https://github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide

Fast Python & Rust PDF library for text extraction, markdown conversion & document processing. 2.1ms mean latency, 99.8% pass rate on 3,830 PDFs. MIT/Apache-2.0.
https://github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide

data-extraction document-processing fast image-extraction llm markdown pdf pdf-editor pdf-generation pdf-library pdf-parser pdf-to-markdown pdf-to-text pyo3 python rag rust text-extraction

Last synced: 2 days ago
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Fast Python & Rust PDF library for text extraction, markdown conversion & document processing. 2.1ms mean latency, 99.8% pass rate on 3,830 PDFs. MIT/Apache-2.0.

Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide
Owner: yfedoseev
License: apache-2.0
Created: 2025-11-05T22:56:26.000Z (4 months ago)
Default Branch: main
Last Pushed: 2026-02-16T21:42:58.000Z (7 days ago)
Last Synced: 2026-02-17T04:39:24.248Z (6 days ago)
Topics: data-extraction, document-processing, fast, image-extraction, llm, markdown, pdf, pdf-editor, pdf-generation, pdf-library, pdf-parser, pdf-to-markdown, pdf-to-text, pyo3, python, rag, rust, text-extraction
Language: Rust
Homepage: https://docs.rs/pdf_oxide
Size: 12 MB
Stars: 28
Watchers: 0
Forks: 9
Open Issues: 2
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
- License: LICENSE-APACHE
- Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
- Security: SECURITY.md
- Agents: AGENTS.md

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README

          # PDF Oxide - The Fastest PDF Library for Python and Rust

The fastest Python PDF library for text extraction, image extraction, and markdown conversion. Built on a Rust core for reliability and speed — mean 1.8ms per document, 3.5× faster than leading industry libraries, 100% pass rate on 3,830 real-world PDFs.

[![Crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/pdf_oxide.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/pdf_oxide)

[![PyPI](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/pdf_oxide.svg)](https://pypi.org/project/pdf_oxide/)

[![PyPI Downloads](https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/pdf-oxide)](https://pypi.org/project/pdf-oxide/)

[![Documentation](https://docs.rs/pdf_oxide/badge.svg)](https://docs.rs/pdf_oxide)

[![Build Status](https://github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide/workflows/CI/badge.svg)](https://github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide/actions)

[![License: MIT OR Apache-2.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT%20OR%20Apache--2.0-blue.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses)

## Quick Start

### Python

```python

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

doc = PdfDocument("paper.pdf")

text = doc.extract_text(0)

chars = doc.extract_chars(0)

markdown = doc.to_markdown(0, detect_headings=True)

```

```bash

pip install pdf_oxide

```

### Rust

```rust

use pdf_oxide::PdfDocument;

let mut doc = PdfDocument::open("paper.pdf")?;

let text = doc.extract_text(0)?;

let images = doc.extract_images(0)?;

let markdown = doc.to_markdown(0, Default::default())?;

```

```toml

[dependencies]

pdf_oxide = "0.3"

```

## Why pdf_oxide?

- **Fast** — Rust core, mean 1.8ms per document, 3.5× faster than leading industry libraries, 97% under 10ms

- **Reliable** — 100% pass rate on 3,830 test PDFs, zero panics, zero slow (>5s) PDFs

- **Complete** — Text extraction, image extraction, PDF creation, and editing in one library

- **Dual-language** — First-class Rust API and Python bindings via PyO3

- **Permissive license** — MIT / Apache-2.0 — use freely in commercial and open-source projects

## Features

| Extract | Create | Edit |

|---------|--------|------|

| Text & Layout | Documents | Annotations |

| Images | Tables | Form Fields |

| Forms | Graphics | Bookmarks |

| Annotations | Templates | Links |

| Bookmarks | Images | Content |

## Python API

```python

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

doc = PdfDocument("report.pdf")

print(f"Pages: {doc.page_count}")

print(f"Version: {doc.version}")

# Extract text from each page

for i in range(doc.page_count):

    text = doc.extract_text(i)

    print(f"Page {i}: {len(text)} chars")

# Character-level extraction with positions

chars = doc.extract_chars(0)

for ch in chars:

    print(f"'{ch.char}' at ({ch.x:.1f}, {ch.y:.1f})")

# Password-protected PDFs

doc = PdfDocument("encrypted.pdf")

doc.authenticate("password")

text = doc.extract_text(0)

