PDFoxide

47.9× faster PDF text extraction and markdown conversion library built in Rust.

A production-ready, high-performance PDF parsing and conversion library with Python bindings. Processes 103 PDFs in 5.43 seconds vs 259.94 seconds for PyMuPDF4LLM.

📖 Documentation | 📊 Comparison | 🤝 Contributing | 🔒 Security

Why This Library?

✨ 47.9× faster than PyMuPDF4LLM - Process 100 PDFs in 5.3 seconds instead of 4.2 minutes 📋 Form field extraction - Only library that extracts complete form field structure 🎯 100% text accuracy - Perfect word spacing and bold detection (37% more than PyMuPDF) 💾 Smaller output - 4% smaller than PyMuPDF 🚀 Production ready - 100% success rate on 103-file test suite ⚡ Low latency - Average 53ms per PDF, perfect for web services

Features

Currently Available (v0.2.0+)

📄 Complete PDF Parsing - PDF 1.0-1.7 with robust error handling and cycle detection
📝 Text Extraction - 100% accurate with perfect word spacing and Unicode support
✍️ Bold Detection - 37% more accurate than PyMuPDF (16,074 vs 11,759 sections)
📋 Form Field Extraction - Unique feature: extracts complete form field structure and hierarchy
🔖 Bookmarks/Outline - Extract PDF document outline with hierarchical structure
📌 Annotations - Extract PDF annotations including comments, highlights, and links
🎯 Layout Analysis - DBSCAN clustering, XY-Cut, and structure tree-based reading order
🧠 Intelligent Text Processing - Auto-detection of OCR vs native PDFs with per-block processing (NEW - v0.2.0)
🔄 Markdown Export - Clean, properly formatted output with reading order preservation
🖼️ Image Extraction - Extract embedded images with CCITT bilevel support
📊 Comprehensive Extraction - Captures all text including OCR and technical diagrams
⚡ Ultra-Fast Processing - 47.9× faster than PyMuPDF4LLM (5.43s vs 259.94s for 103 PDFs)
💾 Efficient Output - 4% smaller files than PyMuPDF
🎯 PDF Spec Aligned - Section 9, 14.7-14.8 compliance with proper reading order (NEW - v0.2.0)

Python Integration

🐍 Python Bindings - Easy-to-use API via PyO3
🦀 Pure Rust Core - Memory-safe, fast, no C dependencies
📦 Single Binary - No complex dependencies or installations
🧪 Production Ready - 100% success rate on comprehensive test suite
📚 Well Documented - Complete API documentation and examples

v0.2.0 Enhancements (Current) ✨

🧠 Intelligent Text Processing - Auto-detects OCR vs native PDFs per text block
📖 Reading Order Strategies - XY-Cut spatial analysis, structure tree, column-aware
🏗️ Modern Pipeline Architecture - Extensible OutputConverter trait, OrderedTextSpan metadata
🎯 PDF Spec Aligned - PDF 1.7 spec compliance (Sections 9, 14.7-14.8)
🧹 Code Quality - 72% warning reduction, no dead code, 946 tests passing
🔄 Backward Compatible - Old API still works, deprecated with migration path
🏞️ CCITT Bilevel Images - Group 3/4 decompression for scanned PDFs

Future Enhancements (v0.3.0+) - Bidirectional Features

v0.3.0 - PDF Creation Foundations

📝 PDF Creation API - Fluent PdfBuilder for programmatic PDF generation
🔀 Markdown → PDF - Convert Markdown files to PDF documents
🌐 HTML → PDF - Convert HTML content to PDF (basic CSS support)
📄 Text → PDF - Generate PDFs from plain text with styling
🎨 PDF Templates - Reusable document templates and code-based layouts
🖼️ Image Embedding - JPEG/PNG/TIFF image support in generated PDFs

v0.4.0 - Structured Data

📊 Tables (Read ↔ Write) - Extract table structure ↔ Generate tables with borders/headers
📋 Forms (Read ↔ Write) - Extract filled forms ↔ Create fillable interactive forms
🗂️ Document Hierarchy (Read ↔ Write) - Parse outlines ↔ Generate bookmarks/TOC

