Paperwork battles the increasing stacks of paper
Paperless
Paperwork was developed to manage the paperless office – a dream as old as desktop PCs.
The idea behind Paperwork [1] harks back to the dream of the paperless office: You scan incoming correspondence, invoices, and loose sheets then run them through an optical character recognition (OCR) tool that converts the content into digital form. An application then merges the image data and text in a superimposed form and saves it as a PDF.
Certain pitfalls await, however: For sufficiently good OCR you need the highest quality scans or photographs possible of the text pages. A good scanner with at least 600dpi resolution is preferred, (although 300dpi will work in some cases), and the OCR software needs to be the best fit for the job at hand. When Paperwork launches, it first searches for Tesseract [2]. If the program cannot find this very powerful OCR engine, the program falls back to Cuneiform. In most cases, Tesseract will give better results.
Getting Started
On Arch Linux, you can install Paperwork easily from the AUR. On Ubuntu, you will not currently find Paperwork in the repositories, and there is no PPA. Your best chance is to read the installation manual [3].
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
-
So Long, ArcoLinux
The ArcoLinux distribution is the latest Linux distribution to shut down.
-
What Open Source Pros Look for in a Job Role
Learn what professionals in technical and non-technical roles say is most important when seeking a new position.
-
Asahi Linux Runs into Issues with M4 Support
Due to Apple Silicon changes, the Asahi Linux project is at odds with adding support for the M4 chips.
-
Plasma 6.3.4 Now Available
Although not a major release, Plasma 6.3.4 does fix some bugs and offer a subtle change for the Plasma sidebar.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 First Release Candidate Now Available
Linux Torvalds has announced that the release candidate for the final release of the Linux 6.15 series is now available.