fix: avoid misclassifying sparse PDF prose as tables

packages/markitdown/src/markitdown/converters/_pdf_converter.py

@@ -278,7 +278,8 @@ def _extract_form_content_from_words(page: Any) -> str | None:
                     break
 
         # If row uses 2+ of the established columns, it's a table row
-        info["is_table_row"] = len(aligned_columns) >= 2
+        info["aligned"] = len(aligned_columns)
+        info["is_table_row"] = info["aligned"] >= 2
 
     # Find table regions (consecutive table rows)
     table_regions: list[tuple[int, int]] = []  # (start_idx, end_idx)
@@ -298,6 +299,25 @@ def _extract_form_content_from_words(page: Any) -> str | None:
     if len(row_info) > 0 and total_table_rows / len(row_info) < 0.2:
         return None
 
+    # Number of columns that will be used when extracting cells
+    num_cols = len(global_columns)
+
+    # Extra guard: multi-column academic prose can look like a very wide,
+    # sparsely populated table. Real form/table pages in this converter tend to
+    # use a modest number of stable columns; prose pages instead produce many
+    # tentative columns with only a few populated per row. Reject those before
+    # formatting markdown tables.
+    table_row_fill_ratios = [
+        info.get("aligned", 0) / num_cols
+        for info in row_info
+        if info.get("is_table_row")
+    ]
+    if num_cols > 10 and table_row_fill_ratios:
+        sorted_fill_ratios = sorted(table_row_fill_ratios)
+        median_fill_ratio = sorted_fill_ratios[len(sorted_fill_ratios) // 2]
+        if median_fill_ratio < 0.4:
+            return None
+
     # Build output - collect table data first, then format with proper column widths
     result_lines: list[str] = []
     num_cols = len(global_columns)

packages/markitdown/tests/test_pdf_prose_layout_detection.py

@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+def _make_fake_page(width: float, rows: list[list[dict]]):
+    class FakePage:
+        def __init__(self, width: float, rows: list[list[dict]]):
+            self.width = width
+            self._words = []
+            for i, row in enumerate(rows):
+                y_top = 50 + i * 12
+                for w in row:
+                    self._words.append(
+                        {
+                            "text": w["text"],
+                            "x0": float(w["x0"]),
+                            "x1": float(w["x0"]) + float(w.get("w", 12)),
+                            "top": float(y_top),
+                        }
+                    )
+
+        def extract_words(self, keep_blank_chars=True, x_tolerance=3, y_tolerance=3):
+            return list(self._words)
+
+    return FakePage(width=width, rows=rows)
+
+
+def test_multicolumn_prose_falls_back_to_text_extraction():
+    """Regression: wide multi-column prose should not be emitted as a table.
+
+    This page shape mimics the failure mode from issue #120: many tentative
+    columns are discovered across the page, but each row only uses a small
+    fraction of them. That is typical of two-column prose with staggered word
+    positions, not real form/table data.
+    """
+
+    from markitdown.converters._pdf_converter import _extract_form_content_from_words
+
+    # Thirteen stable x positions across the page; each row only touches four of
+    # them, which should be treated as sparse multi-column prose rather than a
+    # dense table.
+    x_positions = [50, 105, 160, 215, 270, 325, 380, 435, 490, 545, 600, 655, 710]
+    rows = []
+    for i in range(10):
+        start = i
+        selected = x_positions[start : start + 4]
+        rows.append(
+            [
+                {"x0": selected[0], "text": f"alpha{i}"},
+                {"x0": selected[1], "text": f"beta{i}"},
+                {"x0": selected[2], "text": f"gamma{i}"},
+                {"x0": selected[3], "text": f"delta{i}"},
+            ]
+        )
+
+    fake_page = _make_fake_page(width=760, rows=rows)
+
+    assert _extract_form_content_from_words(fake_page) is None
+
+
+def test_wide_dense_table_is_still_extracted():
+    """Wide but dense tables should survive the sparse-prose guard."""
+
+    from markitdown.converters._pdf_converter import _extract_form_content_from_words
+
+    x_positions = [50, 105, 160, 215, 270, 325, 380, 435, 490, 545, 600]
+    rows = []
+    for i in range(6):
+        rows.append(
+            [
+                {"x0": x, "text": f"c{col}_{i}"}
+                for col, x in enumerate(x_positions)
+            ]
+        )
+
+    fake_page = _make_fake_page(width=660, rows=rows)
+    output = _extract_form_content_from_words(fake_page)
+
+    assert output is not None
+    assert "|" in output
+