/ocr-and-documents

name: ocr-and-documents
description: Extract text from PDFs and scanned documents. Use web_extract for remote URLs, pymupdf for local text-based PDFs, marker-pdf for OCR/scanned docs. For DOCX use python-docx, for PPTX see the powerpoint skill.
version: 2.3.0
author: Zorro Agent
license: MIT
metadata:
  zorro:
    tags: [PDF, Documents, Research, Arxiv, Text-Extraction, OCR]
    related_skills: [powerpoint]

PDF & Document Extraction

For DOCX: use `python-docx` (parses actual document structure, far better than OCR). For PPTX: see the `powerpoint` skill (uses `python-pptx` with full slide/notes support). This skill covers **PDFs and scanned documents**.

Step 1: Remote URL Available?

If the document has a URL, **always try `web_extract` first**:

web_extract(urls=["https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.03300"])
web_extract(urls=["https://example.com/report.pdf"])

This handles PDF-to-markdown conversion via Firecrawl with no local dependencies.

Only use local extraction when: the file is local, web_extract fails, or you need batch processing.

Step 2: Choose Local Extractor

| Feature | pymupdf (~25MB) | marker-pdf (~3-5GB) | |---------|-----------------|---------------------| | **Text-based PDF** | ✅ | ✅ | | **Scanned PDF (OCR)** | ❌ | ✅ (90+ languages) | | **Tables** | ✅ (basic) | ✅ (high accuracy) | | **Equations / LaTeX** | ❌ | ✅ | | **Code blocks** | ❌ | ✅ | | **Forms** | ❌ | ✅ | | **Headers/footers removal** | ❌ | ✅ | | **Reading order detection** | ❌ | ✅ | | **Images extraction** | ✅ (embedded) | ✅ (with context) | | **Images → text (OCR)** | ❌ | ✅ | | **EPUB** | ✅ | ✅ | | **Markdown output** | ✅ (via pymupdf4llm) | ✅ (native, higher quality) | | **Install size** | ~25MB | ~3-5GB (PyTorch + models) | | **Speed** | Instant | ~1-14s/page (CPU), ~0.2s/page (GPU) |

**Decision**: Use pymupdf unless you need OCR, equations, forms, or complex layout analysis.

If the user needs marker capabilities but the system lacks ~5GB free disk: > "This document needs OCR/advanced extraction (marker-pdf), which requires ~5GB for PyTorch and models. Your system has [X]GB free. Options: free up space, provide a URL so I can use web_extract, or I can try pymupdf which works for text-based PDFs but not scanned documents or equations."

---

pymupdf (lightweight)

pip install pymupdf pymupdf4llm

**Via helper script**:

python scripts/extract_pymupdf.py document.pdf              # Plain text
python scripts/extract_pymupdf.py document.pdf --markdown    # Markdown
python scripts/extract_pymupdf.py document.pdf --tables      # Tables
python scripts/extract_pymupdf.py document.pdf --images out/ # Extract images
python scripts/extract_pymupdf.py document.pdf --metadata    # Title, author, pages
python scripts/extract_pymupdf.py document.pdf --pages 0-4   # Specific pages

**Inline**:

python3 -c "
import pymupdf
doc = pymupdf.open('document.pdf')
for page in doc:
    print(page.get_text())
"

---

marker-pdf (high-quality OCR)

# Check disk space first
python scripts/extract_marker.py --check

pip install marker-pdf

**Via helper script**:

python scripts/extract_marker.py document.pdf                # Markdown
python scripts/extract_marker.py document.pdf --json         # JSON with metadata
python scripts/extract_marker.py document.pdf --output_dir out/  # Save images
python scripts/extract_marker.py scanned.pdf                 # Scanned PDF (OCR)
python scripts/extract_marker.py document.pdf --use_llm      # LLM-boosted accuracy

**CLI** (installed with marker-pdf):

marker_single document.pdf --output_dir ./output
marker /path/to/folder --workers 4    # Batch

---

Arxiv Papers

# Abstract only (fast)
web_extract(urls=["https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.03300"])

# Full paper
web_extract(urls=["https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.03300"])

# Search
web_search(query="arxiv GRPO reinforcement learning 2026")

Split, Merge & Search

pymupdf handles these natively — use `execute_code` or inline Python:

# Split: extract pages 1-5 to a new PDF
import pymupdf
doc = pymupdf.open("report.pdf")
new = pymupdf.open()
for i in range(5):
    new.insert_pdf(doc, from_page=i, to_page=i)
new.save("pages_1-5.pdf")

# Merge multiple PDFs
import pymupdf
result = pymupdf.open()
for path in ["a.pdf", "b.pdf", "c.pdf"]:
    result.insert_pdf(pymupdf.open(path))
result.save("merged.pdf")

# Search for text across all pages
import pymupdf
doc = pymupdf.open("report.pdf")
for i, page in enumerate(doc):
    results = page.search_for("revenue")
    if results:
        print(f"Page {i+1}: {len(results)} match(es)")
        print(page.get_text("text"))

No extra dependencies needed — pymupdf covers split, merge, search, and text extraction in one package.

---

Notes

• `web_extract` is always first choice for URLs
• pymupdf is the safe default — instant, no models, works everywhere
• marker-pdf is for OCR, scanned docs, equations, complex layouts — install only when needed
• Both helper scripts accept `--help` for full usage
• marker-pdf downloads ~2.5GB of models to `~/.cache/huggingface/` on first use
• For Word docs: `pip install python-docx` (better than OCR — parses actual structure)
• For PowerPoint: see the `powerpoint` skill (uses python-pptx)