🚀 DeepSeek OCR - React + FastAPI

Modern OCR web application powered by DeepSeek-OCR with a stunning React frontend and FastAPI backend. Now with PDF processing and multi-format document conversion!

✨ What's New in v2.2.0 - PDF Processing & Document Conversion

We've added powerful PDF processing capabilities based on community feedback! Here's what you can do now:

📄 Process Entire PDF Documents

• Upload PDF files up to 100MB
• Automatic multi-page OCR processing
• Real-time progress tracking for large documents
• Extract text from scanned PDFs or image-based documents

🔄 Convert to Multiple Formats

Export your OCR results in the format you need:

• Markdown (.md) - Clean, structured text perfect for documentation
• HTML (.html) - Styled documents with embedded images and tables
• Word (.docx) - Professional documents with formatting, tables, and images
• JSON - Structured data for programmatic access

🖼️ Automatic Image Extraction

• Detects and extracts images from PDF pages
• Embeds images in exported documents
• Preserves image placement and context

📐 Formula & Formatting Preservation

• Maintains mathematical formulas (LaTeX syntax)
• Preserves tables, headings, and document structure
• Cleans up special characters while keeping formatting intact

🎯 Use Cases

• Document Digitization - Convert scanned PDFs to editable formats
• Data Extraction - Pull structured data from forms and invoices
• Content Migration - Convert PDFs to Markdown for wikis/documentation
• Academic Papers - Extract text and formulas from research papers
• Business Documents - Convert reports to Word for editing

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Latest Updates (v2.2.0) - November 2025

• 🎉 NEW: PDF Processing - Upload PDFs and extract text from all pages
• 🎉 NEW: Multi-Format Export - Convert to Markdown, HTML, DOCX, or JSON
• 🎉 NEW: Automatic Image Extraction - Extract and preserve images from PDFs
• 🎉 NEW: Progress Tracking - Real-time progress for multi-page documents
• ✅ Dual mode: Image OCR + PDF Processing with format conversion
• ✅ Enhanced document processing with formula and formatting preservation

Previous Updates (v2.1.1)

• ✅ Fixed image removal button - now properly clears and allows re-upload
• ✅ Fixed multiple bounding boxes parsing - handles [[x1,y1,x2,y2], [x1,y1,x2,y2]] format
• ✅ Simplified to 4 core working modes for better stability
• ✅ Fixed bounding box coordinate scaling (normalized 0-999 → actual pixels)
• ✅ Fixed HTML rendering (model outputs HTML, not Markdown)
• ✅ Increased file upload limit to 100MB (configurable)
• ✅ Added .env configuration support

Quick Start

1. Clone and configure:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd deepseek_ocr_app
   
   # Copy and customize environment variables
   cp .env.example .env
   # Edit .env to configure ports, upload limits, etc.

2. Start the application:

   docker compose up --build

   The first run will download the model (~5-10GB), which may take some time.

3. Access the application:

   • Frontend: http://localhost:3000 (or your configured FRONTEND_PORT)
   • Backend API: http://localhost:8000 (or your configured API_PORT)
   • API Docs: http://localhost:8000/docs

🎓 How to Use

Processing Images (Single Image OCR)

1. Select "Image OCR" mode in the toggle
2. Upload an image (PNG, JPG, WEBP, etc.)
3. Choose your OCR mode:
   • Plain OCR - Extract all text
   • Describe - Get image description
   • Find - Locate specific terms
   • Freeform - Use custom prompts
4. Click "Analyze Image"
5. View results with bounding boxes (if enabled)
6. Copy or download the extracted text

Processing PDFs (Multi-Page Documents) - NEW!

1. Select "PDF Processing" mode in the toggle
2. Upload a PDF file (up to 100MB)
3. Choose your OCR mode (same as above)
4. Select output format:
   • 📝 Markdown - For documentation, wikis, GitHub
   • 🌐 HTML - For web publishing, styled viewing
   • 📄 DOCX - For Word editing, professional documents
   • 📊 JSON - For programmatic access, data extraction
5. Click "Process PDF"
6. Watch the progress bar as pages are processed
7. Your file downloads automatically when complete!

