title: What is the easiest way to extract data from a PDF?
body: <p>I need to extract data from some PDF documents (using Java). I need to know what would be the easiest way to do it. </p>
  
  <p>I tried iText. It's fairly complicated for my needs. Besides I guess it is not available for free for commercial projects. So it is not an option. I also gave a try to PDFBox, and ran into various <code>NoClassDefFoundError</code> errors. </p>
  
  <p>I googled and came across several other options such as PDF Clown, jPod, but I do not have time to experiment with all of these libraries. I am relying on community's experience with PDF reading thru Java. </p>
  
  <p>Note that I do not need to create or manipulate PDF documents. I just need to exrtract textual data from PDF documents with moderate level layout complexity.</p>
  
  <p>Please suggest the quickest and easiest way to extract text from PDF documents. Thanks.</p>