Reading Order
One sequence across every block—how is it numbered?
✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📄 Page ruleCan be applied from the page alone.Read §5.9 in the RFC ↗
The elements of a page MUST form one reading-order sequence that includes every element of the page exactly once — no element left out, none placed twice. The sequence MUST follow the order in which a reader reads the page, not the elements' geometric position.
When it applies
The reading order is the order of the page's elements in the Markdown and in the sidecar. Where positions are numbered, the numbering MUST start at 0 and be contiguous — no gaps and no duplicates.
Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.
The reader, not the geometry
Elements MUST be ordered the way a person reads the page — not by simple top-to-bottom, left-to-right position. On a two-column page, top-to-bottom order interleaves the columns and produces text that is unreadable in sequence.
The usual shape:
- the page header;
- the intended column or section flow;
- the page footer.
Sidebars, callouts, captions and notes MUST be placed where a reader would encounter them — a caption belongs beside the figure it names, not collected at the end.
Panels
Where a page prints its own section bands or panel headers, they define the order, and position only breaks ties inside a panel.
a conference poster
A poster laid out as titled panels — Motivation and Dataset side by side, Methods below
Motivation, then Results spanning the full width, then Conclusion. The order is panel by
panel, not column by column and certainly not top-to-bottom across the sheet: read by geometry,
the first bullet of Motivation would be followed by the first bullet of Dataset, because they sit
at the same height. The two round marks in the top corners print no text and yield no Markdown; the
Results strip of labelled colour swatches is a Picture, rendered as a description block.
Source page
Expected output
A Distribution-Shift Benchmark for Highland Cacao Smallholders
Do Foundation Models Improve Geographic Generalization?
R. Okonkwo1, T. Vasilenko1, M. Aday2, F. Renwick1
Bramwell University1, Highland Agroforestry Centre2
ICLR 2025 ML4RS Workshop
Motivation
- Recent work has reported high accuracy in applying deep learning to individual tree-canopy detection
- Performance drops under distribution shifts are common for these approaches
We introduce the first distribution-shift benchmark for highland cacao smallholders and ask:
(1) How does performance drop under geographic distribution shift? (2) Do foundation models improve robustness?
Dataset
- stratify Kelanoa province into 8 agro-climatic zones
- sample train & test images for each zone
- annotate individual tree masks for each image
- split In-Distribution (ID) & Out-of-Distribution (OOD) zones for distribution shift evaluation
- do QA using inter-annotator agreement & field inventories
Methods
- We perform three types of evaluations:
- (1) Conventional
- (2) Distribution shift
- (3) Few-shot domain adaptation
- Compare performance of a baseline (Faster-RCNN) with computer-vision foundation models (SAM, Grounding DINO)
- Report per-zone accuracy metrics and calibration curves
Results
- In-Distribution: Ridge Zone, Basin Zone, Terrace Zone, Valley Zone
- Out-of-Distribution: Highland Rim, Plateau Rim, Foothill Rim, Delta Rim
Conclusion
Foundation models close part of the distribution-shift gap seen with the Faster-RCNN baseline, but a sizeable generalization gap remains between in-distribution and out-of-distribution zones; few-shot adaptation on a handful of OOD tiles recovers most of the remaining gap.
Numbered records
Where independent blocks carry explicit numbering or continuation, the numbering MUST decide the order.
records in two columns
Eight regional-office address blocks on a typewriter page, four down the left and four down the
right. The region numbers run down the left column first (I–IV), then the right (VI, VII, VII, IX),
and that numbering is the order — not the row-by-row sweep that would pair Region I with Region VI.
Two blocks on the right are both printed REGION VII, and two print USDL/OFFCCP; both are
transcribed as printed. Each region label is underlined.
