OCRmyPDF online alternative

Why people look for an online OCRmyPDF

OCRmyPDF has a strong reputation, and it earns it. The trouble is getting it running. A typical first session goes: install Python tooling, install Tesseract, install Ghostscript, find the right language pack, open a terminal, then work out which of the many flags you need. The installation guide says Windows needs Tesseract, Ghostscript and uv installed separately.

People who search for an online version usually want the result without that setup. There is no official one: the Docker image ships a web front end that the docs say is not intended for the public internet.

What OCRmyPDF does better

Credit where it is due. From its own documentation and GitHub page:

• Free and local. MPL-2.0, nothing uploaded, no account. A good fit for private or confidential papers.
• Languages. It uses Tesseract, which lists 125 languages plus Fraktur, Latin and Ancient Greek (Tesseract data). FixMyScan reads 19.
• Archival output. PDF/A by default, with a plain PDF if you ask for it.
• Minimal changes. It adds the text layer back into your original PDF and can produce a minimally altered file.
• Scripting. It is a command-line tool and a Python library, with plugins, so it fits into a batch job or a scanner workflow.
• Repairs. It can auto-repair damaged PDFs.
• Active. About 35,000 stars and version 17.13.0, released 28 September 2026.

If you are comfortable in a terminal, need a language outside FixMyScan’s 19, or must keep the file on your machine, use OCRmyPDF.

What it leaves for you to do

OCRmyPDF’s job is the text layer. Its introduction lists deskew as an image option, but it does not set out to make a scan pleasant to read on a screen. After a run you still have:

• the original margins, so text stays small on a phone or e-reader
• the original grey or yellow paper
• a file roughly the size you started with

The docs also note limits worth knowing: multi-column reading order can fail, and accuracy depends on scan quality.

What FixMyScan does with the same scan

1. Upload it in your browser. PDF or DjVu, up to 1,000 pages. Nothing to install.
2. Draw one crop over the layered pages. The box applies to all of them.
3. Download. You get a PDF with straightened pages, white paper, black text, pictures kept in greyscale, and searchable text under every word.

The language is detected for you, from 19 including English, German, French, Latin, Italian and Spanish, plus Fraktur and Ancient Greek mixed with Latin text. The page order and page numbers stay as they were, as with OCRmyPDF.

Clean black-and-white pages also compress far better than grey ones. On our own run of a 300-page book on 2 November 2026, the file went from 13.0 MB to 9.0 MB with searchable text (OCR) on every page. Your book will differ.

The two side by side

OCRmyPDF facts from its GitHub page and docs, checked 2 and 4 November 2026.

What you trade

Your book is uploaded. It stays private to your account and is deleted 24 hours after it is ready, or 24 hours after upload if you never convert it. That is not the same as never leaving your machine.

There is no command line or batch mode in the browser, and one book is processed at a time.

Which to use

Best suited for: OCRmyPDF if you want free, local OCR and are happy in a terminal. FixMyScan if you want a scanned book searchable and comfortable to read on an e-reader, from a browser.

Before either, check whether the PDF even needs OCR: the free scanned PDF checker shows which pages already have text, without uploading anything. For more on the text layer itself, see how to make a scanned PDF searchable.

Questions