Definition
PyPDF is a lightweight, pure-Python library utilized in the ingestion phase of RAG pipelines to parse PDF files, extracting raw text and metadata for subsequent chunking and embedding. While highly efficient for standard text-based PDFs, it lacks native OCR capabilities and may struggle with complex, multi-column layouts or nested tables.
Extracts programmatic text data; it is not an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine for scanned images.
"The Sieve: Straining the readable text out of the complex, layered container of a PDF file while leaving the visual styling and images behind."
- ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)(Prerequisite)
- Chunking(Next Step)
- Unstructured.io(Alternative)
- OCR(Complementary)
Conceptual Overview
PyPDF is a lightweight, pure-Python library utilized in the ingestion phase of RAG pipelines to parse PDF files, extracting raw text and metadata for subsequent chunking and embedding. While highly efficient for standard text-based PDFs, it lacks native OCR capabilities and may struggle with complex, multi-column layouts or nested tables.
Disambiguation
Extracts programmatic text data; it is not an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine for scanned images.
Visual Analog
The Sieve: Straining the readable text out of the complex, layered container of a PDF file while leaving the visual styling and images behind.