What is Layout Analysis

What is Layout Analysis?

Layout analysis is the automated mapping of a document's visual and structural organization. It identifies and locates elements such as:

• Headers and paragraphs
• Columns and tables
• Images and form fields
• Spatial relationships between all of the above

Layout analysis vs. Document analysis

Layout analysis is the structural component of document analysis. The table below shows how the two approaches differ.

How layout analysis works

Layout analysis uses computer vision to build a spatial model of the document, and this spatial model guides subsequent extraction. Knowing that a value appears in a table cell in the third column of the second row carries more extraction meaning than knowing it appears at a particular pixel coordinate.

When accurate layout analysis is essential

For complex document types, accurate layout analysis is a prerequisite for reliable data extraction. These include:

• Multi-column layouts
• Nested tables
• Forms with variable field positioning