Index: tika-parsers/src/test/java/org/apache/tika/parser/pdf/PDFParserTest.java
===================================================================
--- tika-parsers/src/test/java/org/apache/tika/parser/pdf/PDFParserTest.java	(revision 1547021)
+++ tika-parsers/src/test/java/org/apache/tika/parser/pdf/PDFParserTest.java	(working copy)
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
  */
 package org.apache.tika.parser.pdf;
 
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 
 import org.apache.tika.TikaTest;
@@ -516,4 +518,52 @@
        assertEquals(TYPE_DOCX, tracker.mediaTypes.get(2));
    }
 
+    /**
+     * tests for equality between traditional sequential parser
+     * and newer nonsequential parser.
+     * 
+     * TODO: more testing
+     */
+    public void testSequentialParser() throws Exception{
+        PDFParser defaultParser = new PDFParser();
+        PDFParser sequentialParser = new PDFParser();
+        sequentialParser.setUseNonSequentialParser(true);
+        File testDocs = new File(this.getClass().getResource("/test-documents").toURI());
+        int pdfs = 0;
+        for (File f : testDocs.listFiles()){
+            if (! f.getName().toLowerCase().endsWith(".pdf")){
+                continue;
+            }
+            pdfs++;
+            Metadata defaultMetadata = new Metadata();
+            String defaultContent = getText(f, defaultParser, defaultMetadata);
+
+            Metadata sequentialMetadata = new Metadata();
+            String sequentialContent = getText(f, sequentialParser, sequentialMetadata);
+            
+            assertEquals(f.getName(), defaultContent, sequentialContent);
+            //TODO: until PDFBox fixes metadata extraction for this file,
+            //skip this one file.
+            if (f.getName().equals("testAnnotations.pdf")){
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            assertEquals(f.getName(), defaultMetadata, sequentialMetadata);
+        }
+        assertEquals("Number of pdf files tested", 14, pdfs);
+    }
+
+    private String getText(File f, PDFParser parser, Metadata metadata) throws Exception{
+        ContentHandler handler = new BodyContentHandler();
+        ParseContext context = new ParseContext();
+        FileInputStream is = null;
+        try {
+            is = new FileInputStream(f);
+            parser.parse(is, handler, metadata, context);
+        } finally {
+            is.close();
+        }
+        return handler.toString();
+    }
+
 }
Index: tika-parsers/src/main/java/org/apache/tika/parser/pdf/PDFParser.java
===================================================================
--- tika-parsers/src/main/java/org/apache/tika/parser/pdf/PDFParser.java	(revision 1547021)
+++ tika-parsers/src/main/java/org/apache/tika/parser/pdf/PDFParser.java	(working copy)
@@ -78,6 +78,8 @@
     // (necessary for some PDFs, but messes up other PDFs):
     private boolean sortByPosition = false;
 
+    //True if we should use PDFBox's NonSequentialParser
+    private boolean useNonSequentialParser = false;
     /**
      * Metadata key for giving the document password to the parser.
      *
@@ -106,14 +108,18 @@
             //  for unpacked / processed resources
             // Decide which to do based on if we're reading from a file or not already
             TikaInputStream tstream = TikaInputStream.cast(stream);
-            if (tstream != null && tstream.hasFile()) {
-               // File based, take that as a cue to use a temporary file
-               RandomAccess scratchFile = new RandomAccessFile(tmp.createTemporaryFile(), "rw");
-               pdfDocument = PDDocument.load(new CloseShieldInputStream(stream), scratchFile, true);
+            if (useNonSequentialParser == true) {
+                  RandomAccess scratchFile = new RandomAccessFile(tmp.createTemporaryFile(), "rw");
+                  pdfDocument = PDDocument.loadNonSeq(new CloseShieldInputStream(stream), scratchFile);
+            } else if (tstream != null && tstream.hasFile()) {
+                  // File based, take that as a cue to use a temporary file
+                  RandomAccess scratchFile = new RandomAccessFile(tmp.createTemporaryFile(), "rw");
+                  pdfDocument = PDDocument.load(new CloseShieldInputStream(stream), scratchFile, true);
             } else {
-               // Go for the normal, stream based in-memory parsing
-               pdfDocument = PDDocument.load(new CloseShieldInputStream(stream), true);
+                  // Go for the normal, stream based in-memory parsing
+                 pdfDocument = PDDocument.load(new CloseShieldInputStream(stream), true);
             }
+            
            
             if (pdfDocument.isEncrypted()) {
                 String password = null;
@@ -233,12 +239,26 @@
             }
         } else if(value instanceof COSString) {
             addMetadata(metadata, name, ((COSString)value).getString());
-        } else {
+        } else if (value != null){
             addMetadata(metadata, name, value.toString());
         }
     }
 
     /**
+     * If true, the parser will use the NonSequentialParser.  This may
+     * be faster than the full doc parser.
+     * If false (default), this will use the full doc parser.
+     */
+    public void setUseNonSequentialParser(boolean v){
+        useNonSequentialParser = v;
+    }
+    
+    /** @see #setUseNonSequentialParser(boolean) */
+    public boolean getUseNonSequentialParser(){
+        return useNonSequentialParser;
+    }
+    
+    /**
      *  If true (the default), the parser should estimate
      *  where spaces should be inserted between words.  For
      *  many PDFs this is necessary as they do not include