Ghostscript vs PDFxlsx

Ghostscript is a PostScript and PDF interpreter and rendering engine from Artifex, with conversion support for PDF, PostScript, PCL and XPS. It can convert among those formats, produce PDF/A output, and compress PDFs with adjustable settings. Its OCR device can turn printed or scanned material into searchable PDF text. Other image and print capabilities include raster and vector output, color management, overprint simulation, N-up imposition, screening and trapping.

Ghostscript runs as a standalone command-line application or can be integrated into an application as an SDK. The gsapi interface has Python, C# and Java bindings, with demos and sample applications. The maker lists uses including cloud document conversion, archiving, previews, e-invoicing, pre-press, printing and document management. It supports Windows, macOS, Unix and Unix-like systems, VMS and embedded systems. The AGPL license is free, with source code disclosure requirements and no support. Artifex says a commercial license is required for distribution in a closed-source product or SaaS deployment under its licensing guidance; commercial plans have no listed price. Conversion may not preserve extra metadata such as embedded files or document outlines.

PDFxlsx converts PDFs with tabular data into spreadsheet files, including XLSX, XLS, CSV, and Google Sheets output. Its table detection recognizes rows, columns, headers, merged cells, borderless tables, and nested tables. For scanned PDFs, built-in OCR supports 25 languages. The resulting spreadsheets retain numeric and date data types, and tables can be placed in separate worksheets. Plus and Pro support batches of up to 500 files, processed in parallel, with ZIP downloads. A REST API for single-file and batch conversion, webhook callbacks, and token authentication is available on Pro and Enterprise. PDFxlsx lists Excel, Google Sheets, QuickBooks, Zapier, Xero, SAP, and NetSuite among tools used with its outputs. Paid plans accept files up to 50 MB. Starter includes 50 conversions per month, Plus 500, and Pro unlimited conversions. A free account gets a one-time demo of 3 conversions, but there is no free plan. Pricing is $40.83 a year for Starter, $82.50 a year for Plus, and $165.83 a year for Pro, billed yearly; Enterprise pricing is tailored. The service is available on the web, Windows, macOS, iOS, via API, and self-hosted.