opendataloader-pdf

Use when parsing PDFs for RAG pipelines, extracting structured data from PDFs, or converting PDFs to Markdown/JSON with bounding boxes for AI processing

This skill is based on OpenDataLoader PDF, licensed under Apache License 2.0.

PDF parser for AI-ready data extraction. Open-source. #1 in benchmarks (0.90 overall accuracy).

Prerequisites

• Java 11+ required (run java -version to verify)
• Python 3.10+ or Node.js 18+

Installation

bash

# Python
pip install -U opendataloader-pdf

# Python with hybrid AI mode (for complex documents)
pip install -U "opendataloader-pdf[hybrid]"

# Node.js
npm install @opendataloader/pdf

Quick Start

Python

python

import opendataloader_pdf

opendataloader_pdf.convert(
    input_path=["file1.pdf", "file2.pdf", "folder/"],
    output_dir="output/",
    format="markdown,json"  # Output formats: markdown, json, html
)

Node.js

typescript

import { convert } from '@opendataloader/pdf';

await convert(['file1.pdf', 'file2.pdf'], {
  outputDir: 'output/',
  format: 'markdown,json'
});

CLI

bash

# Fast local mode (0.05s/page)
opendataloader-pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf -o output/

# With hybrid AI mode (higher accuracy for complex docs)
opendataloader-pdf --hybrid docling-fast file1.pdf

Mode Selection

Document Type	Mode	Command
Standard digital PDF	Fast (default)	pip install opendataloader-pdf
Complex tables	Hybrid	pip install "opendataloader-pdf[hybrid]" + start server
Scanned PDFs	Hybrid + OCR	opendataloader-pdf-hybrid --force-ocr
Multi-language scanned	Hybrid + OCR	--ocr-lang "zh,en"
Mathematical formulas	Hybrid + formula	--enrich-formula
Charts needing description	Hybrid + picture	--enrich-picture-description

Benchmark Comparison

Engine	Overall	Table	Speed (s/page)
opendataloader [hybrid]	0.90	0.93	0.43
opendataloader (local)	0.72	0.49	0.05
docling	0.86	0.89	0.73
marker	0.83	0.81	53.93
pymupdf4llm	0.57	0.40	0.09

Key Features

• Bounding boxes for every element (for source citations in RAG)
• XY-Cut++ reading order for multi-column layouts
• 100% local - no data sent to cloud
• AI safety filters - prompt injection protection
• Table extraction - borderless tables via hybrid mode
• OCR - 80+ languages via hybrid mode
• Formula extraction - LaTeX output

LangChain Integration

bash

pip install langchain-opendataloader-pdf

python

from langchain_opendataloader_pdf import OpenDataLoaderPDF

loader = OpenDataLoaderPDF(file_path="document.pdf")
docs = loader.load()

Output Formats

• markdown: Structured text with heading hierarchy
• json: Element-level with bounding boxes, page numbers, types
• html: Rich formatted output

JSON output includes:

• type: paragraph, heading, table, image, etc.
• content: text content
• bbox: [left, bottom, right, top] in PDF points
• page: page number
• heading_level: for headings

Common Issues

Issue	Solution
"java not found"	Install JDK 11+ from adoptium.net
Slow repeated calls	Batch files in single call; each spawns JVM
Poor table accuracy	Use hybrid mode (--hybrid docling-fast)
Scanned PDF not extracted	Use hybrid mode with --force-ocr
Non-English OCR not work	Specify --ocr-lang "zh,en"

Resources

• Quick Start
• Hybrid Mode Guide
• JSON Schema
• LangChain Integration