marker

Marker PDF-to-Markdown Converter

Convert PDFs to Markdown while preserving LaTeX formulas and document structure. Uses the marker_single CLI from the marker-pdf package. Treat converted or manually transcribed formulas as drafts: compare their visible symbols and delimiters against the source PDF before normalizing syntax. When corrections are requested, retain the source versions and append corrected versions separately. Valid LaTeX alone does not prove faithful transcription.

Dependencies

• marker_single on PATH (pip install marker-pdf if missing)
• Python 3.10+ (available in the task image)

Quick Start

from scripts.marker_to_markdown import pdf_to_markdown

markdown_text = pdf_to_markdown("paper.pdf")
print(markdown_text)

Python API

• pdf_to_markdown(pdf_path, *, timeout=600, cleanup=True) -> str
  • Runs marker_single --output_format markdown --disable_image_extraction
  • cleanup=True: use a temp directory and delete after reading the Markdown
  • cleanup=False: keep outputs in <pdf_stem>_marker/ next to the PDF
  • Exceptions: FileNotFoundError if the PDF is missing, RuntimeError for marker failures, TimeoutError if it exceeds the timeout
• Tips: bump timeout for large PDFs; set cleanup=False to inspect intermediate files

Command-Line Usage

# Basic conversion (prints markdown to stdout)
python scripts/marker_to_markdown.py paper.pdf

# Keep temporary files
python scripts/marker_to_markdown.py paper.pdf --keep-temp

# Custom timeout
python scripts/marker_to_markdown.py paper.pdf --timeout 600

Output Locations

• cleanup=True: outputs stored in a temporary directory and removed automatically
• cleanup=False: outputs saved to <pdf_stem>_marker/; markdown lives at <pdf_stem>_marker/<pdf_stem>/<pdf_stem>.md when present (otherwise the first .md file is used)

Troubleshooting

• marker_single not found: install marker-pdf or ensure the CLI is on PATH
• No Markdown output: re-run with --keep-temp/cleanup=False and check stdout/stderr saved in the output folder