calling the PdfFileReader constructor. In version 1.27 the default value is set to True, in the current 2.0.0-dev branch (for next release) it will be changed to False and by default the warnings will disappear without any change in your programs 😉

[JGMSPY]

All,
With great help from samples I managed to get the routine working without problems. This was my first Python experience and I learned a lot. Thanks you.

[MartinThoma]

I just checked with the current main branch and the minimal example from the first post - the issue is still there.

[MartinThoma]

I've just executed the MCVE example from the first post with the latest version of PyPDF2. Seems to work 🎉