To extract text from a PDF document, which API should be used?

The Read API of the Computer Vision service is specifically designed to extract printed and handwritten text from images, including scanned documents like PDF files. This API utilizes advanced optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities to process documents effectively, providing accurate text extraction regardless of the layout or format of the text within the PDF.

When working with PDF documents, utilizing the Read API streamlines the process by enabling batch processing of pages within the document, making it a robust choice for handling large amounts of text extraction quickly and efficiently. It supports multiple languages and ensures that the extracted text retains as much of the original formatting as possible, which is crucial for reusing the content in applications or converting it into different formats.

In contrast, other options such as the Custom Vision service and Image Analysis API are not tailored to extract text from documents; instead, they focus on image classification and general image analysis, which do not serve the specific need for text extraction. The Form Recognizer is primarily aimed at extracting structured data from forms and may not be as efficient or accurate for general text extraction purposes as the Read API.