paddleocr

name

paddleocr

description

Comprehensive PaddleOCR document intelligence skill covering OCR text extraction, table detection and QA, layout analysis, document-level reasoning, structured extraction (forms, invoices, IDs, receipts), seal/stamp recognition, handwriting, formulas, multilingual OCR, and PaddleOCR-VL multimodal tasks. Use when extracting text from images or PDFs, parsing tables, understanding document structure, extracting key-value pairs, running document QA, processing financial documents, or doing any image-to-structured-data task.

PaddleOCR Skill

Installed: PaddleOCR 3.5.0 · PaddlePaddle 3.3.1 · Python 3.12 · macOS ARM64 Model cache: ~/.paddlex/official_models/ Official docs: https://www.paddleocr.ai/v3.5.0/en/quick_start.html

Task → Tool Matrix

Task	Primary Tool	CLI Subcommand	Reference
Plain text extraction	PaddleOCR(lang='en')	paddleocr ocr	ocr-pipeline.md
Document structure (layout+tables+text)	PPStructureV3	paddleocr pp_structurev3	document-reasoning.md
Table extraction (HTML/CSV)	PPStructureV3	paddleocr table_recognition_v2	table-qa.md
Form / KV extraction	PaddleOCR + regex	—	structured-extraction.md
Invoice / receipt parsing	PaddleOCR + template	—	structured-extraction.md
Seal / stamp recognition	PaddleOCR(use_seal_recognition=True)	paddleocr seal_recognition	advanced-tasks.md
Formula / LaTeX extraction	PaddleOCR formula pipeline	paddleocr formula_recognition_pipeline	advanced-tasks.md
Multilingual OCR (80+ langs)	PaddleOCR(lang='ch'/'fr'/'ar'...)	—	advanced-tasks.md
Multimodal doc QA (VL)	PaddleOCR-VL-1.5 (optional, separate install)	paddleocr doc_vlm	vl-model.md
Document to Markdown	PaddleOCR doc pipeline	paddleocr doc2md	ocr-pipeline.md
Chart/diagram parsing	PaddleOCR chart pipeline	paddleocr chart_parsing	advanced-tasks.md
Text detection only	TextDetection	paddleocr text_detection	ocr-pipeline.md
Text recognition only	TextRecognition	paddleocr text_recognition	ocr-pipeline.md
Layout detection only	LayoutDetection	paddleocr layout_detection	document-reasoning.md
PDF batch processing	pypdfium2 + PaddleOCR	—	ocr-pipeline.md

Quick Start

Python

from paddleocr import PaddleOCR

# Initialize OCR pipeline (disable preprocessing for speed)
ocr = PaddleOCR(
    use_doc_orientation_classify=False,
    use_doc_unwarping=False,
    use_textline_orientation=False,
    lang='en'
)

# Run inference — returns iterator of OCRResult objects
result = ocr.predict('document.jpg')
for res in result:
    data = res.json['res']
    texts  = data['rec_texts']      # list[str] — recognized text
    scores = data['rec_scores']      # list[float] — confidence per line
    polys  = data['rec_polys']       # list[list] — 4-point polygons (x,y)
    boxes  = data['rec_boxes']       # list[list] — bounding boxes [x,y,w,h]
    print(texts)

    # Save outputs
    res.save_to_img("output")       # annotated image
    res.save_to_json("output")       # JSON results

CLI

# Full OCR (text detection + recognition)
paddleocr ocr -i ./document.png \
    --use_doc_orientation_classify False \
    --use_doc_unwarping False \
    --use_textline_orientation False \
    --save_path ./output \
    --device cpu

# Document structure analysis (layout + tables + text)
paddleocr pp_structurev3 -i ./report.png \
    --use_doc_orientation_classify False \
    --use_doc_unwarping False

# Individual modules
paddleocr text_detection -i ./image.png
paddleocr text_recognition -i ./cropped_text.png
paddleocr layout_detection -i ./document.png
paddleocr seal_recognition -i ./stamp.png
paddleocr table_recognition_v2 -i ./table.png
paddleocr formula_recognition_pipeline -i ./equation.png
paddleocr chart_parsing -i ./chart.png
paddleocr doc2md -i ./document.docx
paddleocr doc_vlm -i ./complex_doc.png   # requires PaddleOCR-VL install

