Tools

Baidu PaddlePaddle's official OCR and document parsing tool: the paddleocr command reads text from images and parses PDFs and scans into Markdown or JSON, supporting 100+ languages with models that run locally.

Official PaddleOCR MCP: text recognition and layout parsing for images and PDFs (PP-OCR, PP-StructureV3, PaddleOCR-VL), returning text or Markdown. Runs inference locally, or calls the official API or a self-hosted service.

Document parser from OpenDataLab that turns PDFs, images and Office files into Markdown or JSON, handling tables, formulas and complex layouts well, with page-by-page reading and citation anchors for agents. Parses locally by default; needs Python 3.10+.

Reads messy invoices and receipts (PDFs, scans, screenshots), extracts vendor, date and amount, renames and files them by vendor, category or year, keeps originals and can export a CSV for your accountant. Needs an agent with local file access; no account required.

Classic open-source OCR engine and CLI that reads text from images and outputs plain text, hOCR, searchable PDF or TSV. Supports 100+ languages; install the language data for each language you need.

Parses PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HTML, images and audio, recovering layout, reading order, tables and formulas, and exports Markdown, HTML or lossless JSON. Started by IBM Research, now hosted by the LF AI & Data Foundation; runs fully locally.

Converts PDFs, images, PPTX, DOCX, XLSX, EPUB and more into Markdown, JSON or HTML, preserving tables, formulas and layout, with optional LLM help for higher accuracy. Needs Python 3.10+ and PyTorch; large-scale commercial use of the model weights needs a paid license.

Anthropic's official small-business skill for bills: reads vendor, amount and due date from email, PDFs or photos, dedupes, codes to accounts, matches POs and drafts a payment plan. Posting and paying each need approval; it never auto-pays. Works with QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite or file export.

AI2's tool for converting PDFs and scans to Markdown with a vision LLM, handling equations, tables, handwriting and multi-column layouts, suited to bulk digitizing papers and archives. Local runs need an NVIDIA GPU with 12GB+ VRAM; otherwise use a paid OpenAI-compatible remote endpoint.

Japan tax return (kakutei shinkoku) plugin for sole proprietors and employees: bookkeeping, receipt OCR, year-end statements, income and consumption tax, and browser automation for the NTA filing site. Japan only; needs Python 3.11+, uv and Claude in Chrome or Playwright. Review before filing.

MinerU's official MCP: parses PDF, Word, PowerPoint and images into Markdown via the mineru.net cloud API, keeping tables and formulas. The keyless Flash mode works out of the box; add a token for higher quotas and more formats.