Tips for Best Results

• For scanned documents: Use higher DPI (144-300) in advanced settings
• For tables: The model excels at extracting structured data
• For formulas: Mathematical notation is preserved in output
• For images in PDFs: Enable "Extract Images" to include them in output
• For large PDFs: JSON format is fastest, DOCX takes longer due to formatting

Output Format Comparison

Format	Best For	Features	File Size
Markdown	Documentation, GitHub, wikis	Clean text, tables, code blocks	Smallest
HTML	Web viewing, sharing	Styled output, embedded images, tables	Medium
DOCX	Editing, professional docs	Full formatting, images, tables	Largest
JSON	Data processing, APIs	Structured data, metadata, page info	Small

Features

Dual Processing Modes

📸 Image OCR (4 Core Modes)

• Plain OCR - Raw text extraction from any image
• Describe - Generate intelligent image descriptions
• Find - Locate specific terms with visual bounding boxes
• Freeform - Custom prompts for specialized tasks

📄 PDF Processing (NEW!)

• Multi-Page Processing - Process entire PDF documents page by page
• Format Conversion - Export to Markdown, HTML, DOCX, or JSON
• Image Extraction - Automatically extract and preserve embedded images
• Formula Preservation - Maintain mathematical formulas and special formatting
• Progress Tracking - Real-time progress updates for large documents

UI Features

• 🎨 Glass morphism design with animated gradients
• 🎯 Drag & drop file upload (Images up to 10MB, PDFs up to 100MB)
• 🔄 Easy file removal and re-upload
• 📦 Grounding box visualization with proper coordinate scaling
• ✨ Smooth animations (Framer Motion)
• 📋 Copy/Download results in multiple formats
• 🎛️ Advanced settings dropdown
• 📝 HTML and Markdown rendering for formatted output
• 🔍 Multiple bounding box support (handles multiple instances of found terms)
• 📊 Progress bars for multi-page PDF processing
• 💾 Direct download for converted documents (MD, HTML, DOCX)

Configuration

The application can be configured via the .env file:

# API Configuration
API_HOST=0.0.0.0
API_PORT=8000

# Frontend Configuration
FRONTEND_PORT=3000

# Model Configuration
MODEL_NAME=deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-OCR
HF_HOME=/models

# Upload Configuration
MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE_MB=100  # Maximum file upload size

# Processing Configuration
BASE_SIZE=1024         # Base processing resolution
IMAGE_SIZE=640         # Tile processing resolution
CROP_MODE=true         # Enable dynamic cropping for large images

Environment Variables

• API_HOST: Backend API host (default: 0.0.0.0)
• API_PORT: Backend API port (default: 8000)
• FRONTEND_PORT: Frontend port (default: 3000)
• MODEL_NAME: HuggingFace model identifier
• HF_HOME: Model cache directory
• MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE_MB: Maximum file upload size in megabytes
• BASE_SIZE: Base image processing size (affects memory usage)
• IMAGE_SIZE: Tile size for dynamic cropping
• CROP_MODE: Enable/disable dynamic image cropping

Tech Stack

Frontend

• Framework: React 18 + Vite 5
• Styling: TailwindCSS 3 + Custom Glass Morphism
• Animations: Framer Motion 11
• HTTP Client: Axios
• File Upload: React Dropzone

Backend

• API Framework: FastAPI (async Python web framework)
• ML/AI: PyTorch + Transformers 4.46 + DeepSeek-OCR
• PDF Processing: PyMuPDF (fitz) + img2pdf
• Document Conversion:
  • python-docx (Word documents)
  • markdown (Markdown processing)
  • Custom HTML generator
• Configuration: python-decouple for environment management

Infrastructure

• Server: Nginx (reverse proxy & static file serving)
• Container: Docker + Docker Compose with multi-stage builds
• GPU: NVIDIA CUDA support (tested on RTX 3090, RTX 5090)

Project Structure

deepseek-ocr/
├── backend/                  # FastAPI backend
│   ├── main.py              # Main API with OCR and PDF endpoints
│   ├── pdf_utils.py         # PDF processing utilities (NEW)
│   ├── format_converter.py  # Document format conversion (NEW)
│   ├── requirements.txt
│   └── Dockerfile
├── frontend/                 # React frontend
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/
│   │   │   ├── ImageUpload.jsx    # File upload (images & PDFs)
│   │   │   ├── PDFProcessor.jsx   # PDF processing UI (NEW)
│   │   │   ├── ModeSelector.jsx
│   │   │   ├── ResultPanel.jsx
│   │   │   └── AdvancedSettings.jsx
│   │   ├── App.jsx           # Main app with dual mode support
│   │   └── main.jsx
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── nginx.conf
│   └── Dockerfile
├── models/                   # Model cache
└── docker-compose.yml

Development

Docker compose cycle to test:

docker compose down
docker compose up --build

Requirements

Hardware

• NVIDIA GPU with CUDA support
  • Recommended: RTX 3090, RTX 4090, RTX 5090, or better
  • Minimum: 8-12GB VRAM for the model
  • More VRAM always good!