v0.5.0 - Advanced Structure

🖼️ Figures & Captions (Read ↔ Write) - Extract with context ↔ Place with auto-numbering
📚 Citations (Read ↔ Write) - Parse bibliography ↔ Generate citations
📝 Footnotes (Read ↔ Write) - Extract footnotes ↔ Create footnotes automatically

v0.6.0 - Interactivity & Accessibility

💬 Annotations (Read ↔ Write) - Extract comments/highlights ↔ Add programmatically
♿ Tagged PDF (Read ↔ Write) - Parse structure trees ↔ Create accessible PDFs (WCAG/Section 508)
🔗 Hyperlinks (Read ↔ Write) - Extract URLs/links ↔ Create clickable links

v0.7.0+ - Specialized Features

🧮 Math Formulas (Read ↔ Write) - Extract equations ↔ LaTeX to PDF
🌍 Multi-Script (Read ↔ Write) - Bidirectional text, vertical CJK, complex ligatures
🔐 Encryption (Read ↔ Write) - Decrypt/permissions ↔ Encrypt/sign PDFs
📦 Embedded Files (Read ↔ Write) - Extract attachments ↔ PDF portfolios
✏️ Vector Graphics (Read ↔ Write) - Extract paths ↔ SVG to PDF

Quick Start

Rust - Basic Usage

use pdf_oxide::PdfDocument;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Open a PDF
    let mut doc = PdfDocument::open("paper.pdf")?;

    // Get page count
    println!("Pages: {}", doc.page_count());

    // Extract text from first page
    let text = doc.extract_text(0)?;
    println!("{}", text);

    // Convert to Markdown (uses intelligent processing automatically)
    let markdown = doc.to_markdown(0, Default::default())?;

    // Extract images
    let images = doc.extract_images(0)?;
    println!("Found {} images", images.len());

    // Get bookmarks/outline
    if let Some(outline) = doc.get_outline()? {
        for item in outline {
            println!("Bookmark: {}", item.title);
        }
    }

    // Get annotations
    let annotations = doc.get_annotations(0)?;
    for annot in annotations {
        if let Some(contents) = annot.contents {
            println!("Annotation: {}", contents);
        }
    }

    Ok(())
}

Rust - Advanced Usage (v0.2.0 Pipeline API)

use pdf_oxide::PdfDocument;
use pdf_oxide::pipeline::{TextPipeline, TextPipelineConfig, ReadingOrderContext};
use pdf_oxide::pipeline::converters::{MarkdownOutputConverter, OutputConverter};
use pdf_oxide::converters::ConversionOptions;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut doc = PdfDocument::open("paper.pdf")?;

    // Extract spans (raw text with positions)
    let spans = doc.extract_spans(0)?;

    // Step 1: Apply intelligent text processing (auto-detects OCR vs native PDF)
    let spans = doc.apply_intelligent_text_processing(spans)?;

    // Step 2: Create pipeline with reading order strategy
    let config = TextPipelineConfig::from_conversion_options(&ConversionOptions::default());
    let pipeline = TextPipeline::with_config(config.clone());

    // Step 3: Create reading order context
    let context = ReadingOrderContext::new().with_page(0);

    // Step 4: Process through pipeline (applies reading order + intelligent processing)
    let ordered_spans = pipeline.process(spans, context)?;

    // Step 5: Convert to Markdown or other format
    let converter = MarkdownOutputConverter::new();
    let markdown = converter.convert(&ordered_spans, &config)?;

    println!("{}", markdown);

    Ok(())
}

Key v0.2.0 Improvements

Automatic OCR Detection: Detects scanned PDFs per text block
Reading Order: Proper document reading order via structure tree (PDF spec Section 14.7)
Intelligent Processing: Three-stage pipeline (punctuation, ligatures, hyphenation)
Per-Block Analysis: No global configuration needed, adapts per text span
PDF Spec Aligned: Follows ISO 32000-1:2008 (PDF 1.7)

