liteparse vs opendataloader-pdf
LlamaIndex's local document parser in Rust: PDFium text with bounding boxes at ~2-5 ms/page, selective Tesseract or HTTP OCR, Markdown/JSON output, screenshots; Python, Node, WASM. — versus — Deterministic PDF parser for AI pipelines: #1 extraction accuracy (0.907) on its public bench, bounding boxes on every element, 0.015s/page — plus the first open PDF auto-tagging for accessibility.
Both are deterministic local PDF parsers with bounding boxes on every element and no LLM; opendataloader-pdf leads its own accuracy bench and auto-tags for accessibility, LiteParse adds OCR routing and bindings for Python, Node and WASM.
| liteparse | opendataloader-pdf | |
|---|---|---|
| Stars | 13k | 29k |
| Forks | 870 | 2.8k |
| Language | Rust | Java |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Last activity | today | 3 days ago |
| Topics | ocr, rag | ocr, rag |
| Curated connections | 4 | 5 |
liteparse — the curator's take
The fast first pass of a document pipeline: PDFium spatial text with bounding boxes in a few milliseconds per page, OCR only where a page needs it, a cheap complexity check that tells you before parsing whether a file needs heavier treatment, and worker pools that kill runaway documents instead of stalling. Runs locally from Rust, Python, Node or the browser. Its limits are stated up front: dense tables, multi-column layouts, charts, handwriting and scans need a layout model (marker, mineru or chandra locally, or LlamaParse, the cloud product this README points to). Office files and images are converted through LibreOffice, which is one more dependency on a server.
opendataloader-pdf — the curator's take
Two products in one repo, both rare: a benchmark-topping deterministic parser (Markdown/JSON/HTML with bounding boxes, XY-Cut++ reading order, 0.015s/page, hybrid AI mode when you want it) and the first open-source auto-tagging to Tagged PDF — the accessibility path, built with the PDF Association and validated by veraPDF. Java core with Python/Node SDKs. NOT fully open at the edges: PDF/UA export and the accessibility studio are the enterprise add-on, and Java 11+ is a heavier runtime than the Rust competition. Benchmark caveat: the #1 score is on their own (public, reproducible) bench — verify on your documents.