Struct StructElement 

pub struct StructElement {
    pub element_type: String,
    pub mcids: Vec<u32>,
    pub alt_text: Option<String>,
    pub actual_text: Option<String>,
    pub lang: Option<String>,
    pub bbox: Option<BBox>,
    pub children: Vec<StructElement>,
    pub page_index: Option<usize>,
}

A node in the PDF structure tree.

Represents a logical structure element from a tagged PDF’s /StructTreeRoot. Each element has a type (e.g., “H1”, “P”, “Table”), optional marked content identifiers (MCIDs) linking it to page content, and optional child elements forming a tree structure.

Tagged PDF Support

Tagged PDFs (ISO 32000-1, Section 14.8) embed semantic structure that is critical for accessibility and increasingly important for AI/LLM document understanding. The structure tree maps logical elements (headings, paragraphs, tables) to their visual representation on the page via MCID references.

Example

use pdfplumber_core::StructElement;

let heading = StructElement {
    element_type: "H1".to_string(),
    mcids: vec![0],
    alt_text: None,
    actual_text: Some("Chapter 1".to_string()),
    lang: Some("en".to_string()),
    bbox: None,
    children: vec![],
    page_index: Some(0),
};
assert_eq!(heading.element_type, "H1");
assert_eq!(heading.mcids, vec![0]);

Fields

element_type: String

The structure type name (e.g., “Document”, “H1”, “P”, “Table”, “TR”, “TD”, “L”, “LI”, “Span”, “Figure”).

mcids: Vec<u32>

Marked content identifiers linking this element to page content. Each MCID corresponds to a marked-content sequence in a page’s content stream.

alt_text: Option<String>

Alternative text for accessibility (from /Alt entry).

actual_text: Option<String>

Replacement text for the element’s content (from /ActualText entry).

lang: Option<String>

Language of the element’s content (from /Lang entry, e.g., “en-US”).

bbox: Option<BBox>

Bounding box of the element, if available.

children: Vec<StructElement>

Child structure elements forming the tree hierarchy.

page_index: Option<usize>

Page index (0-based) this element belongs to, if determinable.

Trait Implementations

impl Clone for StructElement

fn clone(&self) -> StructElement

Returns a duplicate of the value.

fn clone_from(&mut self, source: &Self)

Performs copy-assignment from source.

impl Debug for StructElement

fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result

Formats the value using the given formatter.

impl PartialEq for StructElement

fn eq(&self, other: &StructElement) -> bool

Tests for self and other values to be equal, and is used by ==.

fn ne(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests for !=. The default implementation is almost always sufficient, and should not be overridden without very good reason.

impl StructuralPartialEq for StructElement