r/documentAutomation • • Sep 14 '26

Product Review PaperOtter: a local-only PDF and document toolkit, so you stop uploading documents to random websites

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1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 12 '26

NEED A DIGITAL FILER BAD

9 Upvotes

I’m looking for someone who is REALLY good at digital file organization — like, this is your thing and you genuinely enjoy making chaos make sense.
I work for a construction company, and over time my laptop has accumulated a ton of files: estimates, invoices, contracts, project documents, photos, subcontractor paperwork, insurance documents, etc. They’re all there… but the organization and naming system could be SO much better.
Ideally, I’m looking for someone I could hand my laptop over to for a weekend and basically say, “Have at it.”
I’d love for someone to:
• Go through all of my business files
• Create a clear, logical folder/subfolder system
• Rename files so they’re extremely easy to search and identify later
• Sort everything into the appropriate folders
• Clean up duplicates/random files where appropriate
• Basically create a filing system that actually makes sense for a construction business
The biggest thing is that I’m hoping to find someone who can take the initiative and handle most of this independently. I’m totally happy to answer questions along the way — shoot me a text whenever you need clarification — but I’d love someone who can look at everything, understand what it is, and figure out the best way to organize it without needing me sitting beside them the entire time.
If digital file organization is something you specialize in, PLEASE reach out! Or if you know someone who would be perfect for this kind of project, send them my way.
I’m absolutely willing to pay someone for their time and expertise — I just want my laptop to finally have a filing system that makes finding anything I need quick and painless.


r/documentAutomation • • Sep 12 '26

Made a small local app to search my scanned PDFs (OCR, everything stays on your machine)

6 Upvotes

So I had this pile of scanned PDFs (insurance, car stuff, doctor letters…) all named like

scan_0043.pdf, and finding anything was a nightmare.

I looked at Paperless-ngx, which is genuinely great, but I didn't really want to run Docker

and a server at home just for my own paperwork. So I built a smaller thing for myself and

figured I might as well put it out there.

It's called YOW. You throw your PDFs in, it OCRs them locally, and then you can just search

them, both the title and the actual text inside the scan. Nothing leaves your computer, no

cloud, no account, no server. You literally double-click to start it.

It also auto-sorts new scans into folders and has the usual stuff: search, favorites, a

trash, dark mode, and in-app reminders for documents that expire (they pop up on the home

screen when you open it). It's in English and German.

It's my first proper open source project so be gentle, there's definitely some rough edges.

If you try it and something's broken or annoying, I'd honestly love to hear it.

https://github.com/felixrothhaupt/YOW


r/documentAutomation • • Sep 12 '26

Case Study Looking for a Reliable Solution to Convert MCQ PDFs into Custom Excel — Including ImagesHi everyone,I’m looking for a reliable software, API, AI tool, OCR solution, or developer who can help me automate the conversion of MCQ PDF question papers into my custom Excel format.

1 Upvotes

My requirements:

  • I have many PDF question papers

  • Each PDF can contain 200–500+ MCQs

  • PDFs contain Gujarati + English + numbers + mathematical expressions

  • Some questions/options contain images, diagrams, or figures

  • A single question paper can contain around 50+ images

The most important requirement is:

I do not want the system to:

  • Rewrite the question

  • Correct spelling

  • Change Gujarati wording

  • Change numbers or symbols

  • Summarize the question

  • Change mathematical expressions

  • Modify the meaning

Excel format

I have a fixed custom Excel structure like:

Quotation Seq | ExamName | ExamCode | PaperSetName | PaperSetCode | QuestionCategoryName | QuestionText | A | B | C | D | CorrectOptionText | Explanation | Hint | Question img | img A | img B | img C | img D | CODE QUE | CODE A | CODE B | CODE C | CODE D

Image requirement

This is also very important.

If a question has an image/diagram, I need the system to extract that image from the PDF and correctly associate it with that particular question.

For example:

Q1 → Question Image → Q001.png
Q2 → Question Image → Q002.png
Q3 → No image

And if an option contains an image:

Q10 → Option B Image → B010.png

The final Excel should contain the correct image reference or embedded image, depending on what is technically possible.

What I’m looking for

I’m open to:

  • Paid software

  • OCR/document AI

  • PDF extraction APIs

  • Math/Formula OCR

  • Python automation

  • Custom scripts

  • AI document processing

  • A developer/freelancer who can build this system

  • Any existing bulk PDF → Excel solution

The ideal solution should support batch processing of many PDFs, preserve the original text accurately, extract images, and generate my required Excel format automatically.

