OCRmyPDF vs Open-Capture

OCRmyPDF is free software that adds searchable text to scanned PDF files while retaining the original PDF as much as possible. It uses Tesseract to recognize text in page images and produces PDF/A-2b by default, with regular PDF output available as an alternative. Image-processing options such as deskew can adjust pages to support visual quality and OCR accuracy. When a PDF already contains text, its processing modes can stop with an error, skip affected pages, redo OCR, or force OCR across all pages. OCRmyPDF can also be used as a Python library, and plugins can customize processing steps. Installation methods are documented for Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, and Docker; Paperless-ngx and Nextcloud OCR are named as third-party integrations. Results may be poor for low-quality scans or languages not specified for processing, and handwriting is not recognized. The project also notes that accuracy may trail commercial solutions. Its documentation advises processing only PDFs users trust and warns that its example Docker web service has no security measures and is not meant for public internet deployment.

Open-Capture collects documents, extracts information with OCR and AI, and exports results to third-party management software. It accepts material from scanners, copiers, file drops, email and attachments, web forms, uploads, and web services. Extraction options include Tesseract OCR, pre-trained models, machine-learning classification, key-value extraction, reference-data matching, dictionaries, and barcode or QR-code reading. Extracted fields can be checked against rules, formats, reference data, and scripted business rules. The full-web application runs natively on Linux and can be hosted on-premise or in a public or private cloud. It is free and open-source under the GNU GPLv3 license, with no limit on users. Optional modules include Splitter for preparing batches, Verifier for checking extracted data, and MailCollect for email processing. MailCollect analyzes messages, identifies senders, extracts metadata, and routes attachments into processing workflows. Verifier is described for structured or semi-structured documents such as invoices, delivery notes, contracts, and purchase orders. Listed connections include a native MEM Courrier connector, CMIS, OpenADS/Oxalis, OpenCRM, Alfresco, and SharePoint; export formats include PDF, PDF/A, XML, CSV, and plain text.