=================== 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 This version may be out of date, however.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`` | +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+ | macOS | ``brew install ocrmypdf`` | +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+ | LinuxBrew | ``brew install ocrmypdf`` | +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+ | FreeBSD | ``pkg install py38-ocrmypdf`` | +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+ | Conda (WSL, macOS, Linux) | ``conda 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 18.04 or newer -------------------------------- .. |deb-stable| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/debian_stable/ocrmypdf.svg :alt: Debian 9 stable ("stretch") .. |deb-testing| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/debian_testing/ocrmypdf.svg :alt: Debian 10 testing ("buster") .. |deb-unstable| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/debian_unstable/ocrmypdf.svg :alt: Debian unstable .. |ubu-1804| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/ubuntu_18_04/ocrmypdf.svg :alt: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS .. |ubu-2004| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/ubuntu_20_04/ocrmypdf.svg :alt: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS .. |ubu-2110| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/ubuntu_21_10/ocrmypdf.svg :alt: Ubuntu 21.10 +-----------------------------------------------+ | **OCRmyPDF versions in Debian & Ubuntu** | +-----------------------------------------------+ | |latest| | +-----------------------------------------------+ | |deb-stable| |deb-testing| |deb-unstable| | +-----------------------------------------------+ | |ubu-1804| |ubu-2004| |ubu-2110| | +-----------------------------------------------+ 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-get 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>`__. Ubuntu 16.10 to 17.10 inclusive also had ocrmypdf, but these versions are end of life. For full details on version availability for your platform, check the `Debian Package Tracker `__ or `Ubuntu launchpad.net `__. .. 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 7.0.0 and later will automatically detect it (specifically the ``jbig2`` binary) on the ``PATH``. To add JBIG2 encoding, see :ref:`jbig2`. Fedora ------ .. |fedora-34| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/fedora_34/ocrmypdf.svg :alt: Fedora 34 .. |fedora-35| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/fedora_35/ocrmypdf.svg :alt: Fedora 35 .. |fedora-rawhide| image:: https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/fedora_rawhide/ocrmypdf.svg :alt: Fedore Rawhide +-----------------------------------------------+ | **OCRmyPDF version** | +-----------------------------------------------+ | |latest| | +-----------------------------------------------+ | |fedora-34| |fedora-35| |fedora-rawhide| | +-----------------------------------------------+ Users of Fedora 29 or later may simply .. code-block:: bash dnf install ocrmypdf For full details on version availability, check the `Fedora Package Tracker `__. 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 `__. .. _ubuntu-lts-latest: Installing the latest version on 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 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS ---------------- Ubuntu 18.04 includes ocrmypdf 6.1.2 - you can install that with ``apt``, but it is quite old now. To install a more recent version, uninstall the old version of ocrmypdf, and install the following dependencies: .. code-block:: bash sudo apt-get -y remove ocrmypdf sudo apt-get -y update sudo apt-get -y install \ ghostscript \ icc-profiles-free \ libxml2 \ pngquant \ python3-distutils \ python3-pkg-resources \ python3-reportlab \ qpdf \ tesseract-ocr \ zlib1g \ unpaper We will need a newer version of ``pip`` then was available for Ubuntu 18.04: .. code-block:: bash wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py && python3 get-pip.py Then install the most recent ocrmypdf for the local user and set the user's ``PATH`` to check for the user's Python packages. .. code-block:: bash export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH python3 -m pip install --user ocrmypdf To add JBIG2 encoding, see :ref:`jbig2`. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS ---------------- No package is available for Ubuntu 16.04. OCRmyPDF 8.0 and newer require Python 3.7. Ubuntu 16.04 ships Python 3.5, but you can install Python 3.7 on it. Or, you can skip Python 3.7 and install OCRmyPDF 7.x or older - for that procedure, please see the installation documentation for the version of OCRmyPDF you plan to use. **Install system packages for OCRmyPDF** .. code-block:: bash sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y software-properties-common python-software-properties sudo add-apt-repository -y \ ppa:jonathonf/python-3.7 \ ppa:alex-p/tesseract-ocr sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y \ ghostscript \ libexempi3 \ libffi6 \ pngquant \ python3.7 \ qpdf \ tesseract-ocr \ unpaper This will install a Python 3.7 binary at ``/usr/bin/python3.7`` alongside the system's Python 3.5. Do not remove the system Python. This will also install Tesseract 4.0 from a PPA, since the version available in Ubuntu 16.04 is too old for OCRmyPDF. Now install pip for Python 3.7. This will install the Python 3.7 version of ``pip`` at ``/usr/local/bin/pip``. .. code-block:: bash curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | sudo python3.7 **Install OCRmyPDF** OCRmyPDF requires the locale to be set for UTF-8. **On some minimal Ubuntu installations**, such as the Ubuntu 16.04 Docker images it may be necessary to set the locale. .. code-block:: bash # Optional: Only need to set these if they are not already set export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 export LANG=C.UTF-8 Now install OCRmyPDF for the current user, and ensure that the ``PATH`` environment variable contains ``$HOME/.local/bin``. .. code-block:: bash export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH pip3.7 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 `__. Installing AUR packages as root is not allowed, so you must first `setup a non-root user `__ and `configure sudo `__. 