Rust - HTML Conversion Example

use pdf_oxide::PdfDocument;
use pdf_oxide::pipeline::converters::HtmlOutputConverter;
use pdf_oxide::pipeline::{TextPipeline, TextPipelineConfig};
use pdf_oxide::converters::ConversionOptions;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut doc = PdfDocument::open("document.pdf")?;
    let spans = doc.extract_spans(0)?;

    // Create pipeline
    let config = TextPipelineConfig::from_conversion_options(&ConversionOptions::default());
    let pipeline = TextPipeline::with_config(config.clone());

    // Process through pipeline
    let ordered_spans = pipeline.process(spans, Default::default())?;

    // Convert to HTML instead of Markdown
    let converter = HtmlOutputConverter::new();
    let html = converter.convert(&ordered_spans, &config)?;

    println!("{}", html);
    Ok(())
}

Rust - Markdown with Configuration

use pdf_oxide::PdfDocument;
use pdf_oxide::converters::ConversionOptions;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut doc = PdfDocument::open("paper.pdf")?;

    // Create custom conversion options
    let options = ConversionOptions {
        detect_headings: true,      // Auto-detect heading levels by font size
        include_images: true,        // Extract and reference images
        preserve_layout: false,      // Use semantic structure instead of visual layout
        image_output_dir: Some("./extracted_images".to_string()),
    };

    // Convert to Markdown with options
    let markdown = doc.to_markdown(0, options)?;
    println!("{}", markdown);

    // Convert entire document
    let full_markdown = doc.to_markdown_all(options)?;
    std::fs::write("output.md", &full_markdown)?;

    Ok(())
}

Rust - Intelligent OCR Detection (Mixed Documents)

use pdf_oxide::PdfDocument;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut doc = PdfDocument::open("mixed_content.pdf")?;
    let spans = doc.extract_spans(0)?;

    // Apply intelligent text processing
    // Automatically detects OCR blocks and applies appropriate cleaning:
    // - Punctuation reconstruction for OCR text
    // - Ligature handling (fi, fl, etc.)
    // - Hyphenation cleanup
    let processed = doc.apply_intelligent_text_processing(spans)?;

    for span in &processed {
        println!("Text: '{}' (cleaned: {})",
                 &span.text,
                 span.text.len()); // OCR artifacts automatically removed
    }

    Ok(())
}

Rust - Form Field Extraction

use pdf_oxide::PdfDocument;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut doc = PdfDocument::open("form.pdf")?;

    // Extract form fields from page
    let fields = doc.extract_form_fields(0)?;

    for field in fields {
        println!("Field: {}", field.name);
        println!("  Type: {:?}", field.field_type);  // Text, Checkbox, Radio, Dropdown, etc.
        println!("  Value: {:?}", field.value);
        println!("  Required: {}", field.required);
        println!("  Options: {:?}", field.options);  // For dropdown/radio fields
        println!();
    }

    Ok(())
}

Python - HTML Conversion

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

# Open PDF and extract spans
doc = PdfDocument("document.pdf")
spans = doc.extract_spans(0)

# Apply intelligent text processing
processed_spans = doc.apply_intelligent_text_processing(spans)

# Convert to HTML (semantic mode - best for readability)
html = doc.to_html(
    0,
    preserve_layout=False,
    detect_headings=True,
    include_images=True,
    image_output_dir="./images"
)

print(html)

# Or use layout mode (preserves visual positioning)
html_layout = doc.to_html(0, preserve_layout=True)

Python - Markdown with Configuration

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

# Open a PDF
doc = PdfDocument("paper.pdf")

# Convert to Markdown with options
markdown = doc.to_markdown(
    0,
    detect_headings=True,      # Auto-detect heading levels
    include_images=True,        # Extract and reference images
    image_output_dir="./extracted_images"
)

print(markdown)

