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Docling - Get Your Docs (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, Images, HTML) Ready for RAG & LLMs|Fully Open-Source #ai

Howto & Style

Introduction

In this article, we explore an open-source document conversion tool called Duckling by IBM. Duckling addresses the challenges of converting PDFs into machine-readable formats by parsing documents and exporting them to desired formats efficiently. Traditional PDF documents have always posed challenges due to their variable layout and limited structural metadata. However, recent advancements in language models (LLMs) and techniques like retrieval augmented generation (RAG) have made extracting meaningful content from PDFs increasingly relevant. Duckling stands out by offering a fully local, efficient, and extensible Python library, making it an excellent choice for anyone looking to convert documents accurately.

Features of Duckling

Duckling offers an array of features, including:

  • Compatible with popular document formats such as PDF, DOCX, PPTX, images, and HTML.
  • Supports conversion to Markdown and JSON formats.
  • Advanced PDF understanding, including page layouts, reading order, and table structures.
  • Unified representation format for easier processing.
  • Metadata extraction capabilities—includes title, authors, references, and languages.
  • Integrations with Llama Index and LChain enhance RAG and Q&A applications.
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for scanned PDFs.
  • Simple and convenient command-line interface (CLI).

For further reading, you can refer to the research paper linked above, which contains useful information that can enhance your understanding of Duckling.

Setting Up Duckling

To get started with Duckling, you need to install it in your Python environment. You can do this using the following command:

pip install duckling

Once installed, you can use Duckling’s command-line interface to convert PDF files to Markdown. For instance, you can place your PDF documents in a specified directory and use the following command to convert a single file to Markdown:

duckling convert --input <directory_path> --output <output_format> --ocr <pdffile.pdf>

Here, the command specifies the directory of your PDF file and the desired output format. For example, the command can be modified to convert multiple files within a folder into Markdown, and the output can be stored in a designated output folder.

Example Conversion

For demonstration purposes, let’s say you have a 13-page PDF file about mental health. You can execute the conversion command, which should complete in a matter of seconds. The final Markdown file will contain well-structured content, including relevant metadata and references.

You can also batch-process several documents simultaneously. Simply provide the directory containing your PDF files, and Duckling will convert all the documents into Markdown format, depositing the output into your chosen folder.

Using Duckling in Google Colab

If you are working in Google Colab, you can easily set up Duckling as well. Just ensure to select a GPU or CPU runtime for optimal performance. After installing Duckling with pip install duckling, you can import the document converter and specify your document path. Running a simple code block will yield a Markdown-formatted output that retains the document's structure and content.

In conclusion, Duckling is an effective and powerful tool for converting various document formats to Markdown, making it an ideal solution for preparing documents for RAG and LLM applications.

Keywords

Duckling, document conversion, open-source, PDF, DOCX, PPTX, Markdown, OCR, LLM, RAG, document parsing, metadata extraction, Python library, command-line interface.

FAQ

Q1: What formats can Duckling convert?
A1: Duckling can convert popular document formats such as PDF, DOCX, PPTX, images, and HTML into Markdown and JSON.

Q2: Does Duckling support OCR for scanned PDFs?
A2: Yes, Duckling includes Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities to process scanned PDFs.

Q3: How do I install Duckling?
A3: You can install Duckling using the command pip install duckling in your Python environment.

Q4: Can I batch process multiple documents with Duckling?
A4: Yes, Duckling allows you to convert multiple documents within a folder to your specified format.

Q5: Is Duckling a fully open-source tool?
A5: Yes, Duckling is a fully open-source document conversion tool developed by IBM.