A side-by-side look at the Image Reader MCP and SmartPDF MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Image Reader MCP for developer tools work as a local process; choose SmartPDF for developer tools. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
inspect, outline, read.SMARTPDF_API_KEY.pdf_to_word, word_to_pdf, merge_pdfs.Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | S SmartPDF | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Developer Tools | Developer Tools |
| Quality signal | 44/100 · Fair | 53/100 · Good |
| Install command | Confirmed | Not confirmed yet |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | — |
| Auth | Not declared | API key required |
| Pricing | Not declared | Not declared |
| Required env vars | None listed | SMARTPDF_API_KEY |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 2 | 0 |
| Directory activity | 2 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 4 | 48 |
| Full listing | View Image Reader MCP | View SmartPDF |
inspectDocument and media evidence when Markdown is not enough. video_timeline (bounded scene/cue timeline) and render_frame (actual decoded frames), and cite_check (quote/location support, not semantic truth), are anymd Pro; PDF operations: inspect (page facts, metadata), render_page (PNG images), extract_regions (crop bounding boxes), ocr_pages / analyze_regions (configured OCR or vision provider), structure (JSON with document map, elements, geometry; profile quality|research adds trust and accessibility reports), compare (page-level diff of sources[0] vs sources[1]).outlineReturn a document heading tree with stable node ids, title paths, page/slide/chapter ranges and Markdown byte ranges. PDF bookmarks or detected headings, Word headings, PowerPoint slides, EPUB chapters and headings, HTML and Markdown. format json (default) or tree. Pass a node id to read to fetch that section.readRead any document as clean Markdown: PDF, Word (DOCX), PowerPoint (PPTX), Excel (XLSX/XLS/ODS), CSV, EPUB, HTML or a web URL, Markdown/text, images (metadata + OCR), audio/video (metadata, chapters, subtitles). Pages/slides/sheets carry <!-- page N --> style markers for citation. Long documents stop at max_tokens (default 20000) and end with a cursor to continue; choose pages with pages: "1-5,8". A directory returns its readable files.searchSearch documents for text: one file, many files, whole directories (recursive, .gitignore aware), or URLs, across every format read supports. Returns each hit as file + page/slide/sheet + a snippet with the match in bold. mode auto (default) finds the exact phrase and falls back to BM25-ranked passages when there is none; literal or ranked force one. Narrow directories with glob, e.g. "*.pdf".pdf_to_wordКонвертирует PDF в редактируемый Word-документ (.docx).
file_url: публичный URL PDF-файла.
ocr: скан без текста — распознать текст (русский и английский); до 100 страниц, цена — как у ocr_pdf.word_to_pdfКонвертирует Word-документ (.doc/.docx) в PDF.
file_url: публичный URL Word-файла.merge_pdfsОбъединяет несколько PDF в один. Порядок файлов = порядок страниц.
file_urls: список публичных URL PDF-файлов (минимум 2).compress_pdfСжимает PDF-файл.
file_url: публичный URL PDF-файла.
level: low | medium (по умолчанию) | high.sign_pdfДобавляет визуальную текстовую подпись на страницу PDF.
file_url: публичный URL PDF-файла.
signature_text: текст подписи.
page: номер страницы (с 1).
x, y: координаты (0.0–1.0). width, height: размер блока (0.0–1.0).jpg_to_pdfКонвертирует изображения (JPEG, PNG) в PDF. Каждое изображение — страница.
file_urls: список публичных URL изображений.pptx_to_pdfКонвертирует презентацию PowerPoint (.pptx/.ppt) в PDF.
file_url: публичный URL PPTX-файла.xlsx_to_pdfКонвертирует таблицу Excel (.xlsx/.xls) в PDF.
file_url: публичный URL XLSX-файла.html_to_pdfКонвертирует HTML-файл в PDF.
file_url: публичный URL HTML-файла.
page_size: A4 (по умолчанию) | A3 | Letter.
orientation: portrait (по умолчанию) | landscape.pdf_to_jpgКонвертирует страницы PDF в JPEG. Результат — ZIP-архив (page-1.jpg, page-2.jpg...).
file_url: публичный URL PDF-файла.
dpi: 72 | 150 (по умолчанию) | 300.pdf_to_pptxКонвертирует PDF в PowerPoint (.pptx). Каждая страница — отдельный слайд.
file_url: публичный URL PDF-файла.pdf_to_excelИзвлекает таблицы из PDF и сохраняет в Excel (.xlsx).
file_url: публичный URL PDF-файла.
layout: per-table (по умолчанию) | single-sheet.Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
{
"mcpServers": {
"image-reader-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@sylphx/anymd"
]
}
}
}
No confirmed install command for SmartPDF yet — follow the setup steps linked from its listing page rather than a guessed package name.