Core Patterns

1. Full OCR Pipeline (Detection → Recognition)

from paddleocr import PaddleOCR

ocr = PaddleOCR(
    use_doc_orientation_classify=False,   # disable for speed
    use_doc_unwarping=False,              # disable for speed
    use_textline_orientation=False,       # disable for speed
    lang='en',
    # Model selection (defaults shown):
    # text_detection_model_name="PP-OCRv5_server_det",   # high accuracy
    # text_recognition_model_name="en_PP-OCRv5_mobile_rec",  # fast
    # device="cpu",            # "cpu" | "gpu" | "gpu:0" | "npu"
    # engine=None,             # None (legacy=paddle) | "paddle" | "transformers"
)

result = ocr.predict('document.jpg')
for res in result:
    data = res.json['res']
    texts  = data['rec_texts']       # list[str]
    scores = data['rec_scores']      # list[float]
    polys  = data['rec_polys']       # list[list] — polygon corners [[x,y],...]
    boxes  = data['rec_boxes']       # list[list] — [x, y, w, h]
    
    # Filter by confidence
    for text, score in zip(texts, scores):
        if score > 0.8:
            print(f"{text} ({score:.2f})")
    
    # Save results
    res.save_to_img("output")        # annotated visualization
    res.save_to_json("output")       # JSON with all data

2. Document Structure Analysis (Layout + Tables + Text + Formulas)

from paddleocr import PPStructureV3

pipeline = PPStructureV3(
    use_doc_orientation_classify=False,
    use_doc_unwarping=False,
    # use_seal_recognition=True,       # enable seal/stamp detection
    # use_table_recognition=True,      # enable table extraction (default True)
    # use_formula_recognition=True,     # enable LaTeX formula extraction (default True)
    # use_chart_recognition=False,      # disable chart parsing (default False)
    # use_region_detection=True,        # detect regions of interest
)

output = pipeline.predict(input='./report.png')
for res in output:
    data = res.json['res']
    
    # Layout detection results
    layout = data['layout_det_res']
    for box in layout['boxes']:
        print(f"  {box['label']} (score={box['score']:.2f}) at {box['coordinate']}")
    # Labels: 'text', 'image', 'paragraph_title', 'doc_title', 'figure_title', etc.
    
    # Overall OCR text
    ocr_data = data['overall_ocr_res']
    texts = ocr_data['rec_texts']
    
    # Save as Markdown (document reconstruction)
    res.save_to_markdown("output")
    res.save_to_json("output")

Note: PPStructureV3 requires extra dependencies. Install with:

pip install "paddleocr[all]"
# or specifically:
pip install "paddlex[ocr]"

3. Individual Module Usage

# Text detection only (find text regions)
from paddleocr import TextDetection
det = TextDetection()
output = det.predict("document.png")
for res in output:
    polys = res.json['res']['dt_polys']    # detected polygon regions
    scores = res.json['res']['dt_scores']  # detection confidence
    res.save_to_img("./output/")
    res.save_to_json("./output/res.json")

# Text recognition only (read cropped text lines)
from paddleocr import TextRecognition
rec = TextRecognition()
output = rec.predict(input="cropped_line.png")
for res in output:
    text = res.json['res']['rec_text']     # recognized string
    score = res.json['res']['rec_score']   # confidence float

# Layout detection only
from paddleocr import LayoutDetection
layout = LayoutDetection()
output = layout.predict("document.png")

4. Structured KV Extraction

import re
from paddleocr import PaddleOCR

ocr = PaddleOCR(
    use_doc_orientation_classify=False,
    use_doc_unwarping=False,
    use_textline_orientation=False,
    lang='en'
)

def extract_kv(ocr_lines, patterns: dict) -> dict:
    full_text = '\n'.join(ocr_lines)
    return {k: re.search(p, full_text, re.I).group(1)
            for k, p in patterns.items()
            if re.search(p, full_text, re.I)}

result = ocr.predict('invoice.jpg')
for res in result:
    texts = res.json['res']['rec_texts']
    fields = extract_kv(texts, {
        'invoice_no': r'Invoice\s*No[.:\s]+([A-Z0-9\-]+)',
        'date':       r'Date[:\s]+([\d]{1,2}[\/\-][\d]{1,2}[\/\-][\d]{2,4})',
        'total':      r'Total\s*[\$₦€£]?\s*([\d,]+\.?\d*)',
    })
    print(fields)

5. Batch PDF Processing

import pypdfium2 as pdfium
from paddleocr import PaddleOCR

ocr = PaddleOCR(
    use_doc_orientation_classify=False,
    use_doc_unwarping=False,
    use_textline_orientation=False,
    lang='en'
)

def pdf_to_images(pdf_path, dpi=200):
    doc = pdfium.PdfDocument(pdf_path)
    for i in range(len(doc)):
        page = doc[i]
        bitmap = page.render(scale=dpi/72)
        yield bitmap.to_pil()

for page_num, page_img in enumerate(pdf_to_images('report.pdf')):
    result = ocr.predict(page_img)
    for res in result:
        texts = res.json['res']['rec_texts']
        print(f"Page {page_num+1}: {len(texts)} lines")

