PDF Document Parsing
Parse PDF documents into markdown, text, and structured JSON using multi-method extraction.
Usage
Run the parsing script directly:
./scripts/parse_pdf.py <path_to_file.pdf> <output_dir>Example:
./scripts/parse_pdf.py ~/documents/manual.pdf ./parsed/The script uses 4 extraction methods:
- pypdf - Basic text extraction with page markers
- pdfminer - Detailed layout preservation
- pdfplumber - Table extraction and structure
- markitdown - Microsoft's markdown converter
Output Structure
output_dir/
├── file.pdf/
│ ├── parsing_summary.json
│ ├── pypdf/
│ │ └── content.md
│ ├── pdfminer/
│ │ └── content.txt
│ ├── pdfplumber/
│ │ ├── content.md
│ │ └── tables.json
│ └── markitdown/
│ └── content.mdScript Features
- Handles text-heavy and table-heavy PDFs
- Preserves layout information where possible
- Extracts tables as structured JSON
- Provides multiple format options (md, txt, json)
- Continues on errors (one method failure doesn't stop others)
Method Selection
- markitdown - Best for AI understanding (continuous markdown, no page breaks)
- pdfplumber - Best for documents with complex tables
- pypdf - Fast fallback for simple text extraction
- pdfminer - Best when layout preservation is critical