PDF OCR with Layout Preservation

---

name: pdf-ocr-layout

description: >

Full OCR pipeline for scanned PDFs with layout preservation. Use this skill whenever

the user wants to OCR a PDF, convert a scanned document to searchable text, or preserve

the original layout of a scanned book/document. Triggers on: "OCR this PDF", "用PaddleOCR处理",

"识别这个PDF", "扫描版PDF转文字", "把这个PDF做OCR", or when a PDF path is provided alongside

any mention of OCR, text recognition, or layout preservation.

---

# PDF OCR with Layout Preservation

Automated pipeline: **Split → OCR API → Layout PDF → Merge**

Each original page becomes one PDF page, with text placed at exact bounding-box positions

and font sizes calibrated to fill the original block dimensions.

Quick Start

python ~/.claude/skills/pdf-ocr-layout/scripts/pipeline.py "/path/to/input.pdf"

Output: `input_ocr.pdf` in the same directory. Intermediate files in `input_ocr_work/`.

Full Options

python ~/.claude/skills/pdf-ocr-layout/scripts/pipeline.py \
  "/path/to/input.pdf" \
  --output "/path/to/output.pdf" \
  --work-dir "/path/to/workdir" \
  --chunk-size 90

Steps for Claude

1. **Ask for the PDF path** if not already provided in the conversation.

2. **Check dependencies** (install only what's missing):

```bash

pip install pypdf reportlab Pillow requests -q

```

3. **Run the pipeline** and stream output to the user:

```bash

python ~/.claude/skills/pdf-ocr-layout/scripts/pipeline.py "{input_pdf}"

```

4. **Monitor progress** — the script prints step-by-step progress including API polling.

API jobs typically take 1–5 minutes per 90-page chunk.

5. **Report the output path** when done.

Resume / Retry

The pipeline saves state to the work directory and is fully resumable:

If interrupted, simply re-run the same command. It picks up where it left off.

Common Issues

| Problem | Fix |

|---------|-----|

| `ModuleNotFoundError` | Run the pip install command above |

| API 4xx error | Check the PDF isn't password-protected |

| Job stuck in `running` | Normal for large chunks; wait up to 10 min |

| Missing images in output | Images left blank per design (API images are optional) |

| Font too small/large | The font size auto-calibrates — first page may look different if it's a cover |

Output Quality

— verified to recover original ~13–14pt body text