Digital publishing, media conversion, photo editing, etc. Chromebooks are often underestimated when it comes to heavy processing. However, if you have a passion for solving problems, there are certain ways to accomplish most tasks. In this article, we look at how to run a powerful offline OCR tool on a Chromebook. You will be able to convert images and non-searchable documents using a powerful OCR service. On that note, let’s go ahead and find the instructions for performing an OCR conversion on a Chromebook.
Use Offline OCR Tool on Chromebook
Here, we will use powerful Tesseract OCR service It is open source, free and provided by Google. We will use gImageReader, developed on Tesseract’s engine, as it is a command line tool. It has a GUI interface and works really well without any issues.
On Chromebook we will use the Windows version of gImageReader, for which we need Linux support. And we will use a Compatibility layer called wine To run Windows applications on a Linux system. Note that school-issued Chromebooks cannot use this method because they do not support Linux.
If you find the instructions long and complex, you can use online OCR services (eg newocr.com). As for this article, I explain a strictly offline way To perform the OCR conversion. On top of that, the process is completely free and can convert large piles of documents on your Chromebook just like native apps, which is great. Having said all that, let’s move on to the guide now.
Install Offline OCR Tool on a Chromebook
1. First of all, activate Linux and install Wine on your Chromebook by following our instructions below. linked guides. The process is a bit long but definitely doable.
2. Next, run the following commands One by one in the Linux Terminal to keep your Linux up to date.
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade
3. After doing this, Download gImageReader (Free) and move it to the Linux files section. After that, rename it to something short. For example, gimage
. Also, move the image or PDF file to the Linux files section you want to convert.
4. Now, open the Linux terminal and run the following command to install gImageReader. one will begin Setup wizard like Windows. So just click “Next” and install the app.
wine gimage.exe
run gImageReader on Chromebook
1. Run the following command in Linux Terminal to run gImageReader after installation. Be sure change username
on behalf of real user You assigned it to Linux on your Chromebook. To find it, first check its first name. @penguin
Under Linux Terminal. This is your username.
Note: If you want to open gImagReader with an easy shortcut, check our guide above on how to install Wine and go through the shortcut section.
wine "/home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/gImageReader/bin/gimagereader-qt5.exe"
2. Now, the OCR tool will open on your Chromebook. Click “File” icon to start.
3. Click here /
and go to home page -> username. You will find the PDF file you moved to the Linux partition. Select and open.
4. Now, click on “OCR Mode” and change to “hoCR, PDF” If you want a searchable output in PDF format. If you only want searchable text, keep it as “Plain Text”. Finally, click on “Know all” and it will start the OCR conversion process. Note that the process may take some time, depending on the size of the document.
5. Finally, click on the Export icon located in the right pane and select “export to PDF“. Then click “OK” if you get a dialog.
6. Now choose where you want to go save converted document. be sure to open /
and go to home -> username and then save the file.
7. The converted document looks like this. The conversion is absolutely in place with minimal error. For good measure, I also threw in a heavy 41 page file (36MB) and converted the whole file like a charm.
List of Popular Chromebooks
Our tutorial will work with all of the following Chromebooks. It is not an exhaustive list and is here as an example only.
Brand name | Model name |
---|---|
acer | Acer Chromebook 315 |
Acer Chromebook CB315-3H-C2C3 | |
Acer Chromebook CB315-3HT-C296 | |
Acer Chromebook CB315-3H-C4QE | |
Acer Chromebook CB315-2HT-44MJ | |
Acer Chromebook CB315-3HT-C3J0 | |
Acer Chromebook CB315-3H-C5JS | |
Acer Chromebook CB315-3HT-C6XF | |
