OCRmyPDF/docs/installation.rst

.. SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 James R. Barlow
..
.. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0

===================
Installing OCRmyPDF
===================

.. |latest| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: OCRmyPDF latest released version on PyPI

|latest|

The easiest way to install OCRmyPDF is to follow the steps for your operating
system/platform. This version may be out of date, however.

These platforms have one-liner installs:

+-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Debian, Ubuntu                | ``apt install ocrmypdf``                |
+-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Windows Subsystem for Linux   | ``apt install ocrmypdf``                |
+-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Fedora                        | ``dnf install ocrmypdf tesseract-osd``  |
+-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| macOS                         | ``brew install ocrmypdf``               |
+-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| LinuxBrew                     | ``brew install ocrmypdf``               |
+-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| FreeBSD                       | ``pkg install textproc/py-ocrmypdf``    |
+-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Conda (WSL, macOS, Linux)     | ``conda install ocrmypdf``              |
+-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Snap (snapcraft packaging)    | ``snap install ocrmypdf``               |
+-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+

More detailed procedures are outlined below. If you want to do a manual
install, or install a more recent version than your platform provides, read on.

.. contents:: Platform-specific steps
    :depth: 2
    :local:

Installing on Linux
===================

Debian and Ubuntu 20.04 or newer
--------------------------------

.. |deb-11| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/debian_11/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: Debian 11

.. |deb-12| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/debian_12/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: Debian 12

.. |deb-unstable| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/debian_unstable/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: Debian unstable

.. |ubu-2004| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/ubuntu_20_04/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

.. |ubu-2204| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/ubuntu_22_04/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

+-----------------------------------------------+
| **OCRmyPDF versions in Debian & Ubuntu**      |
+-----------------------------------------------+
| |latest|                                      |
+-----------------------------------------------+
| |deb-11| |deb-12| |deb-unstable|              |
+-----------------------------------------------+
| |ubu-2004| |ubu-2204|                         |
+-----------------------------------------------+

Users of Debian 9 ("stretch") or later, or Ubuntu 18.04 or later, including users
of Windows Subsystem for Linux, may simply

.. code-block:: bash

    apt install ocrmypdf

As indicated in the table above, Debian and Ubuntu releases may lag
behind the latest version. If the version available for your platform is
out of date, you could opt to install the latest version from source.
See `Installing HEAD revision from
sources <#installing-head-revision-from-sources>`__.

For full details on version availability for your platform, check the
`Debian Package Tracker <https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ocrmypdf>`__ or
`Ubuntu launchpad.net <https://launchpad.net/ocrmypdf>`__.

.. note::

   OCRmyPDF for Debian and Ubuntu currently omit the JBIG2 encoder.
   OCRmyPDF works fine without it but will produce larger output files.
   If you build jbig2enc from source, ocrmypdf will
   automatically detect it (specifically the ``jbig2`` binary) on the
   ``PATH``. To add JBIG2 encoding, see :ref:`jbig2`.

Fedora
------

.. |fedora-35| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/fedora_35/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: Fedora 35

.. |fedora-36| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/fedora_36/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: Fedora 36

.. |fedora-rawhide| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/fedora_rawhide/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: Fedore Rawhide

+-----------------------------------------------+
| **OCRmyPDF version**                          |
+-----------------------------------------------+
| |latest|                                      |
+-----------------------------------------------+
| |fedora-35| |fedora-36| |fedora-rawhide|      |
+-----------------------------------------------+

Users of Fedora 29 or later may simply

.. code-block:: bash

    dnf install ocrmypdf tesseract-osd

For full details on version availability, check the `Fedora Package
Tracker <https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/ocrmypdf>`__.

If the version available for your platform is out of date, you could opt
to install the latest version from source. See `Installing HEAD revision
from sources <#installing-head-revision-from-sources>`__.

.. note::

   OCRmyPDF for Fedora currently omits the JBIG2 encoder due to patent
   issues. OCRmyPDF works fine without it but will produce larger output
   files. If you build jbig2enc from source, ocrmypdf 7.0.0 and later
   will automatically detect it on the ``PATH``. To add JBIG2 encoding,
   see `Installing the JBIG2 encoder <jbig2>`__.