Software

• Docker & Docker Compose (latest version recommended)

• NVIDIA Driver - Installing NVIDIA Drivers on Ubuntu (Blackwell/RTX 5090)

  Note: Getting NVIDIA drivers working on Blackwell GPUs can be a pain! Here's what worked:

  The key requirements for RTX 5090 on Ubuntu 24.04:

  • Use the open-source driver (nvidia-driver-570-open or newer, like nvidia-driver-580-open)
  • Upgrade to kernel 6.11+ (6.14+ recommended for best stability)
  • Enable Resize Bar in BIOS/UEFI (critical!)

  Step-by-Step Instructions:

  1. Install NVIDIA Open Driver (580 or newer)

     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
     sudo apt update
     sudo apt remove --purge nvidia*
     sudo nvidia-installer --uninstall  # If you have it
     sudo apt autoremove
     sudo apt install nvidia-driver-580-open

  2. Upgrade Linux Kernel to 6.11+ (for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS)

     sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-24.04 linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.04
     sudo update-initramfs -u
     sudo apt autoremove

  3. Reboot

     sudo reboot

  4. Enable Resize Bar in UEFI/BIOS

     • Restart and enter UEFI (usually F2, Del, or F12 during boot)
     • Find and enable "Resize Bar" or "Smart Access Memory"
     • This will also enable "Above 4G Decoding" and disable "CSM" (Compatibility Support Module)—that's expected!
     • Save and exit

  5. Verify Installation

     nvidia-smi

     You should see your RTX 5090 listed!

  💡 Why open drivers? I dunno, but the open drivers have better support for Blackwell GPUs. Without Resize Bar enabled, you'll get a black screen even with correct drivers!

  Credit: Solution adapted from this Reddit thread.

• NVIDIA Container Toolkit (required for GPU access in Docker)

  • Installation guide: https://docs.nvidia.com/datacenter/cloud-native/container-toolkit/latest/install-guide.html

System Requirements

• ~20GB free disk space (for model weights and Docker images)
• 16GB+ system RAM recommended
• Fast internet connection for initial model download (~5-10GB)

Known Issues & Fixes

✅ FIXED: Image removal and re-upload (v2.1.1)

• Issue: Couldn't remove uploaded image and upload a new one
• Fix: Added prominent "Remove" button that clears image state and allows fresh upload

✅ FIXED: Multiple bounding boxes (v2.1.1)

• Issue: Only single bounding box worked, multiple boxes like [[x1,y1,x2,y2], [x1,y1,x2,y2]] failed
• Fix: Updated parser to handle both single and array of coordinate arrays using ast.literal_eval

✅ FIXED: Grounding box coordinate scaling (v2.1)

• Issue: Bounding boxes weren't displaying correctly
• Cause: Model outputs coordinates normalized to 0-999, not actual pixel dimensions
• Fix: Backend now properly scales coordinates using the formula: actual_coord = (normalized_coord / 999) * image_dimension

✅ FIXED: HTML vs Markdown rendering (v2.1)

• Issue: Output was being rendered as Markdown when model outputs HTML
• Cause: Model is trained to output HTML (especially for tables)
• Fix: Frontend now detects and renders HTML properly using dangerouslySetInnerHTML

✅ FIXED: Limited upload size (v2.1)

• Issue: Large images couldn't be uploaded
• Fix: Increased nginx client_max_body_size to 100MB (configurable via .env)

⚠️ Simplified Mode Selection (v2.1.1)

• Change: Reduced from 12 modes to 4 core working modes
• Reason: Advanced modes (tables, layout, PII, multilingual) need additional testing
• Working modes: Plain OCR, Describe, Find, Freeform
• Future: Additional modes will be re-enabled after thorough testing

How the Model Works

Coordinate System

The DeepSeek-OCR model uses a normalized coordinate system (0-999) for bounding boxes:

• All coordinates are output in range [0, 999]
• Backend scales: pixel_coord = (model_coord / 999) * actual_dimension
• This ensures consistency across different image sizes

