Why is it So Hard to Extract Data from PDFs?
By Isaac Maw | 2025 Jan 09
4 min
Tags
pdf extraction
Summary: Without knowing the tools needed to extract data from PDFs accurately and efficiently, it can seem like a confusing task. Check out this blog to learn about Apryse’s tools for document data extraction, including our OCR SDK, barcode extraction, table extraction and IDP.
The PDF documents we use every day to transmit and record information have a challenging quirk: they’re designed to be readable by people, but aren’t as easily read by computers. Because of the objects under the hood that make up elements of a PDF such as text, images and document structure, a PDF is in many ways more similar to an image of text than to ASCII text, for example.
While the PDF standard has many advantages, the challenge of extracting the valuable data they hold is significant, especially given the benefits this embedded information can provide: better automation of business processes, relevant training data for LLMs, and better record-keeping, for example. Digital transformation, in other words: new opportunities for growth and optimization delivered by access to data-driven insights, automation, and digital tools.
Check out our IDP Demo to learn more about our IDP capabilities.
Data Extraction Challenges
In industries like finance, pharma, and healthcare, privacy and compliance are critical. Software in these areas manage high volumes of both structured documents, such as forms, and unstructured data, such as records, memos, letters and emails.
To meet the needs of these document workflows and use cases, developers may face challenges finding solutions that offer:
- Cost efficiency
- Scalability
- Privacy and security compliance, self-hosted
- Ability to automate detection configuration
- Flexibility to handle diverse PDF styles and multi-page documents.
- Minimal post-processing (e.g., column mapping, row handling).
What Can Data Extraction Make Possible?
With the right embedded extraction solutions in place, organizations can drive meaningful improvements. For example, data extraction can be used for:
Analytics and Classification: Gaining insights and organizing data effectively to support decision-making and strategic planning
Searchability: Transforming unstructured information into easily retrievable formats to improve operational efficiency
Integration with Advanced Technologies: Converting data to structured formats like JSON for use in databases, machine learning models, and AI applications
With extraction making information actionable and accessible, organizations can drive transformations in use cases like:
- Automated Workflows:
- Data extraction eliminates manual, repetitive tasks such as data entry, approvals, or document routing, freeing up resources for higher-value activities. This automation is essential for modernizing business processes and increasing operational agility.
- Enhanced Customer Experiences:
- Personalized, responsive services depend on the ability to quickly access and process customer information. Extracting data from forms or correspondence enables faster, more accurate interactions, driving loyalty and satisfaction.
- Secured Compliance:
- Meeting regulatory requirements is a critical component of digital transformation, particularly in industries like finance, healthcare, and government. Data extraction ensures accurate analysis, archiving, and reporting to maintain compliance and reduce risk.
- Document Tagging:
- Adding metadata to documents improves organization, accessibility, and discoverability, enabling businesses to streamline information management and enhance collaboration.
- Improved Risk Analysis:
- By extracting and evaluating key data from contracts, policies, or other documents, organizations can proactively identify potential risks and make informed decisions, aligning with their transformation goals.
Data Extraction Product Guide
Apryse provides fully self-hosted, on-premises SDKs that ensure complete control over your data. In addition, developer friendly, pre-built capabilities integrate seamlessly into workflows. Our tools provide the flexibility and scalability to support a wide variety of customizable solutions with consistent performance.
Check out the product overviews below to browse Apryse’s full suite of data extraction tools.
OCR
With multilingual support, seamless integration, and 8-10x faster performance than our previous OCR engine, you can efficiently automate document workflows while maintaining precision.
Form Extraction
Form Extraction uses templates to mark form fields for extraction, allowing users to programmatically fill and extract data from forms with JavaScript.
Barcode
Designed to add seamless and efficient barcode reading capabilities to your applications.
Table Extraction
Uses our custom built AI models to extract complex tables accurately and output the data in multiple formats.
Document Structure Recognition
In this mode of operation, the full logical structure is discovered, including paragraphs, lists, tables, headers, footers, images, graphics, like in a typical word processor. This enables more advanced IDP by automating the process of identifying content by its context on a page.
Template Extraction
Template Extraction is a cost-effective, simpler solution for extracting data from highly structured documents by configuring a template which tells the software which areas of the page specific information is located, then running this template on a high volume of matching documents.
- Template-Driven: Requires predefined templates for specific document types (e.g., ACORD forms, invoices), while IDP processes unstructured data without templates
- Focused Precision: Ideal for cases where the document format is standardized, such as ACORD forms, invoices, or contracts.
Wrapping Up
The automation and data access capabilities of efficient document data extraction are essential for major improvements in a wide variety of use cases. Reduced errors and costs, improved efficiency, and simplified workflows allow software to deliver outcomes like improved customer experiences, process optimization, compliance, and digital transformation initiatives.
Get in touch with us to begin your journey with data extraction.
Tags
pdf extraction
Isaac Maw
Technical Content Creator
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