.. _ubuntu-lts-latest:

Installing the latest version on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
-------------------------------------------------

Ubuntu 22.04 includes ocrmypdf 13.4.0 - you can install that with
``apt install ocrmypdf``. To install a more recent version for the current
user, follow these steps:

.. code-block:: bash

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get -y install ocrmypdf python3-pip

    pip install --user --upgrade ocrmypdf

If you get the message ``WARNING: The script ocrmypdf is installed in
'/home/$USER/.local/bin' which is not on PATH.``, you may need to re-login
or open a new shell, or manually add this to your user's PATH.

To add JBIG2 encoding, see :ref:`jbig2`.

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
----------------

Ubuntu 20.04 includes ocrmypdf 9.6.0 - you can install that with ``apt``. To
install a more recent version, uninstall the system-provided version of
ocrmypdf, and install the following dependencies:

.. code-block:: bash

    sudo apt-get -y remove ocrmypdf  # remove system ocrmypdf, if installed
    sudo apt-get -y update
    sudo apt-get -y install \
        ghostscript \
        icc-profiles-free \
        libxml2 \
        pngquant \
        python3-pip \
        tesseract-ocr \
        zlib1g

To install ocrmypdf for the system:

.. code-block:: bash

    pip3 install ocrmypdf

To install for the current user only:

.. code-block:: bash

    export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH
    pip3 install --user ocrmypdf

To add JBIG2 encoding, see :ref:`jbig2`.

Arch Linux (AUR)
----------------

.. image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/aur/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: ArchLinux
    :target: https://repology.org/metapackage/ocrmypdf

There is an `Arch User Repository (AUR) package for OCRmyPDF
<https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ocrmypdf/>`__.

Installing AUR packages as root is not allowed, so you must first `setup a
non-root user
<https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Users_and_groups#User_management>`__ and
`configure sudo <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sudo#Configuration>`__.
The standard Docker image, ``archlinux/base:latest``, does **not** have a
non-root user configured, so users of that image must follow these guides. If
you are using a VM image, such as `the official Vagrant image
<https://app.vagrantup.com/archlinux/boxes/archlinux>`__, this work may already
be completed for you.

Next you should install the `base-devel package group
<https://www.archlinux.org/groups/x86_64/base-devel/>`__. This includes the
standard tooling needed to build packages, such as a compiler and binary tools.

.. code-block:: bash

   sudo pacman -S base-devel

Now you are ready to install the OCRmyPDF package.

.. code-block:: bash

   curl -O https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/ocrmypdf.tar.gz
   tar xvzf ocrmypdf.tar.gz
   cd ocrmypdf
   makepkg -sri

At this point you will have a working install of OCRmyPDF, but the Tesseract
install won’t include any OCR language data. You can install `the
tesseract-data package group
<https://www.archlinux.org/groups/any/tesseract-data/>`__ to add all supported
languages, or use that package listing to identify the appropriate package for
your desired language.

.. code-block:: bash

   sudo pacman -S tesseract-data-eng

As an alternative to this manual procedure, consider using an `AUR helper
<https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AUR_helpers>`__. Such a tool will
automatically fetch, build and install the AUR package, resolve dependencies
(including dependencies on AUR packages), and ease the upgrade procedure.

If you have any difficulties with installation, check the repository package
page.

.. note::

    The OCRmyPDF AUR package currently omits the JBIG2 encoder. OCRmyPDF works
    fine without it but will produce larger output files. The encoder is
    available from `the jbig2enc-git AUR package
    <https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/jbig2enc-git/>`__ and may be installed
    using the same series of steps as for the installation OCRmyPDF AUR
    package. Alternatively, it may be built manually from source following the
    instructions in `Installing the JBIG2 encoder <jbig2>`__.  If JBIG2 is
    installed, OCRmyPDF 7.0.0 and later will automatically detect it.

