Chart Extraction

Reducto can extract numerical data from visualizations and output it as structured tables. This page covers how to configure chart extraction and what chart types are supported.

r-1 is currently in preview and is the default for all new Parse pipelines. It generates short figure descriptions natively. Existing legacy pipelines can continue using legacy figure summarization and promptless figure processing.

Chart Processing with r-1

r-1 offers three ways to process figures and charts:

Level	Configuration	What it does
Native	No additional configuration	Generates a short description for each figure in the full-page pass
Customized	`{"scope": "figure", "prompt": "..."}`	Uses your instructions to produce a use-case-specific interpretation
Advanced	`{"scope": "figure", "advanced_chart_agent": True}`	Multi-stage pipeline for precise numerical extraction

Customized and advanced chart processing run additional model steps and add latency. They do not add cost to r-1 processing.

Native Figure Descriptions

r-1 detects figures and generates a short description as part of the same full-page pass. You do not need to configure summarize_figures or add a promptless figure scope. Output example: "Bar chart showing Q1-Q4 revenue growth, with Q4 reaching approximately $2.5M" Native descriptions make figures searchable in RAG applications. Use customized or advanced processing when you need a more specific result.

Customized Figure Processing

Add one figure-scoped custom prompt when your workflow needs a use-case-specific interpretation:

result = client.parse.run(
    input=upload.file_id,
    enhance={
        "agentic": [
            {
                "scope": "figure",
                "prompt": "Describe the relationships between components in this diagram."
            }
        ]
    }
)

const result = await client.parse.run({
  input: upload.file_id,
  enhance: {
    agentic: [
      {
        scope: 'figure',
        prompt: 'Describe the relationships between components in this diagram.'
      }
    ]
  }
});

curl -X POST https://platform.reducto.ai/parse \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REDUCTO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "input": "reducto://your-file-id",
    "enhance": {
      "agentic": [
        {
          "scope": "figure",
          "prompt": "Describe the relationships between components in this diagram."
        }
      ]
    }
  }'

Advanced: Chart Agent Pipeline

For precise numerical extraction, enable advanced_chart_agent. Reducto runs the separate chart extraction agent and augments the r-1 result:

result = client.parse.run(
    input=upload.file_id,
    enhance={
        "agentic": [{"scope": "figure", "advanced_chart_agent": True}]
    }
)

const result = await client.parse.run({
  input: upload.file_id,
  enhance: {
    agentic: [{ scope: 'figure', advanced_chart_agent: true }]
  }
});

curl -X POST https://platform.reducto.ai/parse \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REDUCTO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "input": "reducto://your-file-id",
    "enhance": {
      "agentic": [{"scope": "figure", "advanced_chart_agent": true}]
    }
  }'

How the Pipeline Works

The chart agent runs multiple parallel tasks, then combines results: Stage 1: Parallel extraction

Component detection: Identifies each data series (lines, bars, areas, scatter points) and their colors/styles
OCR: Detects all text (axis labels, titles, legends, tick values)
Legend detection: Maps colors to series labels
Coordinate extraction: Finds axis boundaries and tick positions

Stage 2: Processing

Masking: Isolates each component by color/style for individual processing
Axis functions: Builds mathematical functions to convert pixel coordinates to actual values (handles linear, logarithmic, and time series axes)
Tick alignment: Maps detected points to axis tick values

Stage 3: Value extraction

Converts pixel coordinates to actual (x, y) values using the axis functions
Falls back to a VLM for components that couldn’t be processed deterministically
Outputs a consolidated markdown table

Output Format

Data is returned as a markdown table with the X-axis as rows and each component as a column:

| Date | Revenue ($M) | Expenses ($M) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 2020-01 | 125.4 | 98.2 |
| 2020-02 | 142.8 | 105.1 |
| 2020-03 | 168.5 | 112.7 |

For bar charts, values show the range: (bottom, top).