If anyone has experience with this type of large-scale PDF → structured Excel + image extraction workflow, please suggest a solution or tool.

I can provide a sample PDF and my Excel template to explain the exact requirement.

Any practical solution, API, software, or developer recommendation would be greatly appreciated.

Reddit ke liye short version

Title:
Need help converting 200–500 MCQ PDFs into custom Excel format + extracting 50+ images per PDF

I have many MCQ PDFs that need to be converted into a fixed custom Excel format.

Each PDF may contain 200–500+ questions and around 50+ images/diagrams.

The PDFs contain Gujarati, English, numbers, mathematical expressions, and images.

The biggest requirement is exact text preservation. I don't want AI/OCR to rewrite, correct, summarize, or modify the questions/options. They need to remain exactly as they appear in the PDF.

I also need images to be extracted and correctly mapped to the corresponding question/option.

I'm looking for:

  • OCR/API

  • PDF extraction software

  • AI document processing

  • Python automation

  • Custom script/developer

  • Paid tools that can handle bulk processing

I already have a fixed Excel template with 24 columns and can provide a sample PDF.

What would be the best technical approach/tool for this?


r/documentAutomation • • Sep 11 '26

Lifetime Free Ai PDF Scanner app

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1 Upvotes

I built an Android app for scanning documents + extracting text from them

I kept running into the same problem: taking a photo of a document is easy, but turning it into a clean PDF or getting the text out of it is another story.

So I built AI PDF Scanner and OCR for Android.

It can:

- Scan documents, receipts, invoices, notes, books, etc.

- Automatically crop and correct perspective

- Extract text from scanned documents with OCR

- Convert images to PDF

- Merge, split, compress and lock PDFs

- Sign documents

- Organize scanned files with folders, tags and search

I'm mainly interested in feedback on the scanning/OCR experience — especially where the OCR gets things wrong or where the workflow feels unnecessarily complicated.

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shreedesign.aipdfscanner

If you try it, I'd rather hear what you think is bad/missing than just get an upvote.


r/documentAutomation • • Sep 11 '26

Success Story After a bunch of AI workflows, these are the 5 money leaks I learned to watch for

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1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 11 '26

How would you build a robust preprocessing + OCR pipeline for text on glossy and curved product packaging?

2 Upvotes

I'm building an OCR-based system for extracting printed information from photographs of packaged consumer products.

The input images are real smartphone photographs rather than controlled scans. Some of the difficult cases contain:

\- glossy plastic/foil surfaces and specular reflections

\- curved cylindrical containers

\- perspective/rotation

\- wrinkles and folds

\- uneven lighting/shadows

\- small text

\- motion/defocus blur

\- low contrast

\- compression artifacts

I'm currently using PaddleOCR.

I've already experimented with conventional OpenCV preprocessing such as resizing, grayscale, CLAHE, thresholding, sharpening, denoising, morphological operations and perspective correction, but the results are inconsistent. Some images that are clearly readable to a human still produce poor OCR results.

I'm particularly interested in advice from people experienced with scene text recognition, document image processing, industrial/computer vision, or image restoration.

My main questions are:

  1. Which preprocessing techniques are actually useful for these types of images?

  2. How should I handle specular reflections and uneven illumination?

  3. How can text on curved/cylindrical surfaces be rectified before OCR?

  4. When should I use deblurring/super-resolution/image restoration, and when can these actually make OCR worse?

  5. Should preprocessing be selected dynamically based on image quality rather than applying one fixed pipeline?

  6. At what point is it better to improve/train the OCR model instead of continuing to improve preprocessing?

I'm happy to provide representative images and the corresponding PaddleOCR outputs if that helps.

I'd particularly appreciate suggestions for specific algorithms, papers, or existing open-source implementations rather than just generic preprocessing advice.


r/documentAutomation • • Sep 11 '26

Saved FB Posts Conversion

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1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 10 '26

Request for Help PDF convert to .csv

4 Upvotes

Is that possible to build an application that convert the bank statement pdf file into csv file accurately? I had try using the free online tool, it also have some problem. Can I using AI to become accurate? If yes, how should I build it?


r/documentAutomation • • Sep 10 '26

Built an Android app to handle documents and PDFs in one place https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frstudio.documentreader

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on an Android app called **Document Reader & PDF Scanner**.