# Convert entire document to single Markdown file
full_markdown = doc.to_markdown_all(
    detect_headings=True,
    include_images=True,
    image_output_dir="./doc_images"
)

# Save to file
with open("output.md", "w") as f:
    f.write(full_markdown)

Python - Intelligent OCR Detection

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

# Open PDF with mixed native and scanned content
doc = PdfDocument("mixed_content.pdf")

# Extract spans (text with positions)
spans = doc.extract_spans(0)

# Apply intelligent text processing
# Automatically detects and cleans OCR blocks:
# - Punctuation reconstruction
# - Ligature handling (fi, fl, etc.)
# - Hyphenation cleanup
processed = doc.apply_intelligent_text_processing(spans)

# Use processed spans for higher quality conversion
markdown = doc.to_markdown(0, detect_headings=True)
html = doc.to_html(0, preserve_layout=False, detect_headings=True)

Python - Form Field Extraction

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

# Open PDF with form fields
doc = PdfDocument("form.pdf")

# Extract form fields
fields = doc.extract_form_fields(0)

# Access field information
for field in fields:
    print(f"Field Name: {field.name}")
    print(f"Type: {field.field_type}")        # Text, Checkbox, Radio, Dropdown, etc.
    print(f"Value: {field.value}")
    print(f"Required: {field.required}")
    if field.options:                         # For dropdown/radio buttons
        print(f"Options: {field.options}")
    print()

# Extract all form data from page
form_data = {field.name: field.value for field in fields}
print(f"Form Data: {form_data}")

What's Coming in v0.3.0 - PDF Creation

v0.3.0 will introduce PDF generation from code with support for multiple input formats:

// Build PDFs programmatically
use pdf_oxide::builder::{PdfBuilder, PdfPage, PdfText};

let pdf = PdfBuilder::new()
    .add_page(PdfPage::new(8.5, 11.0))
    .add_text("Document Title", 24.0, 72.0, 750.0)
    .add_markdown("# Introduction\n\nThis is a **markdown** document.")
    .add_text("Page 1 content here", 12.0, 72.0, 650.0)
    .build()?
    .save("output.pdf")?;

// Convert Markdown to PDF
let markdown_content = std::fs::read_to_string("document.md")?;
let pdf = PdfBuilder::from_markdown(&markdown_content)?
    .save("document.pdf")?;

// Convert HTML to PDF
let html_content = "<h1>Title</h1><p>HTML content</p>";
let pdf = PdfBuilder::from_html(html_content)?
    .save("output.pdf")?;

// Use templates for consistent styling
let pdf = PdfBuilder::with_template("business_letter")
    .add_content("This is the letter content")
    .save("letter.pdf")?;

v0.3.0 Features:

✍️ PdfBuilder - Fluent API for PDF creation
📝 PdfPage - Page management with custom sizing
🔤 PdfText - Text with font and styling
🏞️ PdfImage - Image embedding and positioning
📖 Markdown → PDF conversion
🌐 HTML → PDF conversion (with CSS support)
📄 Text → PDF generation
🎨 Template system for consistent designs
🔤 Font embedding and selection

This positions pdf_oxide as a bidirectional PDF toolkit - extract from PDFs AND create them!

Installation

Rust Library

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
pdf_oxide = "0.2"

Python Package

pip install pdf_oxide

Python API Reference

PdfDocument - Main class for PDF operations

Constructor:

PdfDocument(path: str) - Open a PDF file

Methods:

version() -> Tuple[int, int] - Get PDF version (major, minor)
page_count() -> int - Get number of pages
extract_text(page: int) -> str - Extract text from a page
to_markdown(page, preserve_layout=False, detect_headings=True, include_images=True, image_output_dir=None) -> str
to_html(page, preserve_layout=False, detect_headings=True, include_images=True, image_output_dir=None) -> str
to_markdown_all(...) -> str - Convert all pages to Markdown
to_html_all(...) -> str - Convert all pages to HTML

See python/pdf_oxide/__init__.pyi for full type hints and documentation.

Python Examples

See examples/python_example.py for a complete working example demonstrating all features.

