pdf-utils

# PDF Utils Use this skill for **local, scriptable PDF processing**. It is a stable 1.x skill for OCR, arXiv reference mining, and repeatable PyMuPDF workflows. Prefer the built-in `pdf` tool for AI-style reading, summarization, question-answering, and semantic analysis of PDF content. ## Choose the right tool - Use the built-in **`pdf` tool** for summary, Q&A, extraction by meaning, or general document understanding. - Use **`scripts/extract_refs.py`** when the PDF already has extractable text and you need arXiv IDs or batch downloads. - Use **`scripts/ocr_pdf.py`** when the PDF is scanned/image-based and text extraction is poor or empty. - Use **`scripts/pdf_ops.py`** for repeatable local PDF operations such as merge, split, and rendering a page to an image. ## Core workflows ### Extract arXiv IDs from a text PDF Run: ```bash python3 scripts/extract_refs.py paper.pdf ``` If needed, download the referenced papers: ```bash python3 scripts/extract_refs.py paper.pdf --download --out ~/papers/ ``` ### OCR a scanned PDF Run OCR on all pages: ```bash python3 scripts/ocr_pdf.py paper.pdf --all ``` To OCR and immediately extract arXiv IDs from the OCR output: ```bash python3 scripts/ocr_pdf.py paper.pdf --all --extract-refs ``` ## Dependencies Install these before using OCR features: ```bash brew install tesseract brew install tesseract-lang pip3 install pytesseract Pillow pymupdf --break-system-packages ``` ## Read more only if needed - Read `references/usage.md` for CLI examples, programmatic API notes, PDF ops usage, and known limits. - Read the scripts directly if you need to patch behavior or reuse helper functions. ## Practical guidance - For very large PDFs, OCR in page ranges or batches instead of all at once. - For handwritten or low-resolution scans, expect OCR quality to drop. - If a PDF yields partial references, inspect the reference pages first instead of assuming extraction is complete. - For merge/split/page rendering, use `scripts/pdf_ops.py` first before writing one-off snippets.