5 ms·

ClawPDF – Open-Source Virtual/Network PDF Printer with OCR and Image Support

192 points by miles 1y ago

criddell 1y ago
Why use Tesseract for this? Windows' built-in OCR is so much better in my experience.
- Oras 1y ago
  Yeah, tesseract has lots of issues especially identifying tables
- skeeter2020 1y ago
  I suspect because of the vintage of this project. This is built on .net Framework 4.x, hence windows only. edit: and goes deep into COM for device interfaces. Wow! blast from the past.
  - wolfi1 1y ago
    .Net Framework is mostly a wrapper for COM
    - PeterStuer 1y ago
      That's a bit of a streach. Yes, .Net was MS's next gen of component tech following (D)COM, but it grew way past that from the start.
- jeroenhd 1y ago
  Microsoft's OCR engine supports Windows 10.0.10240.0 and up. This project intends to support Windows 7 and up. In theory you could maintain code paths for both, offering a slimmer package for Windows 10+, but that'd also cost more time and effort to maintain. Also, not many people know Windows comes with an OCR API. It's extremely underused in my opinion.
  - atmanactive 1y ago
    Windows OCR is used by PowerToys. https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys
hoistbypetard 1y ago
That looks really useful. But, also, wow! Windows-only and AGPLv3 is not a combination I think I've ever seen before.
sirjaz 1y ago
We need more things like this. I know people don't like Windows Server because it is not open source, but it is simple to use and get up and running. Also, user management is easy.
- yndoendo 1y ago
  I don't like Microsoft products, such as Windows, because I used them through out the years and find all the edge cases where they don't hold up. Windows OS is too fragile with their kludge of internal designs. Corrupt registry or WMI repository bakes systems with ease. This has nothing to do with Open Source. OSes that use plain text configuration files are easy to resurrect. Windows is fixed with reinstall the OS. Linux and BSD are fixed with editing a config file or reinstalling a single corrupt application / library. Example of bad versus good design is DirectX shader compilation. Windows can only perform this while the game is running. Linux with WINE can perform this without the game running. Windows will have bad FPS during the first run / scene with many games because of this. PS. Windows print system is really bad in the industrial environment because they do not follow label markup language stands. Number of label DSLs have a print quantity setting to save memory. Want 1000 copies printed, one print job with print quantity set to 1000. Windows spools up 1000 copies of the label and sends each to the printer. This eats up the memory on printers in no time. It also brakes the ability to clear the print queue just on the printer. Extra steps require the Windows print job to be canceled and they the printer's queue to be cleared. Otherwise The printer will receive the next 990 of the 1000 print job.
  - Tika2234 1y ago
    Short answer is you not familiar with Windows but quite good with Linux. Hence the "not like" part. Plenty of Windows developers I know (that is way more than Linux developers statiscally) love Windows. The apps they designed and built simply way better or even non existent on Linux. The same reason too for them, they don't know Linux and near God-level tier with Windows from MFC to assembbly.
    - yndoendo 1y ago
sowbug 1y ago
OT: someone please make a RPi image that "prints" a page to an eink display. I want to duct-tape an RPi Zero and a rechargeable battery to the back of a display, then be able to print recipes to it while cooking. Other people might print board-game rules or speech notes while rehearsing -- anything that you'd typically print and then throw away after brief usage. I know I could make a PDF, sideload it to a Kindle, etc. Too many steps. I just want the display to appear as a printer on my phone.
- IlikeKitties 1y ago
  Sounds pretty vibe codable, why don't you try it yourself?
- xrendan 1y ago
  I have some really old code that pretty much does this, I'll see if I can find it.
  - xrendan 1y ago
    Ugh, I don't have it. It was from before I used git. Basically to do this you have a cups server that exposes itself as a network printer that prints to a specified PDF directory and then you have a program watching that directory for new files and if there's a new one it opens up whatever pdf viewer you want in full screen. Setup a shared pdf printer: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1310867/how-to-set-up-shared-pdf-printer-on-home-network https://askubuntu.com/questions/1310867/how-to-set-up-shared...
- navane 1y ago
  I always wanted to tackle this use case with receipt printers, those thermal narrow paper rol ones. But those things are freaking expensive!
  - colechristensen 1y ago
    Restaurants are going out of business all the time, there's your source
kittikitti 1y ago
This is an incredible idea! I really like it because it sounds so obvious after being exposed to it but I never thought of it before! I wonder what other ways we could integrate GPT's, LLM's, and other AI into the simple "Print" functionality across all our devices.
mathfailure 1y ago
For Windows only. Abandonware.
- npodbielski 1y ago
  Looks like it is .NET Framework, so there is possibility to port it to .net core and possibly use via dll or .so as library inside other, linux desktop framework (or in something more portable like Flutter).
- cryptonector 1y ago
  Could get ported.
johnea 1y ago
Just another poster child of windoze suk. Of course, CUPS based printing has had built in print to PDF for years... [1] Common Unix Printing System
- tonyedgecombe 1y ago
  Windows has had a built in PDF driver for a long time as well.

