AI engineering glossary · RAG vector search
What is layout-aware parsing?
Layout-aware parsing: Document parsing that detects headings, paragraphs, tables, lists and figures on a page instead of reading raw text streams. Keeping this structure lets chunkers split at natural boundaries and lets tables be stored as tables, which improves retrieval on reports and forms.
Layout-aware parsing: an example
A parser recognises a balance-sheet table in an annual report and stores it as a Markdown table instead of scrambled numbers in a line.
Related terms
More RAG vector search terms
- Learned sparse retrieval
- LLM-as-judge
- Locality-sensitive hashing
- M parameter
- Maximal marginal relevance
- Metadata filtering
- Multi-hop retrieval
- Multi-query retrieval
Where you learn it
Layout-aware parsing is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.