paddleocr-text-recognition

PaddleOCR Text Recognition

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill for:

• Extract text from images (screenshots, photos, scans)
• Extract text from PDFs or document images when the goal is line/box-level text
• Extract text from URLs or local files that point to images/PDFs

Do not use for:

• Documents with tables, formulas, charts, or complex layouts — use Document Parsing instead

Usage

Basic OCR

From URL:

paddleocr api \
  --model_type ocr \
  --file_url "https://example.com/image.png"

From local file:

paddleocr api \
  --model_type ocr \
  --file_path "./document.pdf"

Common Options

# With specific model
paddleocr api \
  --model_type ocr \
  --model PP-OCRv5 \
  --file_path "./report.pdf"

# Disable preprocessing (faster, for flat/well-oriented images)
paddleocr api \
  --model_type ocr \
  --file_path "./document.pdf" \
  --use_doc_unwarping False \
  --use_doc_orientation_classify False

# Save result to file
paddleocr api \
  --model_type ocr \
  --file_url "https://..." \
  --output result.json

# Page ranges
paddleocr api \
  --model_type ocr \
  --file_path "./large.pdf" \
  --page_ranges "1-5,10,15-20"

Output Format

{
  "jobId": "job-xxx",
  "pages": [
    {
      "prunedResult": {
        "rec_texts": ["Line 1", "Line 2"],
        "rec_scores": [0.98, 0.95]
      },
      "ocrImageUrl": "https://..."
    }
  ]
}

Important Notes

Preprocessing options: By default, the API enables document preprocessing (unwarping and orientation classification). For flat, well-oriented images (screenshots, properly scanned documents), you can disable preprocessing for faster results:

paddleocr api --model_type ocr --file_path "./document.pdf" --use_doc_unwarping False --use_doc_orientation_classify False

Keep preprocessing enabled when:

• The input is a photo of a curved or folded document
• The document has significant perspective distortion
• Orientation is uncertain (rotated 90/180/270 degrees)