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Docling Text Extraction

About Docling

Docling text structure extraction is one of the PDF document processing options available when you open a PDF file in Assistivox AI. This method applies specifically to PDFs that contain embedded text (programmatic PDFs), not scanned documents that require OCR.

How Docling Works

Unlike basic PDF text extractors that simply pull out raw text, Docling reconstructs the logical structure of your document. When you open a PDF using this method, Docling:

  1. Reads embedded text and coordinates directly from the PDF's internal structure using specialized parsing libraries
  2. Analyzes document layout using geometric heuristics and rule-based logic to understand relationships between text elements
  3. Reconstructs logical structure by grouping text into paragraphs, headings, lists, tables, and other document components
  4. Preserves reading order and hierarchical relationships between sections
  5. Maintains formatting context that indicates how elements relate to each other

In other words, it reads chunks of text and their spatial coordinates from the PDF filei and applies logical rules to reconstruct document structure based on positioning, spacing, and formatting patterns.

What Makes This Different

Traditional PDF text extraction tools grab text sequentially as it appears in the file, often resulting in: - Jumbled multi-column layouts - Tables that become unreadable fragments
- Headers and footers mixed into body text - Loss of paragraph and section boundaries

Docling text extraction attempts to preserve document structure by: - Maintaining layout relationships - understanding which text belongs together as paragraphs, sections, or table cells - Reconstructing tables accurately - keeping tabular data organized and readable - Preserving heading hierarchy - maintaining the document's logical outline structure
- Handling multi-column layouts - correctly following reading order across columns - Generating structured output - creating clean Markdown that reflects the original document's organization

Processing Method

For PDFs with embedded text, this extraction method is entirely rule-based and deterministic:

  • No AI models or machine learning inference is required
  • Processing uses classical algorithms and geometric analysis
  • Operates efficiently without requiring significant system resources

The method reads text tokens and their spatial coordinates directly from the PDF, then applies logical rules to reconstruct document structure based on positioning, spacing, and formatting patterns.

When To Use This Method

Choose Docling text structure extraction when: - Your PDF contains selectable, embedded text (not scanned images) - Document structure and layout are important to preserve - You need clean, organized output that maintains the original's logical flow - You are working with complex documents like research papers, reports, or formatted documents with tables and multi-column layouts