ChibiPDF

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A suite of dependency-free PDF related tools for VBA.

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![ChibiPDF logo](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KallunWillock/ChibiPDF/main/logo_chibipdf_small.png)
# ChibiPDF

![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-green.svg)
![Platform: Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/Platform-Windows-blue.svg)
![VBA](https://img.shields.io/badge/VBA-7.0+-purple.svg)
![Dependencies](https://img.shields.io/badge/Dependencies-None-brightgreen.svg)

A dependency-free suite of PDF tools - including generation, rendering and OCR for VBA. No Adobe Acrobat. No Tesseract. No external DLLs.

ChibiPDF comprises (at present) two key components:
* ChibiEx - PDF text **ex**traction (OCR) and rendering (PDF>PNG **ex**porting)
* ChibiScribe - PDF generation and document creation

Currently, only ChibiEx is available. ChibiScribe will be uploaded soon.

![ChibiEx logo](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KallunWillock/ChibiPDF/main/logo_chibiex_small.png)

## Why ChibiEx?

Most VBA OCR solutions require third-party software (Adobe Acrobat, Tesseract, GhostScript, etc.) that must be installed on the host machine. From personal experience, this is ordinarily a non-starter in locked-down corporate environments.

ChibiEx allows VBA applications to:

* Extract text from searchable and scanned PDFs using OCR
* Render PDF pages to PNG image files, `StdPicture` objects, memory, or streams
* OCR image files, HBITMAPs, `StdPicture`s, and in-memory streams

---

## Features

### PDF Text Extraction

Extract text from individual pages or entire documents.

```vb
Dim pdf As New ChibiEx

If pdf.LoadFile("C:\Docs\Report.pdf") Then
    ' Extract text from a single page
    Debug.Print pdf.ExtractText(1)
    
    ' Extract text from the entire document
    Debug.Print pdf.ExtractAllText()
End If
```
### OCR for Scanned PDFs
ChibiEx automatically handles image-based PDFs by rendering pages and passing them directly to the Windows OCR engine entirely in memory.

Because ExtractText handles the rendering and OCR pipeline under the hood, extracting text from a scanned PDF requires zero extra code:
```vb
' This works exactly the same for scanned PDFs!
Dim text As String
text = pdf.ExtractText(1) 
```
No temporary files are created.

### PDF Rendering
Render PDF pages to PNG files, byte arrays, StdPictures, or streams.

```vb
' Render all pages
pdf.ToFile "C:\Output\"

' Render a specific page
pdf.ToFile "C:\Output\", 5

' Render a range of pages
pdf.ToFile "C:\Output\", 2, 10

' Render specific pages
pdf.ToFile "C:\Output\", Array(1, 5, 12)

' Render to a StdPicture (for UserForms or Image controls)
Dim pic As StdPicture
Set pic = pdf.ToPicture(1)
```

### Standalone OCR
The OCR engine can be used independently of PDF functionality.
```vb
Dim ocr As New ChibiEx

If ocr.RecogniseFile("C:\OCR\Scan.png") Then
    Debug.Print ocr.ResultText
End If
```

## Requirements

| Requirement      | Details                                                        |
| ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Operating System | Windows 10 (Build 10240+) or later                             |
| VBA Host         | Excel, Word, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint, VB6-compatible hosts |
| Architecture     | 32-bit and 64-bit                                              |
| Dependencies     | None                                                           |

---

## Credits

ChibiPDF was created by Kallun Willock.

Special thanks to Frank Schüler (activevb.de) for pioneering 32-bit WinRT interop techniques that helped make this project possible.

---

## License

MIT License

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