title: How can I extract text from a PDF file in Perl?
body: <p>I am trying to extract text from PDF files using Perl. I have been using <code>pdftotext.exe</code> from command line (i.e using Perl <code>system</code> function) for extracting text from PDF files, this method works fine.</p>
  
  <p>The problem is that we have symbols like &alpha;, &beta; and other special characters in the PDF files which are not being displayed in the generated txt file. Also few extra spaces are being added randomly in the text. </p>
  
  <p>Is there a better and more reliable way to extract text from PDF files such that the text will include all the symbols like &alpha;, &beta; etc and the text will exactly match the text in the PDF (i.e without extra spaces)? </p>