OCRmyPDF¶

What it is¶

OCRmyPDF adds an OCR text layer to scanned PDF files, allowing them to be searched. It uses the Tesseract OCR engine and is highly configurable for various languages and document types.

What problem it solves¶

Makes scanned PDF documents searchable and indexable by adding a hidden text layer, which is essential for document management systems like Paperless-ngx.

Where it fits in the stack¶

Infrastructure. Serves as the OCR processing layer for the document management pipeline, typically used alongside Paperless-ngx.

Typical use cases¶

Adding searchable text layers to scanned PDFs for Paperless-ngx ingestion
Batch processing scanned documents for archival and indexing
Preparing documents for full-text search in document management systems

Strengths¶

Produces high-quality OCR output using the Tesseract engine
Supports multiple languages and configurable processing options
Preserves the original PDF structure while adding the text layer

Limitations¶

OCR quality depends on scan quality and document complexity
Processing large batches can be CPU-intensive
Tesseract may struggle with handwritten text or unusual fonts

When to use it¶

When you need to make scanned PDFs searchable in a document management system
When batch-processing scanned documents for archival

When not to use it¶

When documents are already digital-native PDFs with embedded text
When you need OCR for non-PDF formats (use Tesseract directly or other tools)

Getting started¶

Installation¶

# Using pip
pip install ocrmypdf

# Using Docker (recommended to avoid dependency issues)
docker pull jbarlow83/ocrmypdf

CLI examples¶

Basic OCR with Docker¶

docker run --rm \
    -v "$(pwd):/home/docker" \
    jbarlow83/ocrmypdf \
    --language eng \
    input_scanned.pdf \
    output_searchable.pdf

Batch Processing Script¶

for f in *.pdf; do
    docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/home/docker" jbarlow83/ocrmypdf "$f" "ocr_$f"
done

OCR with Deskew and Clean¶

ocrmypdf --deskew --clean --language eng input.pdf output.pdf

API examples¶

Modern Python API¶

import ocrmypdf
from ocrmypdf import OcrOptions

if __name__ == '__main__':
    options = OcrOptions(
        input_file='input.pdf',
        output_file='output.pdf',
        deskew=True,
        languages=['eng'],
    )
    ocrmypdf.ocr(options)

Sources / references¶

Contribution Metadata¶

Last reviewed: 2026-05-27
Confidence: high