Head to head

pdf-inspector vs pdf-parse

Same fixture, different extraction paths. These results describe this adapter configuration and this small test set.

Configured adapter capabilities
Capability	pdf-inspector	pdf-parse
Output	markdown	text
OCR	none	none
Licence	MIT	MIT
Parser charge	No parser API fee	No parser API fee

When to test pdf-inspector

Compare financial tables and headings in PDFs with an existing text layer.

This adapter does not OCR scanned pages. Native dependencies run in the parsing engine.

When to test pdf-parse

Compare extracted text with Markdown before choosing a parser for retrieval workflows.

This comparison measures the configured text adapter, not every feature offered by the upstream library.

Measured fixture results

How these checks work

Captured 2026-09-12 · darwin/arm64 · Node v22.21.1. Median of up to three sequential local samples. Timings will vary on other machines.

Measured parser results on synthetic fixtures
Fixture / parser	Status	Median	Aligned cells	Reading order
pdf-inspectortext-layer.pdf	ok	1.0 ms	Not scored	Not scored
pdf-parsetext-layer.pdf	ok	2.0 ms	Not scored	Not scored
pdf-inspectortables.pdf	ok	2.0 ms	9/9 (100%)	Not scored
pdf-parsetables.pdf	ok	2.0 ms	0/9 (0%)	Not scored
pdf-inspectorragged-table.pdf	ok	2.0 ms	20/20 (100%)	Not scored
pdf-parseragged-table.pdf	ok	2.0 ms	0/20 (0%)	Not scored
pdf-inspectormulti-column.pdf	ok	3.0 ms	Not scored	Preserved · 40/40 lines
pdf-parsemulti-column.pdf	ok	2.0 ms	Not scored	Changed · 40/40 lines

pdf-inspector · text-layer.pdf · raw output

Samples: 29.0 ms, 0.0 ms, 1.0 ms

<!-- Page 1 -->

# Quarterly Report

## Revenue grew 12% year over year.

pdf-parse · text-layer.pdf · raw output

Samples: 64.0 ms, 2.0 ms, 1.0 ms

<!-- Page 1 -->

Quarterly Report
Revenue grew 12% year over year.

pdf-inspector · tables.pdf · raw output

Samples: 2.0 ms, 1.0 ms, 2.0 ms

<!-- Page 1 -->

# Financial Summary

|Region|Q1|Q2|Q3|
|---|---|---|---|
|North|120|145|160|
|South|98|102|115|
|East|210|198|225|

pdf-parse · tables.pdf · raw output

Samples: 2.0 ms, 1.0 ms, 2.0 ms

<!-- Page 1 -->

Financial Summary
Region Q1 Q2 Q3
North 120 145 160
South 98 102 115
East 210 198 225

pdf-inspector · ragged-table.pdf · raw output

Samples: 4.0 ms, 1.0 ms, 2.0 ms

<!-- Page 1 -->

# Q3 Results by Region

|Region|Manager|Q1|Q2|Q3|Notes|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|North|Alice Chen|120|145|160|strong|
|South||98|102|115||
|East|Bob Lee|210|198|225|recovering|
|West|Dana|88||99|pending|

pdf-parse · ragged-table.pdf · raw output

Samples: 2.0 ms, 2.0 ms, 3.0 ms

<!-- Page 1 -->

Q3 Results by Region
Region Manager Q1 Q2 Q3 Notes
North Alice Chen 120 145 160 strong
South 98 102 115
East Bob Lee 210 198 225 recovering
West Dana 88 99 pending

pdf-inspector · multi-column.pdf · raw output

Samples: 3.0 ms, 3.0 ms, 3.0 ms

<!-- Page 1 -->

# On Reading Order

Left column line 1. Left column line 2. Left column line 3. Left column line 4. Left column line 5. Left column line 6. Left column line 7. Left column line 8. Left column line 9. Left column line 10. Left column line 11. Left column line 12. Left column line 13. Left column line 14. Left column line 15. Left column line 16. Left column line 17. Left column line 18. Left column line 19. Left column line 20.

Right column line 1. Right column line 2. Right column line 3. Right column line 4. Right column line 5. Right column line 6. Right column line 7. Right column line 8. Right column line 9. Right column line 10. Right column line 11. Right column line 12. Right column line 13. Right column line 14. Right column line 15. Right column line 16. Right column line 17. Right column line 18. Right column line 19. Right column line 20.

pdf-parse · multi-column.pdf · raw output

Samples: 2.0 ms, 2.0 ms, 2.0 ms

<!-- Page 1 -->

On Reading Order
Left column line 1. Right column line 1.
Left column line 2. Right column line 2.
Left column line 3. Right column line 3.
Left column line 4. Right column line 4.
Left column line 5. Right column line 5.
Left column line 6. Right column line 6.
Left column line 7. Right column line 7.
Left column line 8. Right column line 8.
Left column line 9. Right column line 9.
Left column line 10. Right column line 10.
Left column line 11. Right column line 11.
Left column line 12. Right column line 12.
Left column line 13. Right column line 13.
Left column line 14. Right column line 14.
Left column line 15. Right column line 15.
Left column line 16. Right column line 16.
Left column line 17. Right column line 17.
Left column line 18. Right column line 18.
Left column line 19. Right column line 19.
Left column line 20. Right column line 20.

Compare on your own PDF