Source page
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, RD Instruction 1901-E, Exhibit E — List of Regional Offices (public domain)
Expected output
RD Instruction 1901-E Exhibit E
LIST OF REGIONAL OFFICES Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) U.S. Department of Labor (USDL)
REGION I (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT)
Associate Regional Administrator USDL/OFCCP JFK Building - Room 1612-C Government Center Boston, MA 12203 (617) 223-4232
REGION II (NY, NJ, PR, VI)
Associate Regional Administrator USDL/OFCCP 1515 Broadway - Room 3306 New York, NY 10036 (212) 662-5563
REGION III (PA, MD, DE, VA, WV, DC)
Associate Regional Administrator USDL/OFCCP Gateway Building - Room 15434 3535 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 (215) 596-1213
REGION IV (NC, SC, KY, TIN, MS, AL GA, FL)
Associate Regional Administrator USDL/OFCCP 1371 Peachtree Street, NE Room 729 Atlanta, GA 30309 (402) 881-4211
REGION VI (LA, AR, OK, TX, NM)
Associate Regional Administrator USDL/OFCCP 555 Griffin Square Building Room 506 Dallas, TX 75202 (214) 767-4771
REGION VII (MO, IA, NE, KS)
Associate Regional Administrator USDL/OFCCP Regional Administrator Federal Office Building Room 2000 911 Walnut Street Kansas City, MO 64106 (816) 374-5384
REGION VII (ND, SD, MT, WY, CO, UT)
Associate Regional Administrator USDL/OFFCCP 14431 Federal Office Building 1961 Stout Street Denver, CO 80202 (303) 837-5011
REGION IX (CA, NV, AZ, HI, GU)
Associate Regional Administrator USDL/OFFCCP Federal Office Building Room 10341 450 Golden Gate, CA 94102 San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 556-3597
Unnumbered grids
An unnumbered grid of independent, equal blocks MUST be read row by row — left to right on a left-to-right page — and each block MUST be finished before the next begins. Explicit numbering or continuation, where present, overrides this.
a grid with no numbering
Nine office address blocks in three rows of three under an introductory sentence, nothing numbered. The grid is read row by row, each address finished before the next starts. Within each block, a gap separates the address from the telephone lines; the block stays whole. The notes above the grid are elided.
Source page
Expected output · excerpt, the office grid
…
Completed Affidavits may be obtained at any of the following Motor Registration offices:
Motor Registration Division 212 Larkhollow Drive Fennmoor, BV P.O. Box 4410 Harrowgate, BV, B2C 6K1 Tel: 1-877-555-0110 Fax: 709-555-1843
Motor Registration Division Provincial Building 7 Cromlin Avenue Grennfell Cross, BV A9A 1W2 Tel: 1-877-555-0110 Fax: 709-555-2387
Motor Registration Division Sir Talbert Squires Building Corner Reach, BV A4H 6J1 Tel: 1-877-555-0110 Fax: 709-555-2615
Motor Registration Division 14A Byers Ave. Suite 208 Clarenhaven, BV A6A 1T4 Tel: 1-877-555-0110 Fax: 709-555-4070
Motor Registration Division Bruno Plaza 212 Humphreys Road Labrador Vale, BV A3V 2J9 Tel: 1-877-555-0110 Fax: 709-555-5630
Motor Registration Division 9-13 Roddick Cres. Harbour Bay, BV A1A 2M1 Tel: 1-877-555-0110 Fax: 709-555-3114
Motor Registration Division 4 Tenth Street Box 3115 Goose Valley, BV A1P 1E1 Tel: 1-877-555-0110 Fax: 709-555-4340
Motor Registration Division 340 Airport Blvd., Fraser Mall P.O. Box 2223 Ganderville, BV A2V 2N0 Tel: 1-877-555-0110 Fax: 709-555-1438
Motor Registration Division 2 Harris Dr., Industrial Park P.O. Box 699 Marysvale, BV A0E 2M1 Tel: 1-877-555-0110 Fax: 709-555-8031
Neighbouring rules, and how they differ
More
Sample sources1 +
Public-domain U.S. federal government source material.
- U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, RD Instruction 1901-E, Exhibit E — List of Regional Offices
Rule id layout-reading-order · rule layout blocks