Alpine Linux
------------

.. image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/alpine_edge/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: Alpine Linux
    :target: https://repology.org/metapackage/ocrmypdf

To install OCRmyPDF for Alpine Linux:

.. code-block:: bash

    apk add ocrmypdf

Other Linux packages
--------------------

See the
`Repology <https://repology.org/metapackage/ocrmypdf/versions>`__ page.

In general, first install the OCRmyPDF package for your system, then
optionally use the procedure `Installing with Python
pip <#installing-with-python-pip>`__ to install a more recent version.

Installing on macOS
===================

Homebrew
--------

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/homebrew/v/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: homebrew
    :target: https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/ocrmypdf

OCRmyPDF is now a standard `Homebrew <https://brew.sh>`__ formula. To
install on macOS:

.. code-block:: bash

    brew install ocrmypdf

This will include only the English language pack. If you need other
languages you can optionally install them all:

.. code-block:: bash

    brew install tesseract-lang  # Optional: Install all language packs

Manual installation on macOS
----------------------------

These instructions probably work on all macOS supported by Homebrew, and are
for installing a more current version of OCRmyPDF than is available from
Homebrew. Note that the Homebrew versions usually track the release versions
fairly closely.

If it's not already present, `install Homebrew <http://brew.sh/>`__.

Update Homebrew:

.. code-block:: bash

    brew update

Install or upgrade the required Homebrew packages, if any are missing.
To do this, use ``brew edit ocrmypdf`` to obtain a recent list of Homebrew
dependencies. You could also check the ``.workflows/build.yml``.

This will include the English, French, German and Spanish language
packs. If you need other languages you can optionally install them all:

.. _macos-all-languages:

   .. code-block:: bash

    brew install tesseract-lang  # Option 2: for all language packs

Update the homebrew pip:

.. code-block:: bash

    pip install --upgrade pip

You can then install OCRmyPDF from PyPI, for the current user:

.. code-block:: bash

    pip install --user ocrmypdf

or system-wide:

.. code-block:: bash

    pip install ocrmypdf

The command line program should now be available:

.. code-block:: bash

    ocrmypdf --help

Installing on Windows
=====================

Native Windows
--------------

.. note::

    Administrator privileges will be required for some of these steps.

You must install the following for Windows:

* Python 3.8 (64-bit) or later
* Tesseract 4.1.1 (64-bit) or later
* Ghostscript 9.50 (64-bit) or later

Using the `Chocolatey <https://chocolatey.org/>`_ package manager, install the
following when running in an Administrator command prompt:

* ``choco install python3``
* ``choco install --pre tesseract``
* ``choco install ghostscript``
* ``choco install pngquant`` (optional)

The commands above will install Python 3.x (latest version), Tesseract, Ghostscript
and pngquant. Chocolatey may also need to install the Windows Visual C++ Runtime
DLLs or other Windows patches, and may require a reboot.

You may then use ``pip`` to install ocrmypdf. (This can performed by a user or
Administrator.):

* ``pip install ocrmypdf``

Chocolatey automatically selects appropriate versions of these applications. Please make sure
you are installing the 64-bit versions.

OCRmyPDF will check the Windows Registry and standard locations in your Program Files
for third party software it needs (specifically, Tesseract and Ghostscript). To
override the versions OCRmyPDF selects, you can modify the ``PATH`` environment
variable. `Follow these directions <https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm#dospath>`_
to change the PATH.

.. warning::

    As of early 2021, users have reported problems with the Microsoft Store version of
    Python and OCRmyPDF. These issues affect many other third party Python packages.
    Please download Python from Python.org or Chocolatey instead, and do not use the
    Microsoft Store version.

.. warning::

    32-bit Windows might work, but is not supported.