192 points by miles 1y ago

criddell 1y ago

Why use Tesseract for this? Windows' built-in OCR is so much better in my experience.

Oras 1y ago
Yeah, tesseract has lots of issues especially identifying tables
skeeter2020 1y ago
I suspect because of the vintage of this project. This is built on .net Framework 4.x, hence windows only. edit: and goes deep into COM for device interfaces. Wow! blast from the past.
- wolfi1 1y ago
  .Net Framework is mostly a wrapper for COM
  - PeterStuer 1y ago
    That's a bit of a streach. Yes, .Net was MS's next gen of component tech following (D)COM, but it grew way past that from the start.
jeroenhd 1y ago
Microsoft's OCR engine supports Windows 10.0.10240.0 and up. This project intends to support Windows 7 and up. In theory you could maintain code paths for both, offering a slimmer package for Windows 10+, but that'd also cost more time and effort to maintain. Also, not many people know Windows comes with an OCR API. It's extremely underused in my opinion.
- atmanactive 1y ago
  Windows OCR is used by PowerToys. https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys

hoistbypetard 1y ago

That looks really useful. But, also, wow! Windows-only and AGPLv3 is not a combination I think I've ever seen before.

sirjaz 1y ago

We need more things like this. I know people don't like Windows Server because it is not open source, but it is simple to use and get up and running. Also, user management is easy.

yndoendo 1y ago
I don't like Microsoft products, such as Windows, because I used them through out the years and find all the edge cases where they don't hold up. Windows OS is too fragile with their kludge of internal designs. Corrupt registry or WMI repository bakes systems with ease. This has nothing to do with Open Source. OSes that use plain text configuration files are easy to resurrect. Windows is fixed with reinstall the OS. Linux and BSD are fixed with editing a config file or reinstalling a single corrupt application / library. Example of bad versus good design is DirectX shader compilation. Windows can only perform this while the game is running. Linux with WINE can perform this without the game running. Windows will have bad FPS during the first run / scene with many games because of this. PS. Windows print system is really bad in the industrial environment because they do not follow label markup language stands. Number of label DSLs have a print quantity setting to save memory. Want 1000 copies printed, one print job with print quantity set to 1000. Windows spools up 1000 copies of the label and sends each to the printer. This eats up the memory on printers in no time. It also brakes the ability to clear the print queue just on the printer. Extra steps require the Windows print job to be canceled and they the printer's queue to be cleared. Otherwise The printer will receive the next 990 of the 1000 print job.
- Tika2234 1y ago
  Short answer is you not familiar with Windows but quite good with Linux. Hence the "not like" part. Plenty of Windows developers I know (that is way more than Linux developers statiscally) love Windows. The apps they designed and built simply way better or even non existent on Linux. The same reason too for them, they don't know Linux and near God-level tier with Windows from MFC to assembbly.
  - yndoendo 1y ago

sowbug 1y ago

OT: someone please make a RPi image that "prints" a page to an eink display. I want to duct-tape an RPi Zero and a rechargeable battery to the back of a display, then be able to print recipes to it while cooking. Other people might print board-game rules or speech notes while rehearsing -- anything that you'd typically print and then throw away after brief usage. I know I could make a PDF, sideload it to a Kindle, etc. Too many steps. I just want the display to appear as a printer on my phone.

IlikeKitties 1y ago
Sounds pretty vibe codable, why don't you try it yourself?
xrendan 1y ago
I have some really old code that pretty much does this, I'll see if I can find it.
- xrendan 1y ago
  Ugh, I don't have it. It was from before I used git. Basically to do this you have a cups server that exposes itself as a network printer that prints to a specified PDF directory and then you have a program watching that directory for new files and if there's a new one it opens up whatever pdf viewer you want in full screen. Setup a shared pdf printer: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1310867/how-to-set-up-shared-pdf-printer-on-home-network https://askubuntu.com/questions/1310867/how-to-set-up-shared...
navane 1y ago
I always wanted to tackle this use case with receipt printers, those thermal narrow paper rol ones. But those things are freaking expensive!
- colechristensen 1y ago
  Restaurants are going out of business all the time, there's your source

kittikitti 1y ago

This is an incredible idea! I really like it because it sounds so obvious after being exposed to it but I never thought of it before! I wonder what other ways we could integrate GPT's, LLM's, and other AI into the simple "Print" functionality across all our devices.

mathfailure 1y ago

For Windows only. Abandonware.

npodbielski 1y ago
Looks like it is .NET Framework, so there is possibility to port it to .net core and possibly use via dll or .so as library inside other, linux desktop framework (or in something more portable like Flutter).
cryptonector 1y ago
Could get ported.

johnea 1y ago

Just another poster child of windoze suk. Of course, CUPS based printing has had built in print to PDF for years... [1] Common Unix Printing System

tonyedgecombe 1y ago
Windows has had a built in PDF driver for a long time as well.