OCRmyPDF
========

OCRmyPDF adds an OCR text layer to scanned PDF files, allowing them to be searched

To get the script usage, call: ./OCmyPDF.sh -h

Features
--------

- Generate a searchable PDF/A file from a PDF file containing only images
- Keep the exact resolution of the original embedded images
- If requested deskew and / or clean the image before performing OCR
- Validate the generated file against the PDF/A specification using jhove
- Provides debug mode to enable easy verification of the OCR results

Motivation
----------

I searched the web for a free tool to OCR PDF files on linux/unix:
I found many, but none of them was satisfying.
- Either they produced PDF files with misplaced text below the image (making copy/paste impossible)
- Or they changed the resolution of the embedded images
- Or they generated PDF file having a rediculous big size
- Or they crashed when trying to OCR some of my PDF files
- Or they did not produce valid PDF files (even though they were readable with my current PDF reader) 
On top of that none of them produced PDF/A files (format dedicated for long time storage / archiving)

... so I decided to develop my own tool (using various existing scripts as an inspiration)

Install
--------

Download OCRmyPDF here: https://github.com/fritz-hh/OCRmyPDF/tags

Copy the file in onto your linux/unix machine and extract it.

Run: "sh ./OCRmyPDF.sh" to get the script usage

If not yet installed, the script will notify you about dependencies that need to be installed