PyPDFToDocument

Convert PDF files to documents your pipeline can query. This component uses the PyPDF library to extract text from PDFs and supports both plain and layout-aware extraction modes.

Key Features

• Converts PDF files to documents using the PyPDF library.
• Supports plain extraction mode and an experimental layout mode that adheres to the rendered PDF layout.
• Configurable orientation handling and space width in plain mode.
• Configurable vertical spacing and font height weight in layout mode.
• Accepts both file paths and ByteStream objects as input.
• Optionally stores the file name or the full file path in document metadata.

Configuration

1. Drag the PyPDFToDocument component onto the canvas from the Component Library.
2. Click the component to open the configuration panel.
3. Configure the parameters as needed.

Connections

PyPDFToDocument accepts a list of file paths or ByteStream objects (sources) as input, along with optional metadata (meta). It outputs a list of converted documents (documents).

Typically, PyPDFToDocument receives PDF files routed from FileTypeRouter and sends its output to DocumentJoiner, which combines documents from multiple converters before passing them downstream for splitting and indexing.

Usage Example

Using the Component in an Index

In this index, PyPDFToDocument receives PDF files from FileTypeRouter and sends them to DocumentJoiner.

components:
  FileTypeRouter:
    type: haystack.components.routers.file_type_router.FileTypeRouter
    init_parameters:
      mime_types:
      - text/plain
      - application/pdf
      - text/markdown
  TextFileToDocument:
    type: haystack.components.converters.txt.TextFileToDocument
    init_parameters:
      encoding: utf-8
      store_full_path: false
  PyPDFToDocument:
    type: haystack.components.converters.pdf.PyPDFToDocument
    init_parameters:
      extraction_mode: PyPDFExtractionMode.PLAIN
      plain_mode_orientations:
      - 0
      - 90
      - 180
      - 270
      plain_mode_space_width: 200.0
      layout_mode_space_vertically: true
      layout_mode_scale_weight: 1.25
      layout_mode_strip_rotated: true
      layout_mode_font_height_weight: 1.0
      store_full_path: false
  MarkdownToDocument:
    type: haystack.components.converters.markdown.MarkdownToDocument
    init_parameters:
      table_to_single_line: false
      progress_bar: true
      store_full_path: false
  DocumentJoiner:
    type: haystack.components.joiners.document_joiner.DocumentJoiner
    init_parameters:
      join_mode: concatenate
      weights:
      top_k:
      sort_by_score: true
  DocumentSplitter:
    type: haystack.components.preprocessors.document_splitter.DocumentSplitter
    init_parameters:
      split_by: word
      split_length: 200
      split_overlap: 0
      split_threshold: 0
      splitting_function:
      respect_sentence_boundary: false
      language: en
      use_split_rules: true
      extend_abbreviations: true
  DocumentWriter:
    type: haystack.components.writers.document_writer.DocumentWriter
    init_parameters:
      policy: NONE
      document_store:
        type: haystack_integrations.document_stores.opensearch.document_store.OpenSearchDocumentStore
        init_parameters:
          hosts:
          index: pdf-index
          max_chunk_bytes: 104857600
          embedding_dim: 768
          return_embedding: false
          method:
          mappings:
          settings:
          create_index: true
          http_auth:
          use_ssl:
          verify_certs:
          timeout:

connections:
- sender: FileTypeRouter.text/plain
  receiver: TextFileToDocument.sources
- sender: FileTypeRouter.application/pdf
  receiver: PyPDFToDocument.sources
- sender: FileTypeRouter.text/markdown
  receiver: MarkdownToDocument.sources
- sender: TextFileToDocument.documents
  receiver: DocumentJoiner.documents
- sender: PyPDFToDocument.documents
  receiver: DocumentJoiner.documents
- sender: MarkdownToDocument.documents
  receiver: DocumentJoiner.documents
- sender: DocumentJoiner.documents
  receiver: DocumentSplitter.documents
- sender: DocumentSplitter.documents
  receiver: DocumentWriter.documents

max_runs_per_component: 100

Parameters

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
sources	List[Union[str, Path, ByteStream]]		List of file paths or ByteStream objects to convert.
meta	Optional[Union[Dict[str, Any], List[Dict[str, Any]]]]	None	Optional metadata to attach to the documents. This value can be a list of dictionaries or a single dictionary. If it's a single dictionary, its content is added to the metadata of all produced documents. If it's a list, its length must match the number of sources, as they are zipped together. For ByteStream objects, their meta is added to the output documents.

Outputs

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
documents	List[Document]		A list of converted documents.

Init Parameters

These are the parameters you can configure in Pipeline Builder:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
extraction_mode	Union[str, PyPDFExtractionMode]	PyPDFExtractionMode.PLAIN	The mode to use for extracting text from a PDF. Layout mode is an experimental mode that adheres to the rendered layout of the PDF.
plain_mode_orientations	tuple	(0, 90, 180, 270)	Tuple of orientations to look for when extracting text from a PDF in plain mode. Ignored if extraction_mode is PyPDFExtractionMode.LAYOUT.
plain_mode_space_width	float	200.0	Forces default space width if not extracted from font. Ignored if extraction_mode is PyPDFExtractionMode.LAYOUT.
layout_mode_space_vertically	bool	True	Whether to include blank lines inferred from y distance + font height. Ignored if extraction_mode is PyPDFExtractionMode.PLAIN.
layout_mode_scale_weight	float	1.25	Multiplier for string length when calculating weighted average character width. Ignored if extraction_mode is PyPDFExtractionMode.PLAIN.
layout_mode_strip_rotated	bool	True	Layout mode does not support rotated text. Set to False to include rotated text anyway. If rotated text is discovered, layout will be degraded and a warning will be logged. Ignored if extraction_mode is PyPDFExtractionMode.PLAIN.
layout_mode_font_height_weight	float	1.0	Multiplier for font height when calculating blank line height. Ignored if extraction_mode is PyPDFExtractionMode.PLAIN.
store_full_path	bool	False	If True, the full path of the file is stored in the metadata of the document. If False, only the file name is stored.

Run Method Parameters

These are the parameters you can configure for the component's run() method. This means you can pass these parameters at query time through the API, in Playground, or when running a job. For details, see Modify Pipeline Parameters at Query Time.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
sources	List[Union[str, Path, ByteStream]]		List of file paths or ByteStream objects to convert.
meta	Optional[Union[Dict[str, Any], List[Dict[str, Any]]]]	None	Optional metadata to attach to the documents. This value can be a list of dictionaries or a single dictionary. If it's a single dictionary, its content is added to the metadata of all produced documents. If it's a list, its length must match the number of sources, as they are zipped together. For ByteStream objects, their meta is added to the output documents.