Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text. It is used to convert paper books and documents into electronic files, for instance, to computerize an old record-keeping system in an office, or to serve on a website such as Project Gutenberg.

This is a free software project to help people create printable PDFs from content found on the web. It is a free alternative to HP’s Tabbloid service. It is being developed as part of the Five Filters project to promote alternative, non-corporate media.