This paper presents an objective comparative evaluation of layout analysis methods in realistic circumstances. It describes the Page Segmentation competition (modus operandi, dataset and evaluation methodology) held in the context of ICDAR2009 and presents the results of the evaluation of four submitted methods. Two state-of-the art methods are also compared as well as the three methods from the ICDA2007 Page Segmentation competition. The results indicate that although methods continue to mature, there is still a considerable need to develop robust methods that deal with everyday documents.