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 `__, this work may already be completed for you. Next you should install the `base-devel package group `__. 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 `__ 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 `__. 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 `__ 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 `__. 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 Mageia 7 -------- There is no OS-level packaging available for Mageia, so you must install the dependencies: .. code-block:: bash # As root user urpmi.update -a urpmi \ ghostscript \ icc-profiles-openicc \ jbig2dec \ pngquant \ python3-pip \ python3-distutils-extra \ python3-pkg-resources \ python3-reportlab \ qpdf \ tesseract \ tesseract-osd \ tesseract-eng \ tesseract-fra To install ocrmypdf for the system: .. code-block:: bash # As root user pip3 install ocrmypdf ldconfig Or, to install for the current user only: .. code-block:: bash export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH pip3 install --user ocrmypdf Other Linux packages -------------------- See the `Repology `__ 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: http://brewformulas.org/Ocrmypdf OCRmyPDF is now a standard `Homebrew `__ 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 .. note:: Users who previously installed OCRmyPDF on macOS using ``pip install ocrmypdf`` should remove the pip version (``pip3 uninstall ocrmypdf``) before switching to the Homebrew version. .. note:: Users who previously installed OCRmyPDF from the private tap should switch to the mainline version (``brew untap jbarlow83/ocrmypdf``) and install from there. 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 `__. 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 pip3 install --upgrade pip You can then install OCRmyPDF from PyPI, for the current user: .. code-block:: bash pip3 install --user ocrmypdf or system-wide: .. code-block:: bash pip3 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 3.7 (64-bit) or later * Tesseract 4.0 or later * Ghostscript 9.50 or later Using the `Chocolatey `_ 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. If you are installing them manually, please install 64-bit versions of all applications for 64-bit Windows, or 32-bit versions of all applications for 32-bit Windows. Mixing the "bitness" of these programs will lead to errors. 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 `_ 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. Windows Subsystem for Linux --------------------------- #. Install Ubuntu 20.04 for Windows Subsystem for Linux, if not already installed. #. Follow the procedure to install :ref:`OCRmyPDF on Ubuntu 20.04 `. #. 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``:: python37 (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 ` 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/python:ocrmypdf.svg :alt: FreeBSD :target: https://repology.org/project/python:ocrmypdf/versions FreeBSD 11.3, 12.0, 12.1-RELEASE and 13.0-CURRENT are supported. Other versions likely work but have not been tested. .. code-block:: bash pkg install py38-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 inforation on Debian-Python issues `__. For best results, first install `your platform's version `__ 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 pip3 install --user ocrmypdf You should then be able to run ``ocrmypdf --version`` and see that the latest version was located. Since ``pip3 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 pip3 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. - Python 3.7 or newer - Ghostscript 9.15 or newer - Tesseract 4.0.0-beta or newer As of ocrmypdf 7.2.1, the following versions are recommended: - Python 3.9 or newer - Ghostscript 9.23 or newer - Tesseract 4.0.0 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 `__ 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 3.7 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 `__. First ensure you can build and install pikepdf. To install the HEAD revision from sources in the current Python 3 environment: .. code-block:: bash pip3 install git+https://github.com/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF.git Or, to install in `development mode `__, allowing customization of OCRmyPDF, use the ``-e`` flag: .. code-block:: bash pip3 install -e git+https://github.com/jbarlow83/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/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF.git python3 -m venv source venv/bin/activate cd OCRmyPDF pip3 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/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF.git python3 -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``.