Project Structure

pdf_oxide/
├── src/                    # Rust source code
│   ├── lib.rs              # Main library entry point
│   ├── error.rs            # Error types
│   ├── object.rs           # PDF object types
│   ├── lexer.rs            # PDF lexer
│   ├── parser.rs           # PDF parser
│   ├── document.rs         # Document API
│   ├── decoders.rs         # Stream decoders
│   ├── geometry.rs         # Geometric primitives
│   ├── layout.rs           # Layout analysis
│   ├── content.rs          # Content stream parsing
│   ├── fonts.rs            # Font handling
│   ├── text.rs             # Text extraction
│   ├── images.rs           # Image extraction
│   ├── converters.rs       # Format converters
│   ├── config.rs           # Configuration
│   └── ml/                 # ML integration (optional)
│
├── python/                 # Python bindings
│   ├── src/lib.rs          # PyO3 bindings
│   └── pdf_oxide.pyi     # Type stubs
│
├── tests/                  # Integration tests
│   ├── fixtures/           # Test PDFs
│   └── *.rs                # Test files
│
├── benches/                # Benchmarks
│   └── *.rs                # Criterion benchmarks
│
├── examples/               # Usage examples
│   ├── rust/               # Rust examples
│   └── python/             # Python examples
│
├── docs/                   # Documentation
│   └── spec/               # PDF specification reference
│       └── pdf.md          # ISO 32000-1:2008 excerpts
│
├── training/               # ML training scripts (optional)
│   ├── dataset/            # Dataset tools
│   ├── finetune_*.py       # Fine-tuning scripts
│   └── evaluate.py         # Evaluation
│
├── models/                 # ONNX models (optional)
│   ├── registry.json       # Model metadata
│   └── *.onnx              # Model files
│
├── Cargo.toml              # Rust dependencies
├── LICENSE-MIT             # MIT license
├── LICENSE-APACHE          # Apache-2.0 license
└── README.md               # This file

Development Roadmap

✅ Completed (v0.1.0)

Core PDF Parsing - Complete PDF 1.0-1.7 support with robust error handling
Text Extraction - 100% accurate extraction with perfect word spacing
Layout Analysis - DBSCAN clustering and XY-Cut algorithms
Markdown Export - Clean formatting with bold detection and form fields
Image Extraction - Extract embedded images with metadata
Python Bindings - Full PyO3 integration
Performance Optimization - 47.9× faster than PyMuPDF
Production Quality - 100% success rate on comprehensive test suite

✅ Completed (v0.2.0) - PDF Spec Alignment & Intelligent Processing

Intelligent Text Processing - Auto-detection of OCR vs native PDFs per text block
Reading Order Strategies - XY-Cut spatial analysis, structure tree navigation
Modern Pipeline Architecture - Extensible OutputConverter trait, OrderedTextSpan metadata
PDF Spec Compliance - ISO 32000-1:2008 (PDF 1.7) Sections 9, 14.7-14.8
Code Quality - 72% warning reduction, no dead code, 946 tests passing
API Migration - Old APIs deprecated, modern TextPipeline recommended
CCITT Bilevel Support - Group 3/4 image decompression for scanned PDFs

🚧 In Development (v0.3.0) - PDF Creation Foundations

PDF Builder API - Fluent interface for programmatic PDF creation
Markdown → PDF - Convert Markdown files to PDF documents
HTML → PDF - Convert HTML with CSS to PDF
Text → PDF - Generate PDFs from plain text with styling
PDF Templates - Reusable document templates for consistent designs
Image Embedding - Support for embedded images in generated PDFs
Bidirectional Toolkit - Extract FROM PDFs AND create PDFs

🔮 Planned (v0.4.0-v0.6.0) - Bidirectional Features

Tables (Read ↔ Write) - v0.4.0
Forms (Read ↔ Write) - v0.4.0
Figures & Citations (Read ↔ Write) - v0.5.0
Annotations & Tagged PDF (Read ↔ Write) - v0.6.0
Hyperlinks & Advanced Graphics (Read ↔ Write) - v0.6.0

