OnDevice OCR Pro
Guide
How to make your scans and PDFs
automatically searchable with a hotfolder workflow
A brief explanation
Anyone who regularly has to make large quantities of documents, PDFs or scans searchable via OCR — such as incoming invoices, contracts, client files or scanned archive documents — and would rather not do it manually has a simple option: setting up a monitored folder, known in technical jargon as a “hotfolder”.
If you use a network scanner, new scans usually end up in a folder on the network or on your hard drive — often as PDF, PNG, JPEG or TIFF files.
The hotfolder continuously monitors this folder in the background: as soon as new files are added, they are automatically processed using text recognition (OCR) and saved as a searchable PDF. This saves you from processing them manually at the end of the workday or over the weekend.
With OnDevice OCR Pro, this process is set up in just a few minutes:
Besides language, quality and interval, you can also choose here whether your scans should be automatically rotated correctly and deleted after text recognition.
The app and hotfolder now run in the background. You can tell that monitoring is active by the icon in the menu bar — from there you can reconfigure or stop it at any time.
You can restart your Mac at any time — the hotfolder is automatically reactivated after a restart.
From now on, as soon as a new document appears in the folder — whether an image or a PDF — it is automatically processed via text recognition.
Want to give it a try? You can test OnDevice OCR Pro free of charge and with no obligation — the resulting PDFs will simply carry a watermark. If you like it, unlock the full version with a one-time purchase — no subscription.
The Mac editorial team at ifun.de has also featured OnDevice OCR Pro, highlighting its local processing, batch processing and hotfolder automation: Read the article on ifun.de.
FAQ
The app supports PDF files as well as the most common image formats, including JPEG, PNG, TIFF and HEIC/HEIF. You can add both individual files and entire folders via drag & drop.
OnDevice OCR Pro accurately recognizes text in 13 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese (Yokogaki), Korean, Turkish and Vietnamese.
No. OnDevice OCR Pro is designed for printed and typed text. Handwriting is not currently supported.
You can find a detailed overview of all features on the homepage or in the Mac App Store.
The full version of OnDevice OCR Pro costs a one-time fee of $12.99 in the U.S. Mac App Store. The app can be downloaded for free and fully tested with a watermark. Prices may vary in other countries; the price displayed in the Mac App Store is final.
No. You purchase OnDevice OCR Pro once and can use the app indefinitely.
Yes, OnDevice OCR Pro is a universal app and runs natively on both Apple Silicon Macs (M1 and newer) and Intel Macs.
macOS 14.6 (Sonoma) or later. Currently, all essential features are available in every supported version.
Yes. OnDevice OCR Pro works completely offline — no internet connection is required, and no data is transmitted to a server.
No. OnDevice OCR Pro does not collect any user data. Personal data never leaves your Mac.
OnDevice OCR Pro is designed for GDPR-compliant document workflows. The app processes documents entirely locally on your Mac. Files and recognized text are not uploaded, not used for training, and not transferred to third parties. The app contains no tracking and no telemetry. For more details, see the Privacy Policy.
This statement applies to OnDevice OCR Pro itself. If you connect external AI agents or automation tools, you are responsible for their file access and data processing. OnDevice OCR Pro does not transfer documents to AI services; it only provides the local integration interface.
Automate your text recognition with OnDevice OCR Pro.