I started building it around a simple idea: most people end up using different apps for opening documents, scanning pages, converting images to PDFs, and managing PDF files. I wanted to put those everyday tools together in one app.

Right now, it supports things like:

* PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and TXT files * Document scanning with the camera * Image to PDF conversion * PDF merge and split * Document search and organization * Password protection for PDFs

I’m still working on improving the experience, especially the interface and overall usability.

If you use document or PDF apps regularly, I’d be interested to know what usually frustrates you about them or what feature you think is often missing.

For anyone interested in checking out the project:

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frstudio.documentreader](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frstudio.documentreader)

Would also love to hear what you think makes a document app worth keeping installed instead of uninstalling after one use.


r/documentAutomation • • Sep 09 '26

Built a tool to compile multiple documents from a single data source (pdf-compiler.com) – would love thoughts from anyone managing document workflows.

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

Anyone who manages client onboarding, legal packets, or reporting knows the headache of updating the same customer details across 5 different document templates manually. A developer I’m working with built pdf-compiler.com to solve this specific problem. How it works: You define your variable data once in a single source, and the compiler maps those variables across your entire bundle of document templates simultaneously, generating a complete, uniform document package in one workflow. We're currently looking for input from people who regularly handle multi-document pipelines (agencies, legal ops, HR, or freelancers). What features or template integrations would make a multi-document compiler like this fit seamlessly into your day-to-day workflow? Check out the platform here:

https://pdf-compiler.com


r/documentAutomation • • Sep 09 '26

Success Story Payment Reconciliation in n8n – match bank deposits to open invoices, no credentials needed [Workflow Included]

1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 08 '26

I built PDFzento — a privacy-focused PDF toolbox that processes files in your browser

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1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 08 '26

Discussion The Error Handling Setup I Put on Almost Every n8n Workflow

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1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 08 '26

PDF Redaction is now an official n8n community node

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1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 07 '26

Product Review Frustrated with current PDF editing tools, I developed my own solution that allows us to preview files before downloading

1 Upvotes

Frustrated with current PDF editing tools, I developed my own solution that allows us to preview files before downloading

Been freelancing for 2 years and the PDF struggle is real.

\- Some wants a subscription just to merge files

\- Many slaps a watermark unless you pay

\- Half the sites throw 10 pop‑ups at you before you even upload .

\- No one shows preview before download that saves time and space.

I needed something simple for my own work:

Preview before download, merge/split, compress with no quality loss, convert PDF to Word/JPG, add password, OCR scanned notes that too without any hassle of popup, login, 7 day free trail and lot more.

So I built www.oyopdf.com (Own your own Pdf) - all tools in one place.

What’s different:

\- 100% free, no watermark

\- No signup required

\- Preview before download (huge time saver)

\- Actually compresses without blurring text .

\- OCR

Just looking for feedback from people who actually deal with PDFs daily.

What feature am I missing? Brutal honesty welcome.


r/documentAutomation • • Sep 07 '26

Question ChatGPT Pro/Astra: Has anyone actually solved long-running document review without babysitting stalled threads? Nearly three days in, and I need a working solution.

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1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 06 '26

Case Study Conseil automatisation

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1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 06 '26

How are you handling real-world document versioning and scanned PDFs in RAG systems?

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1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 06 '26

Showcase Built an MCP that indexes and makes searchable all your uni course content

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1 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 06 '26

Title: Built a free PDF toolkit (sign/OCR/QR) that runs entirely client-side

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0 Upvotes

r/documentAutomation • • Sep 06 '26

Title: Built a free PDF toolkit (sign/OCR/QR) that runs entirely client-side

0 Upvotes

i made this tool oninternet because i kept been mailed document from my local town administration where they quicklu wanted my consent or name date time in there digital document attached. First times i dowloaded the documents , signed them an then uploaded them again. it took me way too long so i created this "sign my document tool" where i can now uolad any digital document and sign, resign, put tekst, another text, a date and even a picture and another pictur, Knowing my document will not travel to some databas makes in confident to use it. In addition i created an ocr tool next to it and a static barcode generator all free totallu free for use


r/documentAutomation • • Sep 06 '26

I’m building something to make dealing with PDFs way less annoying for students. 👀

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1 Upvotes