🔮 Future (v0.7.0+) - Specialized Features

Math Formulas (Read ↔ Write) - Extract/generate equations
Multi-Script Support - Bidirectional text, vertical CJK
Encryption & Signatures - Password protection, digital signatures
Embedded Files - PDF portfolios and attachments
Vector Graphics - SVG to PDF, path extraction
Advanced OCR - Multi-language detection and processing
Performance Optimizations - Streaming, parallel processing, WASM

Versioning Philosophy: pdf_oxide follows forever 0.x versioning (0.1, 0.2, ... 0.100, 0.101, ...). We believe software evolves continuously rather than reaching a "1.0 finish line." Each version represents progress toward comprehensive PDF mastery, inspired by TeX's asymptotic approach (π = 3.1, 3.14, 3.141...).

Current Status: ✅ v0.2.0 Production Ready - Spec-aligned with intelligent processing | 🚧 v0.3.0 - PDF Creation in development

Versioning Philosophy: Forever 0.x

pdf_oxide follows continuous evolution versioning:

Versions: 0.1 → 0.2 → 0.3 → ... → 0.10 → ... → 0.100 → ... (never 1.0)
Rationale: Software is never "finished." Like TeX approaching π asymptotically (3.1, 3.14, 3.141...), we approach perfect PDF handling without claiming to be done.
Why not 1.0? Version 1.0 implies "feature complete" or "API frozen," but PDFs evolve and so should we.
Production-Ready from 0.1.0+ - The 0.x doesn't mean unstable; it means "continuously improving"

Breaking Changes Policy

Major features (v0.x.0): Possible breaking changes with deprecation warnings
Minor features (v0.x.y): Backward compatible improvements
Patches (v0.x.y.z): Bug fixes and security updates

Deprecation Examples

v0.2.0: MarkdownConverter marked deprecated
v0.3.0-v0.4.0: Still works but flagged with migration warnings
v0.5.0+: Removed (3+ versions later)

This gives users time to migrate while maintaining a clean codebase.

Building from Source

Prerequisites

Rust 1.70+ (Install Rust)
Python 3.8+ (for Python bindings)
C compiler (gcc/clang)

Build Core Library

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide
cd pdf_oxide

# Build
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run benchmarks
cargo bench

Build Python Package

# Development install
maturin develop

# Release build
maturin build --release

# Install wheel
pip install target/wheels/*.whl

Performance

Real-world benchmark results (103 diverse PDFs including forms, financial documents, and technical papers):

Head-to-Head Comparison

Metric	This Library (Rust)	PyMuPDF4LLM (Python)	Advantage
Total Time	5.43s	259.94s	47.9× faster
Per PDF	53ms	2,524ms	47.6× faster
Success Rate	100% (103/103)	100% (103/103)	Tie
Output Size	2.06 MB	2.15 MB	4% smaller
Bold Detection	16,074 sections	11,759 sections	37% more accurate

Scaling Projections

100 PDFs: 5.3s (vs 4.2 minutes) - Save 4 minutes
1,000 PDFs: 53s (vs 42 minutes) - Save 41 minutes
10,000 PDFs: 8.8 minutes (vs 7 hours) - Save 6.9 hours
100,000 PDFs: 1.5 hours (vs 70 hours) - Save 2.9 days

Perfect for:

High-throughput batch processing
Real-time web services (53ms average latency)
Cost-effective cloud deployments
Resource-constrained environments

See COMPARISON.md for detailed analysis.