Supported Chart Types

Chart Type	Support Level	Notes
Vertical bar charts	✅ Full	Detects bar heights and x-axis categories
Line charts	✅ Full	Tracks points along each series
Area charts	✅ Full	Extracts top/bottom boundaries
Scatter plots	✅ Partial	Works for sparse plots; very dense plots may fail
Combination charts	✅ Full	Handles mixed bar/line/area in same chart
Time series	✅ Full	Supports YYYY, YYYY-MM, YYYY-MM-DD formats
Logarithmic axes	✅ Full	Correctly interprets log-scale values
Dual Y-axis	✅ Full	Maps components to primary or secondary axis

Not Supported

The advanced pipeline will skip these chart types (falls back to VLM description):

Horizontal bar charts: Axis orientation not supported
Pie charts: No coordinate-based extraction possible
Radar/spider charts: Non-Cartesian coordinate system
Density plots: Continuous distributions don’t map to discrete points
Flow charts/diagrams: Not data visualizations
Multiple charts in one image: Requires a single chart per figure
Charts with data labels: If values are already printed on each point, extraction is skipped (the data is already visible)

Combining with Other Scopes

You can combine advanced chart extraction with custom prompts for other content types. For example, this request applies domain-specific instructions to tables and extracts structured numerical data from charts:

result = client.parse.run(
    input=upload.file_id,
    enhance={
        "agentic": [
            {
                "scope": "table",
                "prompt": "Preserve domain-specific notation such as <0.01, ±, and N/A exactly as written."
            },
            {"scope": "figure", "advanced_chart_agent": True}
        ]
    }
)

const result = await client.parse.run({
  input: upload.file_id,
  enhance: {
    agentic: [
      {
        scope: 'table',
        prompt: 'Preserve domain-specific notation such as <0.01, ±, and N/A exactly as written.'
      },
      { scope: 'figure', advanced_chart_agent: true }
    ]
  }
});

curl -X POST https://platform.reducto.ai/parse \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REDUCTO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "input": "reducto://your-file-id",
    "enhance": {
      "agentic": [
        {
          "scope": "table",
          "prompt": "Preserve domain-specific notation such as <0.01, ±, and N/A exactly as written."
        },
        {"scope": "figure", "advanced_chart_agent": true}
      ]
    }
  }'

Legacy Figure Processing

Existing legacy Parse pipelines can continue using the previous figure settings:

Configuration	Legacy behavior
`summarize_figures: true`	Uses a separate model to generate a generic figure description. This is enabled by default.
`{"scope": "figure"}`	Adds enhanced promptless figure processing. `summarize_figures` must also be enabled.
`{"scope": "figure", "advanced_chart_agent": true}`	Runs the multi-stage chart extraction pipeline.

When migrating to r-1, remove summarize_figures and promptless figure scopes. r-1 generates figure descriptions natively. Keep advanced_chart_agent when you need structured numerical data from charts.

Limitations

Resolution matters: Higher quality source images produce more accurate extractions
Processing time: The advanced pipeline is significantly slower than native figure processing. For async calls, use priority=True to speed up processing.
Dense charts: Scatter plots with many overlapping points may have reduced accuracy
Same-color styles: Charts where solid and dashed lines share the same color can confuse component detection

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On-premise Resources

Chart Extraction

Chart Processing with r-1

Native Figure Descriptions

Customized Figure Processing

Advanced: Chart Agent Pipeline

How the Pipeline Works

Output Format

Supported Chart Types

Not Supported

Combining with Other Scopes

Legacy Figure Processing

Limitations

​Chart Processing with r-1

​Native Figure Descriptions

​Customized Figure Processing

​Advanced: Chart Agent Pipeline

​How the Pipeline Works

​Output Format

​Supported Chart Types

​Not Supported

​Combining with Other Scopes

​Legacy Figure Processing

​Limitations

Chart Processing with r-1

Native Figure Descriptions

Customized Figure Processing

Advanced: Chart Agent Pipeline

How the Pipeline Works

Output Format

Supported Chart Types

Not Supported

Combining with Other Scopes

Legacy Figure Processing

Limitations