Re:Llama-Scan: Convert PDFs to Text W Local LLMs
by bm-rf on Sunday August 17, 2025 @09:14PM
(#44936437)
For the purposes of an llm "reading" a pdf, it just renders it as an image. The file format does not matter. Let's say you have documents that already exist, a robust ocr solution that can handle tables and diagrams could be very valuable.
Re:Llama-Scan: Convert PDFs to Text W Local LLMs
by mdaniel on Sunday August 17, 2025 @08:29PM
(#44936179)
That ship has sailed, and I'd guess the majority of the folks in these threads are in the same boat I am: one does not get to choose what files your customers send you, you have to meet them where they are
That said, over the last two years I've come across many use cases to parse PDFs and each has its own requirements (e.g., figuring out titles, removing page numbers, extracting specific sections, etc). And each require a different approach.
My point is, this is awesome, but I wonder if there needs to be a broader push / initiative to stop leveraging PDFs so much when things like HTML, XML, JSON and a million other formats exist. It's a hard undertaking I know, no doubt, but it's not unheard of to drop technologies (e.g., fax) for a better technology.