UiPath extraction pdf vs du

[Ritaman_Baral]

What is the difference , advantages and disadvantages of using DU over normal PDF with OCR extraction?

[Baskar_Gurumoorthy]

Hi @Ritaman_Baral

refer the below thread.

Difference between document understanding vs PDF activities

Hi @Salman_Faries , The Answer to “If both are doing the same” is a Big NO. But we can say the PDF activities does only the part of extracting the text whenever the Inputs/Document are PDF or Digital PDFs. However, there’s a Lot more to Document Understanding than just extracting the text. Mainly Document Understanding is used when the dataset or document set contains a lot of different templates (Semi-Structured, Ex: Invoices from Different Vendors) and maybe also the case where there are …

Hope it Helps!!!

[chandreshsinh.jadeja]

PDF with OCR will extract data from PDF and you don’t have confidence score or classification only while DU can extract data from multiple formats and you have option to classify the document and verify the data with confidence score and you can also extract data like hand written Check boxes and signature is there or not

please check this

What is diffrent between document understanding and local netive ocr

Hello @Aleem_Khan I would suggest you to complete the below training to understand better. Document understanding is a wide concept including ML to automate even unstructured documents. Even in document understanding also OCR is in use in the digitalization stage.

if this was help full please don’t forget to mark it as solution

[Anil_G (Anil Gorthi)]

@Ritaman_Baral

those are basically two different things

PDF extraction with ocr can be used as one of stages of DU as well

pdf extraction is just plain getting data from pdf into a variable

now DU uses ML models to take this data and clean the data and extract only relavent data and organize it for you and give it…as you train

I hope this gives a good picture…if not happy to help

cheers

[ashokkarale]

@Ritaman_Baral,

UiPath’s Document Understanding (DU) and normal PDF with OCR extraction are two methods used to extract data from documents, particularly PDFs. Both have their unique characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages. Here’s a detailed comparison:

Normal PDF with OCR Extraction

Description:

Normal PDF with OCR extraction involves using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to convert different types of documents, such as scanned paper documents, PDF files, or images captured by a digital camera, into editable and searchable data.

Advantages:

1. Simple Setup: Easier to set up and implement, especially for straightforward text extraction tasks.
2. Cost-Effective: Often less expensive as it doesn’t require advanced AI or machine learning models.
3. Basic Functionality: Sufficient for documents with standard fonts and layouts.

Disadvantages:

1. Limited Accuracy: Struggles with complex layouts, varied fonts, or handwritten text, leading to lower accuracy.
2. Minimal Contextual Understanding: Lacks the ability to understand the context or semantics of the document content.
3. No Learning Capability: Doesn’t improve over time as it lacks machine learning capabilities.
4. Manual Post-Processing: Often requires manual correction and validation due to inaccuracies.

Document Understanding (DU)

Description:

UiPath Document Understanding combines OCR with AI and machine learning to understand, classify, and extract data from documents more intelligently and accurately.

Advantages:

1. High Accuracy: Utilizes AI to improve the accuracy of data extraction, especially in complex documents.
2. Contextual Understanding: Can understand the context and semantics of the document, improving the relevance of extracted data.
3. Versatility: Handles various document types including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured documents.
4. Learning Capability: Machine learning models can be trained to improve over time, reducing the need for manual intervention.
5. Automation and Integration: Integrates seamlessly with other UiPath automation workflows, enhancing end-to-end process automation.
6. Advanced Features: Includes capabilities like document classification, data labeling, and automatic retraining of models.

Disadvantages:

1. Complex Setup: More complex to set up and requires training machine learning models, which can be time-consuming.
2. Higher Cost: Generally more expensive due to the use of advanced AI and machine learning technologies.
3. Resource Intensive: Requires more computational resources for training and running AI models.

Conclusion

• Normal PDF with OCR Extraction is suitable for simpler, less critical tasks where basic text extraction suffices and cost or simplicity is a primary concern.
• Document Understanding (DU) is ideal for complex, high-stakes environments where accuracy, contextual understanding, and the ability to handle a wide variety of document types are crucial.

Choosing between the two depends on the specific needs of your document processing tasks, the complexity of the documents involved, and the resources available for implementation and maintenance.

LLM helped to write this answer

Thanks,
Ashok