Dynamic Cropping

For large images, the model uses dynamic cropping:

• Images ≤640x640: Direct processing
• Larger images: Split into tiles based on aspect ratio
• Global view (BASE_SIZE) + Local views (IMAGE_SIZE tiles)
• See process/image_process.py for implementation details

Output Format

• Plain text modes: Return raw text
• Table modes: Return HTML tables or CSV
• JSON modes: Return structured JSON
• Grounding modes: Return text with <|ref|>label<|/ref|><|det|>[[coords]]<|/det|> tags

API Usage

POST /api/ocr

Parameters:

• image (file, required) - Image file to process (up to 100MB)
• mode (string) - OCR mode: plain_ocr | describe | find_ref | freeform
• prompt (string) - Custom prompt for freeform mode
• grounding (bool) - Enable bounding boxes (auto-enabled for find_ref)
• find_term (string) - Term to locate in find_ref mode (supports multiple matches)
• base_size (int) - Base processing size (default: 1024)
• image_size (int) - Tile size for cropping (default: 640)
• crop_mode (bool) - Enable dynamic cropping (default: true)
• include_caption (bool) - Add image description (default: false)

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "text": "Extracted text or HTML output...",
  "boxes": [{"label": "field", "box": [x1, y1, x2, y2]}],
  "image_dims": {"w": 1920, "h": 1080},
  "metadata": {
    "mode": "layout_map",
    "grounding": true,
    "base_size": 1024,
    "image_size": 640,
    "crop_mode": true
  }
}

Note on Bounding Boxes:

• The model outputs coordinates normalized to 0-999
• The backend automatically scales them to actual image dimensions
• Coordinates are in [x1, y1, x2, y2] format (top-left, bottom-right)
• Supports multiple boxes: When finding multiple instances, format is [[x1,y1,x2,y2], [x1,y1,x2,y2], ...]
• Frontend automatically displays all boxes overlaid on the image with unique colors

POST /api/process-pdf (NEW!)

Process PDF documents with OCR and export to various formats.

Parameters:

• pdf_file (file, required) - PDF file to process (up to 100MB)
• mode (string) - OCR mode: plain_ocr | describe | find_ref | freeform
• prompt (string) - Custom prompt for freeform mode
• output_format (string) - Output format: markdown | html | docx | json
• grounding (bool) - Enable bounding boxes (default: false)
• include_caption (bool) - Add image descriptions (default: false)
• extract_images (bool) - Extract embedded images from PDF (default: true)
• dpi (int) - PDF rendering resolution (default: 144)
• base_size (int) - Base processing size (default: 1024)
• image_size (int) - Tile size for cropping (default: 640)
• crop_mode (bool) - Enable dynamic cropping (default: true)

Response Formats:

JSON Format (output_format=json):

{
  "success": true,
  "total_pages": 5,
  "pages": [
    {
      "page_number": 1,
      "text": "Extracted and cleaned text...",
      "raw_text": "Raw model output with tags...",
      "boxes": [{"label": "field", "box": [x1, y1, x2, y2]}],
      "images": ["base64_encoded_image_data..."],
      "image_dims": {"w": 1920, "h": 1080}
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "mode": "plain_ocr",
    "grounding": false,
    "extract_images": true,
    "dpi": 144
  }
}

File Downloads (output_format=markdown|html|docx):

• Returns the document as a downloadable file
• Markdown: .md file with preserved formatting
• HTML: .html file with embedded styling and images
• DOCX: .docx Word document with tables and formatting

Features:

• 📄 Multi-page processing with progress tracking
• 🖼️ Automatic image extraction and embedding
• 📐 Formula and formatting preservation
• 🎨 Styled HTML output with tables and code blocks
• 📝 Clean Markdown with proper structure
• 📋 Professional DOCX with headings and tables

Examples

Here are some example images showcasing different OCR capabilities:

Visual Understanding

Table Extraction from Chart

Image Description

Troubleshooting

GPU not detected

nvidia-smi
docker run --rm --gpus all nvidia/cuda:11.8.0-base-ubuntu22.04 nvidia-smi

Port conflicts

sudo lsof -i :3000
sudo lsof -i :8000

Frontend build issues

cd frontend
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
docker-compose build frontend

License

This project uses the DeepSeek-OCR model. Refer to the model's license terms.

Note: Licensed under the MIT License. View the full license: LICENSE