Overview
to_json() returns a list of page objects — one per extracted page. Each page contains a list of blocks (boxes), and each block contains type-specific fields. This page documents every object and field in the output hierarchy.
Show full example
Show full example
Positional coordinates are in PDF points (1 point = 1/72 inch). The origin
(0, 0) is the top-left corner of the page.Root object
The top-level object returned for every extraction.Example
Example
string
The name of the source PDF file that was parsed.
number
Total number of pages in the PDF.
array
Table of contents entries extracted from the PDF. Each entry is a tuple of
[page_index, title, page_number]. Empty when the PDF has no bookmarks or
outline.array
Array of page objects, one per page in the PDF.
object
PDF document metadata. See metadata object.
Page object
Represents a single page of the PDF. Found inpages[].
Example
Example
number
1-based index of this page within the document.
number
Page width in PDF user units (points). A standard A4 page is 595.28 pt wide.
number
Page height in PDF user units (points). A standard A4 page is 841.89 pt tall.
array
Detected content regions on the page. Each entry is a box object.
Boxes may be classified as
text, picture, or table.array
Raw text blocks extracted directly from the PDF’s content stream, independent
of the box layout. Each entry is a fulltext block. This
mirrors the logical reading order as encoded in the PDF.
boolean
true if the entire page was processed through OCR because no native text
layer was found.boolean
true if individual text regions were OCR’d (as opposed to full-page OCR).array
Word-level bounding boxes. Empty in this format variant.
array
Hyperlinks found on the page. Empty when no links are present.
Box object
A detected content region on a page. Found inpages[].boxes[].
Boxes are the primary layout unit.
Each box covers a rectangular area and is classified into one of these types:
Text box example
Text box example
Picture box example
Picture box example
Table box example
Table box example
number
Left edge of the box in PDF points, measured from the left of the page.
number
Top edge of the box in PDF points, measured from the top of the page.
number
Right edge of the box in PDF points.
number
Bottom edge of the box in PDF points.
string
Classification of the content region. One of:
"text"— contains text lines and spans"picture"— contains an embedded image"table"— contains a detected table structure
string | null
Relative path to the extracted image file when
boxclass is "picture".
null for all other box types.object | null
A table object when
boxclass is "table". null for all
other box types.array | null
Array of textline objects when
boxclass is "text".
Empty array [] for picture boxes. null for table boxes.Table object
Structured data for a detected table. Found inboxes[].table when
boxclass is "table".
Example
Example
number[4]
Bounding box of the entire table as
[x0, y0, x1, y1] in PDF points.number
Number of rows in the table, including any header row.
number
Number of columns in the table.
array
A 3D array of cell bounding boxes:
cells[row][col] gives [x0, y0, x1, y1]
for that cell in PDF points. Useful for mapping extracted text back to exact
cell positions on the page.array
A 2D array of the cell text values:
extract[row][col] gives the string
content of that cell. The first row is typically the header row.string
The table rendered as a Markdown pipe table string, ready for display or
further processing.
Textline object
A single line of text within a box. Found inboxes[].textlines[].
Example
Example
number[4]
Bounding box of this text line as
[x0, y0, x1, y1] in PDF points.array
Array of span objects. A single line is typically split into
multiple spans wherever the font, size, or style changes.
Span object
The smallest unit of text, sharing a single consistent style. Found intextlines[].spans[] and fulltext[].lines[].spans[].
A span break occurs at any change of font, size, weight, colour, or style — so
a line reading “Hello World! This is bold” would produce
two separate spans. See Font Flags Reference for how to interpret the flags field.
Example — regular text
Example — regular text
Example — bold text
Example — bold text
string
The actual text content of this span.
string
Full PostScript font name, e.g.
"Arial", "MinionPro-Bold", "Aptos".
The font name often encodes weight and style (e.g. -Bold, -It).number
Font size in points.
number
Bitmask of font style flags from the PDF spec. Common values:
0— regular4— italic (bit 2)16— bold (bit 4)20— bold + italic (bits 2 and 4)
number
Additional character flags - please refer to this enumeration for details.
number
Text colour as a packed RGB integer.
0 is black (#000000).number
Opacity of the text, from
0 (transparent) to 255 (fully opaque).number
Font ascender as a fraction of the font size. Typically
0.8, meaning the
ascender reaches 80% of the em above the baseline.number
Font descender as a fraction of the font size. Typically
-0.2, meaning the
descender extends 20% of the em below the baseline.number[4]
Tight bounding box of the rendered glyphs as
[x0, y0, x1, y1] in PDF points.number[2]
The text origin point
[x, y] — the position of the baseline at the start
of the span, in PDF points.number
Unicode bidirectional level.
0 for left-to-right text.number
Index of the line this span belongs to within its parent block.
number
Index of the block this span belongs to within the page’s content stream.
number[2]
Text direction as a unit vector
[x, y]. [1, 0] is standard
left-to-right horizontal text. [0, -1] would indicate top-to-bottom
vertical text.Fulltext block
A raw text block from the PDF content stream, independent of visual layout. Found inpages[].fulltext[].
The fulltext array captures text in the order it appears in the PDF’s
internal stream, which may differ from the visual reading order. Each block
contains one or more lines, and each line contains spans.
Example
Example
number
Block type from the PDF spec.
0 indicates a text block.number
Sequential index of this block within the page’s content stream.
number
Block-level flags.
0 for standard text blocks.number[4]
Bounding box of the entire block as
[x0, y0, x1, y1] in PDF points.array
Array of line objects within this block. Each line has:
spans— array of span objectswmode— writing mode (0= horizontal,1= vertical)dir— line direction vector, e.g.[1, 0]for left-to-rightbbox— bounding box of the line as[x0, y0, x1, y1]
Metadata object
PDF document-level metadata. Found at the root asmetadata.
Example
Example
string
PDF version string, e.g.
"PDF 1.4" or "PDF 1.6".string
Document title as set in the PDF’s document properties. Empty string if not set.
string
Document author as set in the PDF’s document properties. Empty string if not set.
string
Document subject. Empty string if not set.
string
Keywords associated with the document. Empty string if not set.
string
The application that originally created the document (before any PDF
conversion), e.g.
"Microsoft Word". Empty string if not set.string
The application that produced or last saved the PDF file, e.g.
"macOS Quartz PDFContext". Empty string if not set.string
Creation timestamp in PDF date format:
D:YYYYMMDDHHmmSSOHH'mm'.
Example: "D:20240722172345Z" = 22 July 2024, 17:23:45 UTC.string
Last modification timestamp in the same PDF date format.
string
PDF trapping status. Rarely set in practice; empty string if not applicable.
string | null
Encryption details if the PDF is encrypted.
null for unencrypted documents.See Also
Chunk Schema
Schema for
page_chunks=True output from to_markdown().Extract JSON Guide
Working walkthrough with filtering and pipeline examples.
to_json()
Full API reference for to_json().
Tables Guide
Extracting and working with table blocks.