Evidence · first-party tested/Best AI Tools to Convert Complex PDFs into Clean Markdown with an API

Separately extracts Figure 3 into year-by-year values for 1972–1981 and tags it as an image asset, showing chart-specific extraction beyond plain OCR.

✓ Worked🧾 artifact-verifiedinput + output shownTest date not recordedUpstage AI →
What was measured
Advanced Features

Provides separate table/chart extraction and flags low-confidence OCR or ambiguous regions.

context, not decisivetransformation

Separate extraction modes and OCR confidence flags are useful workflow features, but they do not by themselves determine whether the Markdown conversion is good. (3 of 3 judges)

What was given, what came back

Test input: Scanned Research Paper · pdf · group: scanned-research-paper
Input — what we sent
Input file 1 — as supplied
Input file 1 — as supplied
Input file 2 — as supplied
Scanned Research PDF.pdf
Scanned Research Paper

An image-only scanned research paper used to stress OCR and layout recovery in a multi-column academic document with figures, charts, tables, captions, and references.

Why this input is hard
  • · OCR on scanned pages
  • · Multi-column reading order
  • · Figure and chart handling
  • · Table reconstruction from scans
  • · Caption association
  • · Reference extraction
  • · Overall document structure retention
Output — unretouched
image
Provenance
Observation
284ba196-edbd-492d-a9db-504bfe85f361
Evidence run
6e3160de-fe46-4b45-b071-72560b5c5d0e
Study
Convert a Complex PDF into Clean Markdown with an API
Research task
86b9h7t37
Tested at
not recorded
Source
first-party
Evidence state
verified
Proof shown
input + output shown
Cost / latency
not captured
Repeat run
not captured
Tester
not captured

The last three rows are honest blanks, not placeholders — our capture has no field for them yet.

Query this
get_evidence({
  tool: "upstage-ai",
  scenario: "scanned-research-paper"
})
MCP · mcp.aidemos.com/api/mcp
JSON · ai.aidemos.com/v1/observations/284ba196-edbd-492d-a9db-504bfe85f361
Free with attribution.
Same input, same check — 2 other tools
measured on Advanced Features
Reducto✓ WorkedSchema-driven extract.run fully recovers the corrupted Table 4 rows, returning all 12 checked rows exactly, including the 10-inch-cut 1979 MPB row whose parse.run output was badly garbled.Tensorlake✓ WorkedPerforms dedicated chart extraction on a scanned bar chart, turning the figure into structured chart content with year-by-year values, treatment labels, and the 'CUT COMPLETED' annotation.
This evidence is published in
Best AI Tools to Convert Complex PDFs into Clean Markdown with an API →
Real inputs and real outputs, no retouching · every cell queryable via API & MCP · aidemos.com