6. Streaming Large Datasets with predict_iter()

ocr = PaddleOCR(use_doc_orientation_classify=False, use_doc_unwarping=False,
                use_textline_orientation=False, lang='en')

# predict_iter() returns a generator — lower memory for large batches
for res in ocr.predict_iter(large_image_list):
    texts = res.json['res']['rec_texts']
    process(texts)

Result Object API (OCRResult)

The predict() method returns an iterator of OCRResult objects. Each has:

Method / Attribute	Description
res.json	Dict with key 'res' containing all results
res.json['res']['rec_texts']	list[str] — recognized text lines
res.json['res']['rec_scores']	list[float] — confidence per line
res.json['res']['rec_polys']	list[list] — 4-corner polygons [[x,y],...]
res.json['res']['rec_boxes']	list[list] — bounding boxes [x, y, w, h]
res.json['res']['dt_polys']	list[list] — raw detection polygons
res.json['res']['input_path']	Source file path
res.json['res']['page_index']	Page number (for PDFs)
res.json['res']['model_settings']	Dict of pipeline config used
res.print()	Print results to stdout
res.save_to_img(path)	Save annotated image
res.save_to_json(path)	Save JSON results

For PPStructureV3, additional keys:

Key	Description
res.json['res']['layout_det_res']['boxes']	Layout regions with label, score, coordinate
res.json['res']['overall_ocr_res']['rec_texts']	Full-page OCR text
res.save_to_markdown(path)	Save reconstructed Markdown document

CLI Subcommands (v3.5.0)

paddleocr <subcommand> -i <input> [options]

# Available subcommands:
ocr                             # Full OCR pipeline (detection + recognition)
text_detection                  # Text region detection only
text_recognition                # Text recognition only (cropped lines)
pp_structurev3                  # Document structure (layout + tables + OCR + formulas)
layout_detection                # Layout region detection only
seal_recognition                # Seal/stamp text extraction
table_recognition_v2            # Table structure → HTML
formula_recognition_pipeline    # Formula → LaTeX
chart_parsing                   # Chart/diagram → structured data
doc_preprocessor                # Image preprocessing (orientation + unwarping)
doc_understanding                # Document understanding pipeline
doc_vlm                         # PaddleOCR-VL multimodal (requires extra install)
pp_chatocrv4_doc                # Chat-based OCR QA
pp_doctranslation               # Document translation
doc2md                          # Office docs → Markdown
doc_img_orientation_classification  # Image orientation only
doc_parser                      # Full document parsing
seal_text_detection             # Seal region detection
text_image_unwarping            # Dewarp document images
textline_orientation_classification  # Text line angle only
table_cells_detection           # Table cell detection
table_classification            # Table type classification
table_structure_recognition     # Table structure only
formula_recognition             # Formula detection + recognition

Common CLI options:

-i, --input PATH              # Input image/PDF path or URL (required)
--save_path PATH              # Output directory
--device DEVICE               # "cpu" | "gpu" | "gpu:0" | "npu" (default: auto)
--lang LANG                   # Language code (default: en)
--use_doc_orientation_classify BOOL   # Enable orientation classification
--use_doc_unwarping BOOL             # Enable image dewarping
--use_textline_orientation BOOL      # Enable textline orientation
--ocr_version VERSION         # "PP-OCRv3" | "PP-OCRv4" | "PP-OCRv5"
--engine ENGINE               # None | "paddle" | "paddle_static" | "paddle_dynamic" | "transformers"
--cpu_threads INT             # CPU thread count
--enable_mkldnn BOOL          # Enable MKL-DNN acceleration

Model Selection Guide

Use Case	Detection Model	Recognition Model	Speed	Accuracy
Standard printed text	PP-OCRv5_server_det (default)	en_PP-OCRv5_mobile_rec (default)	Medium	High
Fast/mobile use	PP-OCRv5_mobile_det	en_PP-OCRv5_mobile_rec	Fast	Good
Highest accuracy	PP-OCRv5_server_det	en_PP-OCRv5_server_rec	Slow	Highest
Chinese documents	PP-OCRv5_server_det	ch_PP-OCRv4_rec	Medium	High
Scene text (photos)	PP-OCRv5_server_det	en_PP-OCRv5_server_rec	Slow	Highest