Windows Subsystem for Linux
---------------------------

#. Install Ubuntu 22.04 for Windows Subsystem for Linux, if not already installed.
#. Follow the procedure to install :ref:`OCRmyPDF on Ubuntu 22.04 <ubuntu-lts-latest>`.
#. Open the Windows command prompt and create a symlink:

.. code-block:: powershell

    wsl sudo ln -s  /home/$USER/.local/bin/ocrmypdf /usr/local/bin/ocrmypdf

Then confirm that the expected version from PyPI (|latest|) is installed:

.. code-block:: powershell

    wsl ocrmypdf --version

You can then run OCRmyPDF in the Windows command prompt or Powershell, prefixing
``wsl``, and call it from Windows programs or batch files.

Cygwin64
--------

First install the the following prerequisite Cygwin packages using ``setup-x86_64.exe``::

    python38 (or later)
    python3?-devel
    python3?-pip
    python3?-lxml
    python3?-imaging

       (where 3? means match the version of python3 you installed)

    gcc-g++
    ghostscript (<=9.50 or >=9.52-2 see note below)
    libexempi3
    libexempi-devel
    libffi6
    libffi-devel
    pngquant
    qpdf
    libqpdf-devel
    tesseract-ocr
    tesseract-ocr-devel

.. note::

    The Cygwin package for Ghostscript in versions 9.52 and
    9.52-1 contained a bug that caused an exception to occur when
    ocrmypdf invoked gs.  Make sure you have either 9.50 (or earlier)
    or 9.52-2 (or later).

Then open a Cygwin terminal (i.e. ``mintty``), run the following commands. Note
that if you are using the version of ``pip`` that was installed with the Cygwin
Python package, the command name will be ``pip3``.  If you have since updated
``pip`` (with, for instance ``pip3 install --upgrade pip``) the the command is
likely just ``pip`` instead of ``pip3``:

.. code-block:: bash

    pip3 install wheel
    pip3 install ocrmypdf

The optional dependency "unpaper" that is currently not available under Cygwin.
Without it, certain options such as ``--clean`` will produce an error message.
However, the OCR-to-text-layer functionality is available.

Docker
------

You can also :ref:`Install the Docker <docker>` container on Windows. Ensure that
your command prompt can run the docker "hello world" container.

Installing on FreeBSD
=====================

.. image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/freebsd/ocrmypdf.svg
    :alt: FreeBSD
    :target: https://repology.org/project/ocrmypdf/versions

.. code-block:: bash

    pkg install textproc/py-ocrmypdf

To install a more recent version, you could attempt to first install the system
version with ``pkg``, then use ``pip install --user ocrmypdf``.

Installing the Docker image
===========================

For some users, installing the Docker image will be easier than
installing all of OCRmyPDF's dependencies.

See :ref:`docker` for more information.

Installing with Python pip
==========================

OCRmyPDF is delivered by PyPI because it is a convenient way to install
the latest version. However, PyPI and ``pip`` cannot address the fact
that ``ocrmypdf`` depends on certain non-Python system libraries and
programs being installed.

.. warning::

    Debian and Ubuntu users: unfortunately, Debian and Ubuntu customize
    Python in non-standard ways, and the nature of these customizations
    varies from release to release. This can make for a frustrating
    user experience. The instructions below work on almost all platforms that
    have Python installed, except for Debian and Ubuntu, where you may need
    to take additional steps. For best results on Debian and Ubuntu, use the
    ``apt`` packages; or if these are too old, run
    ``apt install python3-pip python3-venv``, create a virtual environment,
    and install OCRmyPDF in that environment.

    `See here for more information on Debian-Python issues
    <https://gist.github.com/tiran/2dec9e03c6f901814f6d1e8dad09528e>`__.

For best results, first install `your platform's
version <https://repology.org/metapackage/ocrmypdf/versions>`__ of
``ocrmypdf``, using the instructions elsewhere in this document. Then
you can use ``pip`` to get the latest version if your platform version
is out of date. Chances are that this will satisfy most dependencies.

Use ``ocrmypdf --version`` to confirm what version was installed.

Then you can install the latest OCRmyPDF from the Python wheels. First
try:

.. code-block:: bash

    pip install --user ocrmypdf

You should then be able to run ``ocrmypdf --version`` and see that the
latest version was located.