```

## Rust API

```rust

use pdf_oxide::PdfDocument;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box> {

    let mut doc = PdfDocument::open("paper.pdf")?;

    // Extract text

    let text = doc.extract_text(0)?;

    // Character-level extraction

    let chars = doc.extract_chars(0)?;

    // Extract images

    let images = doc.extract_images(0)?;

    // Vector graphics

    let paths = doc.extract_paths(0)?;

    Ok(())

}

```

## Performance

Verified against 3,830 PDFs from three independent test suites:

| Corpus | PDFs | Pass Rate |

|--------|-----:|----------:|

| veraPDF (PDF/A compliance) | 2,907 | 100% |

| Mozilla pdf.js | 897 | 99.2% |

| SafeDocs (targeted edge cases) | 26 | 100% |

| **Total** | **3,830** | **100%** |

| Metric | Value |

|--------|-------|

| **Mean latency** | **1.8ms** |

| **p50 latency** | 0.6ms |

| **p90 latency** | 2.6ms |

| **p99 latency** | 18ms |

| **Max latency** | 625ms |

| **Under 10ms** | 98.4% |

| **Slow (>5s)** | 0 |

| **Timeouts** | 0 |

| **Panics** | 0 |

100% pass rate on all valid PDFs — the 7 non-passing files across the corpus are intentionally broken test fixtures (missing PDF header, fuzz-corrupted catalogs, invalid xref streams). v0.3.8 adds a text-only content stream parser that skips graphics operators at the byte level, further reducing parse time on graphics-heavy pages.

## Installation

### Python

```bash

pip install pdf_oxide

```

Wheels available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Python 3.8–3.14.

### Rust

```toml

[dependencies]

pdf_oxide = "0.3"

```

## Building from Source

```bash

# Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide

cd pdf_oxide

cargo build --release

# Run tests

cargo test

# Build Python bindings

maturin develop

```

## Documentation

- **[Getting Started (Rust)](docs/getting-started-rust.md)** - Complete Rust guide

- **[Getting Started (Python)](docs/getting-started-python.md)** - Complete Python guide

- **[API Docs](https://docs.rs/pdf_oxide)** - Full Rust API reference

- **[PDF Spec Reference](docs/spec/pdf.md)** - ISO 32000-1:2008

## Use Cases

- **RAG / LLM pipelines** — Convert PDFs to clean Markdown for retrieval-augmented generation with LangChain, LlamaIndex, or any framework

- **Document processing at scale** — Extract text, images, and metadata from thousands of PDFs in seconds

- **Data extraction** — Pull structured data from forms, tables, and layouts

- **Academic research** — Parse papers, extract citations, and process large corpora

- **PDF generation** — Create invoices, reports, certificates, and templated documents programmatically

## License

Dual-licensed under [MIT](LICENSE-MIT) or [Apache-2.0](LICENSE-APACHE) at your option. Unlike AGPL-licensed alternatives, pdf_oxide can be used freely in any project — commercial or open-source — with no copyleft restrictions.

## Contributing

We welcome contributions! See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for guidelines.

```bash

cargo build && cargo test && cargo fmt && cargo clippy -- -D warnings

```

## Citation

```bibtex

@software{pdf_oxide,

  title = {PDF Oxide: Fast PDF Toolkit for Rust and Python},

  author = {Yury Fedoseev},

  year = {2025},

  url = {https://github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide}

}

```

---

**Rust** + **Python** | MIT/Apache-2.0 | 100% pass rate on 3,830 PDFs | mean 1.8ms/doc | v0.3.8

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