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No. 2 of 40 ·OCR software

OCRmyPDF

Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted · API

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Freedom report

Three barsScore 7.5

  • Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
  • Open codeNo open-source code on record
  • Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
  • DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

OCRmyPDF is free software that adds searchable text to scanned PDF files while preserving the original document as much as possible. It uses Tesseract to recognize text in page images and creates PDF/A-2b files by default, with regular PDF output available as an option. Image-processing tools such as deskew can adjust pages to support visual quality and OCR. For PDFs that already contain text, processing modes can report an error, skip pages, redo recognition, or apply OCR across the document. OCRmyPDF can be used as a Python library, and plugins can customize processing steps. Installation methods are documented for Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, and Docker; Paperless-ngx and Nextcloud OCR are listed as third-party integrations. The project warns that handwriting is not recognized, poor scans can produce poor results, and accuracy may trail commercial solutions. Results may also suffer when the document contains languages not specified for processing. Its documentation advises using it only with PDFs users trust and warns that its Docker web-service example lacks security measures and is not intended for public internet deployment.

Who it is for

OCRmyPDF suits people who need searchable text in scanned PDFs and can work with its documented installation methods or Python library. It is not suited to handwriting recognition, and the project advises against exposing its Docker web-service example to the public internet.

What is good

  • Free software for adding searchable text to PDFs.
  • Can output PDF/A-2b or regular PDF.
  • Offers deskew and multiple modes for existing text.
  • Available as a Python library with plugin support.
  • Documentation covers Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, and Docker.

What to know first

  • Does not recognize handwriting.
  • Poor scans can produce poor results.
  • Accuracy may trail commercial solutions.
  • Docker web-service example lacks security measures.

Verdict

OCRmyPDF provides a configurable, free way to add searchable text to scanned PDFs, with library and plugin options. Its recognition has limitations, and the project advises processing only trusted PDFs.

OCRmyPDF plans and pricing

All plans
OCRmyPDF Free Free software; self-hosted installation; depends on external OCR and PDF tools ocrmypdf.readthedocs.io · 2 Oct 2026

Compared on OCR software

Free plan
Yes
Handwriting OCR
No

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