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OCRmyPDF

Adds an optical character recognition text layer to scanned PDF files, producing searchable PDF/A output for long-term preservation

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Searchable PDF/A Output
Embeds a recognition text layer beneath the original scanned image and produces PDF/A output by default, allowing the file to be searched, copy-pasted, and kept for long-term archival.
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Multilingual Recognition
Uses the Tesseract engine to recognize text in more than 100 languages, including combined multilingual documents, so scans in different or mixed languages can be made searchable.
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Automatic Deskew and Cleanup
Detects and straightens crooked pages and removes scan noise before recognition runs, to improve text-recognition accuracy on imperfect scans.
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Multi-core Batch Processing
Distributes recognition work across all available CPU cores, allowing large batches of pages or documents to be processed considerably faster.
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Minimal-change Processing
Inserts the recognition layer without altering surrounding page content when possible, so the resolution and quality of the original scanned images are preserved.
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Image Optimization
Applies image-optimization techniques such as JBIG2 encoding and PNG quantization after recognition, often producing an output file smaller than the input, to reduce storage requirements.
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Pluggable OCR Engines
Exposes a plugin interface that lets alternative engines such as EasyOCR, PaddleOCR, or Apple’s Vision framework replace the default Tesseract engine, enabling GPU-accelerated or platform-specific recognition.
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Scriptable Command Line and API
Provides a scriptable command-line interface alongside a Python API, allowing the tool to be embedded directly into automated document-processing pipelines.
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Input and Output Validation
Validates both the source PDF and the generated output file during processing, to help catch malformed documents before they cause problems downstream.
...3 more features/limitations. Contact us to get a complete list of features and system requirements.

Platform

Desktop
Language
Python
Software

Social

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System Requirements

#Minimum
1
  • Python 3.11 or newer
  • Tesseract OCR 4.1.1 or newer
  • Ghostscript and QPDF
Want to get access to entire data for training LLM or studying software or may be something else? Contact us at contact [at] softorage [dot] com
Want to get access to entire data for training LLM or studying software or may be something else? Contact us at contact [at] softorage [dot] com
Want to get access to entire data for training LLM or studying software or may be something else? Contact us at contact [at] softorage [dot] com

Ratings

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Developer

Written in

Python

Initial Release

2013-04-26

Repository

License

Categories

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Notes

  • Several community plugins (OCRmyPDF-EasyOCR, OCRmyPDF-PaddleOCR, OCRmyPDF-AppleOCR) can swap out the default Tesseract engine — see the GitHub README’s Plugins section.
  • See FAQ on .whl files to know how to install .whl files.