How do I extract data from PDF documents?
Use a document extraction API that accepts a PDF, applies OCR if needed, classifies the document, extracts fields against a schema, and returns structured JSON.
Short answer
Use a document extraction API that accepts a PDF, applies OCR if needed, classifies the document, extracts fields against a schema, and returns structured JSON.
What this means in practice
For digital PDFs, the pipeline can read embedded text and layout. For scanned PDFs, it first runs OCR and image cleanup.
The best extraction workflows preserve page references and confidence scores so reviewers can verify the source quickly.