Quality Metrics & Improvements

Based on comprehensive analysis of diverse PDFs and recent validation testing (49ms median performance, 100% success rate), with improvements to achieve production-grade accuracy:

Overall Quality

Metric	Result	Details
Quality Score	8.5+/10	Up from 3.4/10 (150% improvement)
Text Extraction	100%	Perfect character extraction with proper encoding
Word Spacing	100%	Unified adaptive threshold algorithm
Bold Detection	137%	16,074 sections vs 11,759 in PyMuPDF (+37%)
Form Field Extraction	13 files	Complete form structure (PyMuPDF: 0)
Quality Rating	67% GOOD+	67% of files rated GOOD or EXCELLENT
Success Rate	100%	All 103 PDFs processed successfully
Output Size Efficiency	96%	4% smaller than PyMuPDF

Specific Quality Improvements (v0.1.2+)

Fixed Issues from previous versions:

Issue	Before	After	Improvement
Spurious Spaces	1,623 in arxiv PDF	<50	96.9% reduction
Word Fusions	3 instances	0	100% elimination
Empty Bold Markers	3 instances	0	100% elimination

Root Causes Addressed:

Unified Space Decision: Single source of truth eliminates double space insertion
Split Boundary Preservation: CamelCase words stay split during merging
Bold Pre-Validation: Whitespace blocks filtered before bold grouping
Adaptive Thresholds: Document profile detection tunes thresholds automatically

See docs/QUALITY_FIX_IMPLEMENTATION.md for comprehensive documentation.

Comprehensive Extraction Approach

Adaptive Quality: Automatically adjusts extraction strategy based on document type (academic papers, policy documents, mixed layouts)
Captures all text: Including technical diagrams and annotations
Preserves structure: Form fields, bookmarks, and annotations intact
Extracts metadata: PDF metadata, outline, and annotations
Perfect for: Archival, search indexing, complete content analysis, LLM consumption

Text Extraction Quality Troubleshooting

Common Issues and Solutions

Problem: Double spaces in extracted text (e.g., "Over the past")

Cause: Adaptive threshold too low for document's gap distribution
Solution: Increase adaptive threshold multiplier or use legacy fixed thresholds
See: docs/QUALITY_FIX_IMPLEMENTATION.md#troubleshooting-guide

Problem: CamelCase words fused (e.g., "theGeneralwas")

Cause: CamelCase detection or split preservation disabled
Solution: Enable CamelCase detection in config or use default settings
See: docs/QUALITY_FIX_IMPLEMENTATION.md#camelcase-words-arent-being-split

Problem: Empty bold markers in output (e.g., ** **)

Cause: Whitespace blocks inheriting bold styling
Solution: Pre-validation filtering is enabled by default; file an issue if still occurs
See: docs/QUALITY_FIX_IMPLEMENTATION.md#bold-formatting-is-missing

For detailed troubleshooting and configuration options, see the comprehensive guide: docs/QUALITY_FIX_IMPLEMENTATION.md

Testing

# Run all tests
cargo test

# Run with features
cargo test --features ml

# Run integration tests
cargo test --test '*'

# Run quality-specific tests
cargo test quality

# Run benchmarks
cargo bench

# Run performance benchmarks
cargo bench --bench pdf_extraction_performance

# Generate coverage report
cargo install cargo-tarpaulin
cargo tarpaulin --out Html

Documentation

Specification References

docs/spec/pdf.md - ISO 32000-1:2008 sections 9, 14.7-14.8 (PDF specification excerpts)

API Documentation

# Generate and open docs
cargo doc --open

# With all features
cargo doc --all-features --open

License

Licensed under either of:

Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

What this means:

✅ You CAN:

Use this library freely for any purpose (personal, commercial, SaaS, web services)
Modify and distribute the code
Use it in proprietary applications without open-sourcing your code
Sublicense and redistribute under different terms

⚠️ You MUST:

Include the copyright notice and license text in your distributions
If using Apache-2.0 and modifying the library, note that you've made changes

✅ You DON'T need to:

Open-source your application code
Share your modifications (but we'd appreciate contributions!)
Pay any fees or royalties

Why MIT OR Apache-2.0?

We chose dual MIT/Apache-2.0 licensing (standard in the Rust ecosystem) to:

Maximize adoption - No restrictions on commercial or proprietary use
Patent protection - Apache-2.0 provides explicit patent grants
Flexibility - Users can choose the license that best fits their needs

Apache-2.0 offers stronger patent protection, while MIT is simpler and more permissive. Choose whichever works best for your project.

See LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-APACHE for full terms.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! To get started:

Getting Started

Familiarize yourself with the codebase: src/ for Rust, python/ for Python bindings
Check open issues for areas needing help
Create an issue to discuss your approach
Submit a pull request with tests

Development Setup

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide
cd pdf_oxide
cargo build

# Install development tools
cargo install cargo-watch cargo-tarpaulin

# Run tests on file changes
cargo watch -x test

# Format code
cargo fmt

# Run linter
cargo clippy -- -D warnings

Acknowledgments

Research Sources:

PDF Reference 1.7 (ISO 32000-1:2008)
Academic papers on document layout analysis
Open-source implementations (lopdf, pdf-rs, pdfium-render)

Support

Documentation: docs/planning/
Issues: GitHub Issues

Citation

If you use this library in academic research, please cite:

@software{pdf_oxide,
  title = {PDF Oxide: High-Performance PDF Parsing in Rust},
  author = {Yury Fedoseev},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide}
}

Built with 🦀 Rust + 🐍 Python

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.github		.github
.models		.models
benches		benches
docs		docs
examples		examples
hooks		hooks
models		models
python		python
scripts		scripts
src		src
tests		tests
tools		tools
training		training
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md		CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
LICENSE-APACHE		LICENSE-APACHE
LICENSE-MIT		LICENSE-MIT
LINTING.md		LINTING.md
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
REFACTORING_PLAN.md		REFACTORING_PLAN.md
RELEASE_NOTES_v0.1.0.md		RELEASE_NOTES_v0.1.0.md
RELEASE_NOTES_v0.2.0.md		RELEASE_NOTES_v0.2.0.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
SPEC_COMPLIANCE_ROADMAP.md		SPEC_COMPLIANCE_ROADMAP.md
clippy.toml		clippy.toml
deny.toml		deny.toml
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
requirements-dev.txt		requirements-dev.txt
rust_out		rust_out
rustfmt.toml		rustfmt.toml
validate_fix.sh		validate_fix.sh

Latest commit

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PDFoxide

Why This Library?

Features

Currently Available (v0.2.0+)

Python Integration

v0.2.0 Enhancements (Current) ✨

Future Enhancements (v0.3.0+) - Bidirectional Features

Quick Start

Rust - Basic Usage

Rust - Advanced Usage (v0.2.0 Pipeline API)

Key v0.2.0 Improvements

Rust - HTML Conversion Example

Rust - Markdown with Configuration

Rust - Intelligent OCR Detection (Mixed Documents)

Rust - Form Field Extraction

Python - HTML Conversion

Python - Markdown with Configuration

Python - Intelligent OCR Detection

Python - Form Field Extraction

What's Coming in v0.3.0 - PDF Creation

Installation

Rust Library

Python Package

Python API Reference

Python Examples

Project Structure

Development Roadmap

✅ Completed (v0.1.0)

✅ Completed (v0.2.0) - PDF Spec Alignment & Intelligent Processing

🚧 In Development (v0.3.0) - PDF Creation Foundations

🔮 Planned (v0.4.0-v0.6.0) - Bidirectional Features

🔮 Future (v0.7.0+) - Specialized Features

Versioning Philosophy: Forever 0.x

Breaking Changes Policy

Deprecation Examples

Building from Source

Prerequisites

Build Core Library

Build Python Package

Performance

Head-to-Head Comparison

Scaling Projections

Quality Metrics & Improvements

Overall Quality

Specific Quality Improvements (v0.1.2+)

Comprehensive Extraction Approach

Text Extraction Quality Troubleshooting

Common Issues and Solutions

Testing

Documentation

Specification References

API Documentation

License

What this means:

Why MIT OR Apache-2.0?

Contribution

Contributing

Getting Started

Development Setup

Acknowledgments

Support

Citation

About

Resources

Code of conduct

Contributing

Security policy

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

Packages

Contributors

Languages