# PDF to JSON Structure Explorer Extract structured OpenDataLoader JSON from a PDF and browse headings, paragraphs, tables, lists, pages, and bounding boxes in an explorer view > Canonical page: https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/pdf-to-json-structure-explorer - **Category:** Developer Tools - **Keywords:** pdf, json, structure, explorer, opendataloader ## Overview Run OpenDataLoader JSON extraction and render an explorer view of the semantic nodes in the PDF. This is useful for debugging heading hierarchy, checking tables, verifying page metadata, and understanding what the parser actually saw. ## Inputs - **PDF File** (file) - **Use Struct Tree** (checkbox) - **Sanitize Sensitive Data** (checkbox) - **Pages** (text): e.g. 1,3,5-7 - **Node Filter** (select) - **Search Term** (text): e.g. revenue or heading ## When to use - When you need to debug the heading hierarchy and semantic parsing of a complex PDF document. - When verifying if tables and lists are correctly identified and extracted by the OpenDataLoader parser. - When inspecting bounding box coordinates and page metadata for specific text nodes within a PDF. ## How it works - Upload a PDF file to initiate the OpenDataLoader JSON extraction process. - Optionally specify page ranges, toggle the structural tree usage, or apply a node filter to isolate headings, tables, or lists. - Enter a search term to quickly locate specific content or enable sensitive data sanitization if required. - View the generated HTML explorer report to interactively browse the extracted semantic nodes, page metadata, and JSON previews. ## Use cases - Debugging PDF parsing pipelines to ensure accurate extraction of nested headings and paragraphs. - Auditing financial reports or research papers to confirm that tabular data is correctly recognized as table nodes. - Reviewing document bounding boxes to map extracted text back to its exact visual location on the original PDF page. ## Frequently asked questions ### What formats are supported for upload? The tool strictly accepts PDF files for extraction. ### Can I filter the output to only show tables? Yes, you can use the Node Filter option to display only tables, headings, or lists. ### What is the 'Use Struct Tree' option? It tells the parser to utilize the PDF's internal structural tags, if available, to improve the accuracy of semantic extraction. ### Can I extract data from specific pages only? Yes, you can input a page range like '1,3,5-7' in the Pages field to limit the extraction to those specific pages. ### Does this tool output raw JSON? The tool generates an interactive HTML explorer view that visualizes the semantic nodes, which includes previews of the underlying JSON data. ## Related tools - [OCR PDF to Structured JSON Bridge](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/ocr-pdf-to-structured-json-bridge): Extract the PDF text layer with geometry (lines by y-position, tables by column gaps, headings by font size, colon key-value pairs), then fill a user-supplied JSON Schema field by field — labels matched by normalized keys, values coerced to declared types and validated with ajv. - [PDF Annotation Export](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/pdf-annotation-export): Extract existing annotations (highlights, comments, stamps, links, markup) from a PDF into JSON - [PDF Form Data Export](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/pdf-form-data-export): Read AcroForm field names, types and current values from a PDF and export them to JSON - [PDF Table Extractor to CSV/JSON](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/pdf-table-extractor-to-csv-json): Extract tables from PDFs with OpenDataLoader and export them as structured JSON, flat CSV, or HTML tables - [Encrypted PDF Converter](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/encrypted-pdf-converter): Open password-protected PDFs with OpenDataLoader and export them as Markdown, JSON, or text once the correct password is provided - [PDF Page Range Extractor](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/pdf-page-range-extractor): Extract only selected PDF pages with OpenDataLoader and export the subset as Markdown, JSON, or text - [Fitness Workout PDF Generator](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/fitness-workout-pdf-generator): Generate a printable workout-plan PDF from JSON or CSV data with exercise tables, progress boxes, and optional QR video links - [LibreOffice Template Fill Merge](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/libreoffice-template-fill-merge): Replace placeholders in DOCX template and render merged records to PDF using LibreOffice ## Samples - [PDF Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/pdf-samples): Generated PDF samples from tools dated 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-10 - [Terraform Plan JSON Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/terraform-plan-json-samples): Sample Terraform plan JSON files exported from terraform show -json style payloads for dependency visualization and change review - [JSON Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/json): JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format examples from simple to complex structures - [Chat Transcript JSON Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/chat-transcript-json): JSON examples for multi-role chat transcripts ## Related content - [Document OCR Extraction](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/document-ocr-extraction): Extract OCR text from scans and convert document pages or images into Markdown, JSON, tables, captions, and retrieval-ready chunks with quality checks. - [PDF Conversion, OCR, and Extraction Workflow](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/pdf-convert): Turn office files, wiki pages, comments, and images into PDFs, then extract text, images, tables, structure, or OCR layers from existing PDFs. - [PDF Extraction and Debugging Workflows](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/pdf-extraction-debugging-workflows): Debug hard PDF extraction cases by checking encryption, safety, page scope, reading order, OCR, tables, review marks, and structured output. - [PDF LLM and RAG Preparation](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/pdf-llm-rag-prep): Turn PDFs into clean, safe, citation-ready inputs for LLM summarization, embedding, search, and RAG pipelines.