OCRmyPDF vs Prizmo

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.

Prizmo scans and edits documents and business cards on iPhone, iPad and Mac, then uses OCR to make their contents available as text. Its on-device OCR supports more than 30 languages; Cloud OCR supports 139 languages and handwriting recognition. Editing tools include perspective cropping, cleanup, brightness and contrast adjustments, edge repair and flattening curved pages. Exports include searchable PDF, TXT, PNG, JPEG and Microsoft Word DOCX, with options for PDF compression and password protection. On iPhone and iPad, uploads can go to iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV or folders available through Apple Files. Those apps also support Apple Shortcuts and x-callback-url automation, while the Mac app includes Prizmo Remix for scanner workflows. Accessibility features include VoiceOver, spoken capture guidance and scene descriptions, and text-to-speech reading. Free versions are available on Mac and iPhone/iPad, with limited text access and watermarked exports. Cloud OCR needs an internet connection and a separate Cloud Plan subscription; the listed plan starts at $0.99 per month. The maker says most operations happen on device and cloud OCR data is deleted after processing.