Chromebooks are generally looked down upon when it comes to performing heavy operations related to digital publishing, media conversion, photo editing, etc. However, there are certain ways to perform most tasks if you have a penchant for solving problems. In this article, we take a look at how to run a powerful offline OCR tool on a Chromebook. You will be able to convert non-viewable images and documents using a powerful OCR service. So, on that note, let’s go ahead and find the instructions for performing the OCR conversion on a Chromebook.
Use the OCR tool offline on a Chromebook
Here we will use the powerful Tesseract OCR service which is open source, free and maintained by Google. Since it is a command line tool, we will use gImageReader which is developed on the Tesseract engine. It has a GUI and works great without any issues.
On the Chromebook, we’ll be using 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. Keep in mind that school-provided Chromebooks won’t be able to use this method due to the lack of Linux support.
If you find the instructions long and complex, you can use online OCR services (eg newocr.com). As for this article, I am strictly explaining an offline way to perform the OCR conversion. On top of that, the process is completely free and can convert large stacks of documents on your Chromebook just like native apps, which is awesome. Having said all that, let’s now review the guide.
Configure the OCR tool offline on a Chromebook
1. First, activate Linux and configure Wine on your Chromebook by following our related guides. The process is a bit long but definitely doable.
2. Next, run the commands below one by one in the Linux terminal to keep your Linux up to date.
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade
3. This done, download gImageReader (To 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 section of Linux files you want to convert.
4. Now open Linux terminal and run below command to install gImageReader. He will start a installation wizard just like Windows. So all you have to do is click “Next” and install the application.
wine gimage.exe
Run gImageReader on a Chromebook
1. After installation, run the below command in Linux terminal to run gImageReader. Make sure you currency username to real username you assigned to Linux on your Chromebook. To find it, check the initial name before @penguin under the Linux terminal. This is your username.
To note: If you want to open gImagReader via a simple shortcut, refer to our guide above on setting up Wine and browse the shortcuts 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 on the ” To file” icon to start.
3. Here click / and navigate to home -> username. You will find the PDF file you moved to the Linux section. Select it and open it.
4. Now just click on “OCR Mode” and change it to “hOCR, PDF” if you want a searchable output in PDF format. If you just want searchable text, keep it “Plain Text”. Finally, click “Recognize All” and the OCR conversion will start. Keep in mind that depending on the size of the document, the process may take some time.
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 box.
6. Now select where do you want save the converted document. Be sure to open / and navigate to home -> username, then save the file.
7. This is what the converted document looks like. The conversion is absolutely perfect with minimal errors. For good measure I also threw in a heavy file (36MB) having 41 pages and it convert the whole file like a charm.
List of popular Chromebooks
Our tutorial will work with all of the following Chromebooks. This list is not exhaustive and is here only as an example.
| Brand | 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 C423NA Chromebook | |
| 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-US | |
| Google Pixelbook Go GA00519-EN | |
| 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 – 14a touch optional | |
| 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 Edition PC | |
| HP Chromebook 14A G5 | |
| HP Chromebook 11A G8 Education Edition | |
| HP Chromebook x360 11 G3 EE | |
| HP Chromebook Pro c640 | |
| HP Chromebook 11A G8 Education Edition | |
| HP Chromebook 14A G5 Laptop | |
| HP Chromebook Pro c640 | |
| HP Elite c1030 Chromebook | |
| HP Pro c640 Chromebook Enterprise | |
| HP Elite c1030 Chromebook Laptop | |
| HP Chromebook Pro c645 | |
| 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 1NW60UT Laptop | |
| HP Chromebook – 14-ca020nr | |
| HP Chromebook 11 G6 Education Edition 3PD94UT | |
| HP Chromebook x360 11 G1 EE – Customizable | |
| Lenovo | Chromebook Duo (10.1″) 2 in 1 |
| Lenovo 10e Chromebook Tablet | |
| Chromebook 500e 2nd Gen (11.6″) Intel | |
| Chromebook 300e 2nd Gen (11.6″) | |
| Chromebook 100e 2nd Gen (11.6″) | |
| Chromebook 14e (14″) | |
| Chromebook C340 (11″) | |
| Chromebook C330 (11.6″) | |
| Chromebook Yoga (15.6″) | |
| Chromebook 3 (14″) | |
| Lenovo Chromebook S345 (14″) | |
| Chromebook Flex 3i (11″) | |
| Chromebook Flex 5 (13″) | |
| AMD Chromebook 100e 2nd Gen (11.6-inch) | |
| AMD Chromebook 300e 2nd Gen (11.6″) | |
| Samsung | Samsung Galaxy Chromebooks |
| 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
This is how you can run an offline OCR tool on a Chromebook using Linux and Wine. Sure, the setup process is a bit tedious, but once you set it up, it’s extremely useful to convert OCR files to searchable PDFs in a jiffy.
For the record, I tried the dedicated Debian installer of gImageReader but the result was not as good as the Windows one, which is quite strange. Anyway, it all comes from us. For more such tips, check out our article on the best Chrome OS tips and tricks.
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