Acer Chromebook CB315-3H-C36A | |
Acer Chromebook CB315-3HT-C16B | |
Acer Chromebook 314 | |
Acer Chromebook CB314-1H-C34N | |
Acer Chromebook CB314-1H-C66Z | |
Acer Chromebook CB314-1H-C02A | |
Acer Chromebook 311 | |
Acer Chromebook CB311-9HT-C4UM | |
Acer Chromebook CB311-9H-C12A | |
Acer Chromebook 311 – CP311-3H-K5GD | |
Acer Chromebook CB311-9H-C7C8 | |
Acer Chromebook Spin 713 – CP713-2W-79H3 | |
Acer Chromebook 512 – C851-C1J7 | |
Acer Chromebook 311 Touch – CB311-9HT-C4UM | |
Acer Chromebook Spin 311 – CP311-3H-K5GD | |
Acer Chromebox CXI3 – CXI3-I7V16GNKM4 | |
Acer Chromebox CXI3 – CXI3-4GKM4 | |
Acer Chromebox CXI3 – CXI3-4GNKM4 | |
Acer Chromebook Spin 13 – CP713-1WN-51EA | |
Acer Chromebook Spin 713 – CP713-2W-79H3 | |
Acer Chromebook Enterprise Spin 13 – CP713-1WN-76M7 | |
Chromebook Spin 13 – CP713-1WN-813G | |
CB714-1W-32D4 | |
CB714-1W-525Q | |
Acer Chromebook Spin 514 | |
Acer Chromebook 311 C733-C0FK | |
Acer Chromebook CB314-1H-P7ZZ | |
ASUS | ASUS Chromebook C204EE |
ASUS Chromebook C403NA | |
ASUS Chromebook Flip C214MA | |
ASUS Chromebook C203XA | |
ASUS Chromebook C202XA | |
ASUS Chromebook 14 C425TA | |
ASUS Chromebook Flip C434TA | |
ASUS Chromebook Flip C433TA | |
ASUS Chromebook Flip C302CA | |
ASUS Chromebook Flip C436FA | |
ASUS Chromebook C202SA | |
ASUS Chromebook C423NA | |
ASUS Chromebook C523NA | |
ASUS Chromebook C223NA | |
ASUS Chromebook Flip C101PA | |
Google Pixelbook Go GA00521-US | |
Google Pixelbook Go GA00519-US | |
Google Pixelbook Go GA00526-US | |
Google Pixelbook Go GA00124-EN | |
Google Pixelbook Go GA00519-UK | |
Google Pixelbook Go GA00523-US | |
Google Pixel Slate C1A | |
HP | HP Chromebook – 14a-na0003tu |
HP Chromebook 11A G6 EE | |
HP Chromebook x360 12b-ca0010TU | |
HP Chromebook – 14a-na0002tu | |
HP Chromebook – 11-v010nr | |
HP Chromebook – 15-de0010nr | |
HP Chromebook – 14-db0030nr | |
HP Chromebook – 14-db0020nr | |
HP Chromebook – 15-de0015nr | |
HP Chromebook – 14a-na0097nr | |
HP Chromebook – optional 14a touch | |
HP Chromebook – 14-db0098nr | |
HP Chromebook 11a-nb0047nr | |
HP Chromebook 11a 11a-na0010nr | |
HP Chromebook 11a 11a-na0060nr | |
HP Chromebook 14A G5 | |
HP Chromebook Enterprise 14A G5 | |
HP Chromebook 11A G6 Education PC | |
HP Chromebook 14A G5 | |
HP Chromebook 11A G8 Education Edition | |
HP Chromebook x360 11 G3 EE | |
HP Pro c640 Chromebook | |
HP Chromebook 11A G8 Education Edition | |
HP Chromebook 14A G5 Notebook PC | |
HP Pro c640 Chromebook | |
HP Elite c1030 Chromebook | |
HP Pro c640 Chromebook Enterprise | |
HP Elite c1030 Chromebook Notebook PC | |
HP Pro c645 Chromebook | |
HP Chromebook x360 12b-ca0010nr | |
HP Chromebook x360 – 14c-ca0065nr | |
HP Chromebook x360 – 14b-ca0010nr | |
HP Chromebook x360 14a-ca0097nr | |
HP Chromebook x360 14c-ca0085nr | |
HP Chromebook x360 – 14ct-ca000 | |
HP Chromebook 11 G1 Notebook PC 1NW60UT | |
HP Chromebook – 14-ca020nr | |
HP Chromebook 11 G6 Education Edition 3PD94UT | |
HP Chromebook x360 11 G1 EE – Customizable | |
Lenovo | Chromebook Duet (10.1″) 2-in-1 |
Lenovo 10e Chromebook Tablet | |
500e Chromebook 2nd Gen (11.6″) Intel | |
300e Chromebook 2nd Gen (11.6″) | |
100e Chromebook 2nd Gen (11.6″) | |
14e Chromebook (14″) | |
Chromebook C340 (11″) | |
Chromebook C330 (11.6″) | |
Yoga Chromebook (15.6″) | |
Chromebook 3 (14″) | |
Lenovo Chromebook S345 (14”) | |
Chromebook Flex 3i (11″) | |
Chromebook Flex 5 (13″) | |
100e Chromebook 2nd Gen (11.6″) AMD | |
300e Chromebook 2nd Gen (11.6″) AMD | |
SAMSUNG | Samsung Galaxy Chromebook |
Samsung Chromebook Plus (LTE) | |
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 | |
Samsung Chromebook 4+ | |
Samsung Chromebook 4 | |
Samsung Chromebook Plus (V2) | |
Samsung Chromebook 3 | |
Samsung Chromebook Plus |
Use Tesseract OCR on a Chromebook Using gImageReader
So, you can run an offline OCR tool on a Chromebook with the help of Linux and Wine. Sure, the installation process is a bit tedious, but once you’ve set it up, it’s extremely useful to convert OCR files into searchable PDFs in a jiffy.
FYI, I tried gImageReader’s custom Debian installer but the output wasn’t as good as Windows which is pretty weird. Anyway, that’s it for us. For more such tips, check out our article on the best Chrome OS tips and tricks.