Switch models at init:

ocr = PaddleOCR(
    text_detection_model_name="PP-OCRv5_mobile_det",
    text_recognition_model_name="en_PP-OCRv5_server_rec",
    lang='en'
)

Installation Notes

Base install (OCR only)

pip install paddlepaddle paddleocr

Full install (all pipelines including PPStructureV3)

pip install "paddleocr[all]"
# or: pip install paddlepaddle "paddlex[ocr]"

Specific extras

pip install "paddleocr[doc-parser]"   # document parsing
pip install "paddleocr[ie]"           # information extraction
pip install "paddleocr[doc2md]"       # Office docs → Markdown (works on Python 3.8+)
pip install "paddleocr[all]"          # everything (requires Python 3.9+)

Important Notes

• API changed in v3.5.0: .ocr() → .predict(). The old .ocr(img, cls=True) method is deprecated and cls kwarg is removed. Use .predict(img) instead.
• show_log removed: Not a valid parameter in v3.5.0. Remove all show_log=False calls.
• use_angle_cls removed: Use use_textline_orientation=True at init time.
• use_gpu renamed: Use device="cpu" or device="gpu" parameter.
• CLI restructured: Now requires subcommand (paddleocr ocr -i file.png instead of paddleocr --image_dir file.png).
• --image_dir → -i: CLI input flag changed.
• Result format changed: Returns OCRResult objects (use .json['res']) instead of nested lists.
• PPStructure → PPStructureV3: The old class is replaced. Import from paddleocr import PPStructureV3.
• First run downloads models to ~/.paddlex/official_models/ (~200MB total for defaults)
• GPU disabled by default on this host — CPU inference only. Use device="gpu" if GPU available.
• PaddleOCR-VL-1.5 is a separate large model (not installed); needed only for multimodal document QA — see vl-model.md
• For high-accuracy table extraction, prefer PPStructureV3 over plain PaddleOCR
• Not suitable for network diagrams or visual layouts — PaddleOCR extracts text labels only, not shapes/connections/topology. Use a vision/multimodal LLM for diagram analysis.
• CPU inference can be slow on large images. Downsample to ~150 DPI for faster results when full resolution isn't needed.

Migration from v2.x / early v3.x

Old (v2.x / early v3.x)	New (v3.5.0)	Notes
ocr.ocr(img, cls=True)	ocr.predict(img)	.ocr() deprecated, cls removed
result[0][i][1][0] (text)	res.json['res']['rec_texts'][i]	List access instead of nested tuples
result[0][i][1][1] (score)	res.json['res']['rec_scores'][i]	Direct list access
result[0][i][0] (bbox)	res.json['res']['rec_polys'][i]	Polygon as list of [x,y] points
PaddleOCR(show_log=False)	PaddleOCR(...)	show_log removed entirely
PaddleOCR(use_gpu=False)	PaddleOCR(device="cpu")	Renamed parameter
PaddleOCR(use_angle_cls=True)	PaddleOCR(use_textline_orientation=True)	Renamed parameter
PPStructure(show_log=False)	PPStructureV3(...)	Class renamed, show_log removed
PPStructure(table=True, ocr=True)	PPStructureV3(use_table_recognition=True)	Param names changed
paddleocr --image_dir ./dir --use_gpu False	paddleocr ocr -i ./dir --device cpu	CLI restructured
region['res']['html'] (table)	res.save_to_json() / res.save_to_markdown()	Use save methods

Scripts

Ready-to-run scripts in scripts/:

Script	Purpose
scripts/ocr_quick.py	CLI: extract text from any image/PDF
scripts/table_extract.py	Extract all tables → CSV files
scripts/structured_extract.py	Invoice / ID / form KV extraction
scripts/doc_pipeline.py	Full document understanding pipeline → JSON

# Usage examples (use system Python where paddleocr is installed)
python3 scripts/ocr_quick.py document.jpg
python3 scripts/table_extract.py report.pdf --out ./tables/
python3 scripts/structured_extract.py invoice.jpg --type invoice
python3 scripts/doc_pipeline.py contract.pdf --out result.json

References

• references/quick-start.md — Installation, first run, common errors
• references/ocr-pipeline.md — Text detection, recognition, orientation, PDF batch
• references/table-qa.md — Table detection, HTML export, CSV, pandas QA
• references/document-reasoning.md — Layout analysis, reading order, LLM reasoning chains
• references/structured-extraction.md — Forms, invoices, receipts, ID cards, KV pairs
• references/vl-model.md — PaddleOCR-VL multimodal QA (installation + usage)
• references/advanced-tasks.md — Seals, handwriting, formulas, multilingual, scene text