Paperwork

What Paperwork is

Paperwork is a personal document manager for scanning or importing documents and finding them later with keyword search. It can search across PDF files, detect page orientation automatically, and provides quick page editing. Users can add labels, and Paperwork can learn where those labels belong and apply them to new documents. It uses PyOCR for text recognition and Libinsane to access scanners. Documents are kept in one directory using JPEG, hOCR, and PDF formats; that directory can be synchronized across computers with tools such as Nextcloud, Syncthing, and SparkleShare. Paperwork is Free Software and its plan is free. It supports Linux and Windows. Linux installation choices include distribution packages, Flatpak repositories, AppImage, and source code. The Flatpak versions cannot currently be used with network scanners, and local scanner use may require tweaking. The project welcomes contributions.

Who it suits

Paperwork suits people who want to organize personal scanned or imported documents and retrieve them through keyword or PDF search. It may also suit users who want to synchronize a document directory across computers.

Limits

The free plan is Free Software and costs nothing. Flatpak versions cannot currently be used with network scanners, and local scanner use may require tweaking.

Getting started

1. Open the Paperwork website.
2. Choose Linux or Windows as your platform.
3. On Linux, install using a distribution package, OpenPaper or Flathub Flatpak, AppImage, or source code.
4. Scan or import personal documents into Paperwork.
5. Add labels and use keyword search to find documents.

Verdict

Paperwork brings scanning, OCR, search, and learned labels into a personal document manager. Its scanner caveats are worth checking before choosing a Linux installation method.