Since ``pip install --user`` does not work correctly on some platforms,
notably Ubuntu 16.04 and older, and the Homebrew version of Python,
instead use this for a system wide installation:

.. code-block:: bash

    pip install ocrmypdf

.. note::

    AArch64 (ARM64) users: this process will be difficult because most
    Python packages are not available as binary wheels for your platform.
    You're probably better off using a platform install on Debian, Ubuntu,
    or Fedora.

Requirements for pip and HEAD install
-------------------------------------

OCRmyPDF currently requires these external programs and libraries to be
installed, and must be satisfied using the operating system package
manager. ``pip`` cannot provide them.

The following versions are required:

-  Python 3.8 or newer
-  Ghostscript 9.50 or newer
-  Tesseract 4.1.1 or newer
-  jbig2enc 0.29 or newer
-  pngquant 2.5 or newer
-  unpaper 6.1

jbig2enc, pngquant, and unpaper are optional. If missing certain
features are disabled. OCRmyPDF will discover them as soon as they are
available.

**jbig2enc**, if present, will be used to optimize the encoding of
monochrome images. This can significantly reduce the file size of the
output file. It is not required.
`jbig2enc <https://github.com/agl/jbig2enc>`__ is not generally
available for Ubuntu or Debian due to lingering concerns about patent
issues, but can easily be built from source. To add JBIG2 encoding, see
:ref:`jbig2`.

**pngquant**, if present, is optionally used to optimize the encoding of
PNG-style images in PDFs (actually, any that are that losslessly
encoded) by lossily quantizing to a smaller color palette. It is only
activated then the ``--optimize`` argument is ``2`` or ``3``.

**unpaper**, if present, enables the ``--clean`` and ``--clean-final``
command line options.

These are in addition to the Python packaging dependencies, meaning that
unfortunately, the ``pip install`` command cannot satisfy all of them.

Installing HEAD revision from sources
=====================================

If you have ``git`` and Python 3.8 or newer installed, you can install
from source. When the ``pip`` installer runs, it will alert you if
dependencies are missing.

If you prefer to build every from source, you will need to `build
pikepdf from
source <https://pikepdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html#building-from-source>`__.
First ensure you can build and install pikepdf.

To install the HEAD revision from sources in the current Python 3
environment:

.. code-block:: bash

    pip install git+https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF.git

Or, to install in `development
mode <https://pythonhosted.org/setuptools/setuptools.html#development-mode>`__,
allowing customization of OCRmyPDF, use the ``-e`` flag:

.. code-block:: bash

    pip install -e git+https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF.git

You may find it easiest to install in a virtual environment, rather than
system-wide:

.. code-block:: bash

    git clone -b master https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF.git
    python3 -m venv venv
    source venv/bin/activate
    cd OCRmyPDF
    pip install .

However, ``ocrmypdf`` will only be accessible on the system PATH when
you activate the virtual environment.

To run the program:

.. code-block:: bash

    ocrmypdf --help

If not yet installed, the script will notify you about dependencies that
need to be installed. The script requires specific versions of the
dependencies. Older version than the ones mentioned in the release notes
are likely not to be compatible to OCRmyPDF.

For development
---------------

To install all of the development and test requirements:

.. code-block:: bash

    git clone -b master https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF.git
    python -m venv
    source venv/bin/activate
    cd OCRmyPDF
    pip install -e .[test]

To add JBIG2 encoding, see :ref:`jbig2`.

Shell completions
=================

Completions for ``bash`` and ``fish`` are available in the project's
``misc/completion`` folder. The ``bash`` completions are likely ``zsh``
compatible but this has not been confirmed. Package maintainers, please
install these at the appropriate locations for your system.

To manually install the ``bash`` completion, copy
``misc/completion/ocrmypdf.bash`` to ``/etc/bash_completion.d/ocrmypdf``
(rename the file).

To manually install the ``fish`` completion, copy
``misc/completion/ocrmypdf.fish`` to
``~/.config/fish/completions/ocrmypdf.fish``.