Installing OCRmyPDF

OCRmyPDF latest released version on PyPI

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

If you want to use the latest version of OCRmyPDF, your best bet is to install the most recent version your platform provides, and then upgrade that version by installing the Python binary wheels.

Installing on Linux

Debian and Ubuntu 18.04 or newer

OCRmyPDF versions in Debian & Ubuntu
OCRmyPDF latest released version on PyPI
Debian 9 stable ("stretch") Debian 10 testing ("buster") Debian unstable
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Ubuntu 18.10 Ubuntu 19.04 Ubuntu 19.10

Users of Debian 9 (“stretch”) or later or Ubuntu 18.04 or later may simply

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 If the version available for your platform is out of date, you could opt to install the latest version from source.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. 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 Installing the JBIG2 encoder.

Fedora 29 or newer

OCRmyPDF version
OCRmyPDF latest released version on PyPI
Fedora 29 Fedora 30 Fedore Rawhide

Users of Fedora 29 later may simply

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If the version available for your platform is out of date, you could opt to install the latest version from source.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.

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.

Installing the latest version on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Ubuntu 18.04 includes ocrmypdf 6.1.2. To install a more recent version, first install the system version to get most of the dependencies:

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

There are a few system dependency changes since ocrmypdf 6.1.2. Let’s get these, too.

sudo apt-get install \
    libxml2 \
    pngquant

Then install the most recent ocrmypdf for the local user and set the user’s PATH to check for the user’s Python packages.

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

To add JBIG2 encoding, see Installing the JBIG2 encoder.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

No package is available for Ubuntu 16.04. OCRmyPDF 8.0 and newer require Python 3.6. Ubuntu 16.04 ships Python 3.5, but you can install Python 3.6 on it. Or, you can skip Python 3.6 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

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y software-properties-common python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository -y \
    ppa:jonathonf/python-3.6 \
    ppa:alex-p/tesseract-ocr
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
    ghostscript \
    libexempi3 \
    libffi6 \
    pngquant \
    python3.6 \
    qpdf \
    tesseract-ocr \
    unpaper

This will install a Python 3.6 binary at /usr/bin/python3.6 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 3.6. This will install the Python 3.6 version of pip at /usr/local/bin/pip.

curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | sudo python3.6

Install OCRmyPDF

OCRmyPDF requires the locale to be set for UTF-8. On some minimal Ubuntu installations systems, it may be necessary to set the locale.

# 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.

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

To add JBIG2 encoding, see Installing the JBIG2 encoder.

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Installing on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (trusty) is more difficult than some other options, because of its age. Several backports are required. For explanations of some steps of this procedure, see the similar steps for Ubuntu 16.04.

Install system dependencies:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install \
    software-properties-common python-software-properties \
    zlib1g-dev \
    libexempi3 \
    libjpeg-dev \
    libffi-dev \
    pngquant \
    qpdf

We will need backports of Ghostscript 9.16, libav-11 (for unpaper 6.1), Tesseract 4.00 (alpha), and Python 3.6. This will replace Ghostscript and Tesseract 3.x on your system. Python 3.6 will be installed alongside the system Python 3.4.

If you prefer to not modify your system in this matter, consider using a Docker container.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vshn/ghostscript -y
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:heyarje/libav-11 -y
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alex-p/tesseract-ocr -y
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/python-3.6 -y

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install \
    python3.6-dev \
    ghostscript \
    tesseract-ocr \
    tesseract-ocr-eng \
    libavformat56 libavcodec56 libavutil54 \
    wget

Now we need to install pip and let it install ocrmypdf:

curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/ez_setup.py -o - | python3.6 && python3.6 -m easy_install pip
pip3.6 install ocrmypdf

These installation instructions omit the optional dependency unpaper, which is only available at version 0.4.2 in Ubuntu 14.04. The author could not find a backport of unpaper, and created a .deb package to do the job of installing unpaper 6.1 (for x86 64-bit only):

wget -q 'https://www.dropbox.com/s/vaq0kbwi6e6au80/unpaper_6.1-1.deb?raw=1' -O unpaper_6.1-1.deb
sudo dpkg -i unpaper_6.1-1.deb

To add JBIG2 encoding, see Installing the JBIG2 encoder.

ArchLinux (AUR)

ArchLinux

There is an ArchLinux User Repository package for ocrmypdf. You can use the following command.

yaourt -S ocrmypdf

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

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 to install a more recent version.

Installing on macOS

Homebrew

homebrew

OCRmyPDF is now a standard Homebrew formula. To install on macOS:

brew install ocrmypdf

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

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.

If it’s not already present, install Homebrew.

Update Homebrew:

brew update

Install or upgrade the required Homebrew packages, if any are missing. To do this, download the Brewfile that lists all of the dependencies to the current directory, and run brew bundle to process them (installing or upgrading as needed). Brewfile is a plain text file.

wget https://github.com/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF/raw/master/.travis/Brewfile
brew bundle

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

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

Update the homebrew pip:

pip3 install --upgrade pip

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

pip3 install --user ocrmypdf

or system-wide:

pip3 install ocrmypdf

The command line program should now be available:

ocrmypdf --help

Installing on FreeBSD

FreeBSD

FreeBSD 11.2, 11.3, 12.0-RELEASE and 13.0-CURRENT are supported. Other versions likely work but have not been tested.

pkg install py36-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. For Windows, it is the only option.

See OCRmyPDF Docker Image for more information.

Installing on Windows

Direct installation on Windows is not currently possible, but it works well in Windows Subsystem for Linux:

  1. Install Ubuntu 18.04 for Windows Subsystem for Linux, if not already installed.
  2. Follow the procedure to install OCRmyPDF on Ubuntu 18.04.
  3. Open the Windows command prompt and create a symlink:
wsl sudo ln -s  /home/user/.local/bin/ocrmypdf /usr/local/bin/ocrmypdf

Then confirm that the expected version from PyPI (OCRmyPDF latest released version on PyPI) is installed:

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.

It would probably not be too difficult to port on Windows. The main reason this has been avoided is the difficulty of packaging and installing the various non-Python dependencies: Tesseract, QPDF, Ghostscript, Leptonica. Pull requests to add or improve Windows support would be quite welcome.

You can also Install the Docker container on Windows. Ensure that your command prompt can run the docker “hello world” container.

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 instsalled.

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:

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:

pip3 install ocrmypdf

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 3.6 or newer
  • Ghostscript 9.15 or newer
  • qpdf 8.1.0 or newer
  • Tesseract 4.0.0-beta or newer

As of ocrmypdf 7.2.1, the following versions are recommended:

  • Python 3.7
  • Ghostscript 9.23 or newer
  • qpdf 8.2.1
  • 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 Installing the JBIG2 encoder.

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 3.6 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:

pip3 install git+https://github.com/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF.git

Or, to install in development mode, allowing customization of OCRmyPDF, use the -e flag:

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:

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:

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:

git clone -b master https://github.com/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF.git
python3 -m venv
source venv/bin/activate
cd OCRmyPDF
pip install -e .
pip install -r requirements/dev.txt -r requirements/test.txt

To add JBIG2 encoding, see Installing the JBIG2 encoder.

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.