PaddleOCR Document Parsing
Parse images and PDF files using PaddleOCR's API. Supports both synchronous and asynchronous parsing modes with structured output.
Resource Links
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Official Website | https://www.paddleocr.com |
| API Documentation | https://ai.baidu.com/ai-doc/AISTUDIO/Cmkz2m0ma |
| GitHub | https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR |
Key Features
- Multi-format support: PDF and image files (JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF)
- Two parsing modes:
- Sync mode: Fast response for small files (<600s timeout)
- Async mode: For large files with progress polling
- Layout analysis: Automatic detection of text blocks, tables, formulas
- Multi-language: Support for 110+ languages
- Structured output: Markdown format with preserved document structure
Setup
- Visit PaddleOCR to obtain your API credentials
- Set environment variables:
export PADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN="your_token_here"
export PADDLEOCR_API_URL="https://your-endpoint.aistudio-app.com/layout-parsing"
# Optional: For async mode
export PADDLEOCR_JOB_URL="https://your-job-endpoint.aistudio-app.com/api/v2/ocr/jobs"
export PADDLEOCR_MODEL="PaddleOCR-VL-1.5"
Usage Examples
Sync Mode (Default)
For small files and quick processing:
# Parse local image
{baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.sh document.jpg
# Parse PDF
{baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.sh -t pdf document.pdf
# Parse from URL
{baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.sh https://example.com/document.jpg
# Save output to file
{baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.sh -o result.json document.jpg
# Verbose output
{baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.sh -v document.jpg
Async Mode
For large files with progress tracking:
# Parse large PDF with async mode
{baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.sh --async large-document.pdf
# Parse from URL with async mode
{baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.sh --async -t pdf https://example.com/doc.pdf
# Save async result to file
{baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.sh --async -o result.json document.pdf
Using Python Script Directly
# Sync mode
python3 {baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.py document.jpg
# Async mode
python3 {baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.py --async-mode document.pdf
# With output file
python3 {baseDir}/paddleocr_parse.py -o result.json --async-mode document.pdf
Response Structure
{
"logId": "unique_request_id",
"errorCode": 0,
"errorMsg": "Success",
"result": {
"layoutParsingResults": [
{
"prunedResult": [...],
"markdown": {
"text": "# Document Title\n\nParagraph content...",
"images": {}
},
"outputImages": [...],
"inputImage": "http://input-image"
}
],
"dataInfo": {...}
}
}
Important Fields:
prunedResult- Contains detailed layout element information including positions, categories, etc.markdown- Stores the document content converted to Markdown format with preserved structure and formatting.
Mode Selection Guide
| Use Case | Recommended Mode |
|---|---|
| Small images (< 10MB) | Sync |
| Single page PDFs | Sync |
| Large PDFs (> 10MB) | Async |
| Multi-page documents | Async |
| Batch processing | Async |
| Quick text extraction | Sync |
Error Handling
The script will exit with code 1 and print error message for:
- Missing required environment variables
- File not found
- API authentication failures
- Invalid JSON responses
- API error codes (non-zero)
Quota Information
See official documentation: https://ai.baidu.com/ai-doc/AISTUDIO/Xmjclapam
