OCR languages

Choose recognition languages, set defaults, and download on-demand language packs.

Telling Scanix which languages a page contains makes recognition much faster and more accurate. This reference covers the Default OCR languages picker, the on-demand language packs, and the per-template language override. For the bigger picture of how OCR fits together, see the OCR overview.

Where languages are set

Level	Location	Wins over	Use when
App default	Settings → OCR Engine → Default OCR languages	The fallback when nothing more specific is set	You want one usual set of languages for most documents
Per template	Template Designer (captured with the template)	The app default	A document type always uses the same language(s)
Per OCR run	The Select OCR languages prompt in the viewer	A one-off choice for this run	An untemplated import whose language differs from your default

The more specific level wins: a template's language overrides the app default, and a per-run choice overrides both. Most operators set the app default once and rarely touch the rest. The full Settings reference is in OCR engine & languages settings.

Set your default OCR languages

The Default OCR languages are used whenever an OCR run doesn't specify its own. Setting them is a staged change, so it only takes effect after you click Apply.

Open the Default OCR languages picker

Open Settings, click the OCR Engine tab, and scroll down to the Default OCR languages section (directly under the engine cards).

Pick your languages

Click any chip in the Popular group, or type in the Search languages… box and click chips in the All languages list. You can select as many as you need — the All languages column shows a running N selected count.

Apply

Click the global Apply button in the Settings footer to save your choice. Any selected languages whose packs aren't yet on disk are queued for download at this point.

Screenshot

Settings open on the OCR Engine tab, scrolled to Default OCR languages — the Popular chips on the left with two selected (check marks), and the All languages search list on the right showing a N selected count. — shot ocr-languages-01

Picker controls

Control	What it does
Popular chips	Quick picks: English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian
All languages list	The full searchable list of selectable languages
Search languages…	Filters the All languages list as you type
Language chip	Click to select (shows a check mark); click again to deselect
N selected	Running count of chosen languages in the All languages column
Status line	Green dot + "Scanning will be much faster." when at least one language is chosen; amber dot + "Scanning will be slower on every page." when the list is empty
Advanced: use auto-detect instead	Clears all selections (confirm with Yes, clear) to switch to auto-detect
Apply	Saves the staged selection and queues any missing packs for download

Empty list means slower auto-detect

Default OCR languages	What happens	Speed
One or more languages selected	Scanix loads exactly those models	Faster, more accurate
Empty	Scanix falls back to auto-detect and runs an extra wide-net script-detection pass to guess the script first	Slower on every page

Leaving the list empty is valid, but it makes every page slower. Whenever you know the languages your documents use, select them. The picker's status line tells you which state you're in at a glance.

Empty = slower

With no default languages set, Scanix has to detect the script on every page before it can read it. Choosing even one language removes that extra pass.

Download on-demand language packs

Many common languages are bundled and work fully offline. Others download the first time you use them as small language packs. A non-bundled language chip carries a small download glyph and the tooltip "On-demand pack — downloads on first use."

You don't have to download anything manually before selecting a language — picking it and clicking Apply queues the pack, with a disk-space pre-check that warns you if there isn't room. Already-installed languages confirm with a toast such as "<Language> already installed — ready to use immediately."

Pack states on a language chip

State	Appearance	What it means
Bundled	Plain chip; check mark when selected	Installed and ready offline
On-demand (not installed)	Download glyph; tooltip "On-demand pack — downloads on first use"	Will download when you Apply with it selected
Downloading	Chip fills like a progress bar with bytes/percent (for example `12.3 / 40 MB`); hover shows a ✕ to cancel	The pack is being fetched
Failed	Chip turns red; tooltip "Download failed — click to retry"	Click the chip to retry
Just finished	Brief check, "<Language> ready"	The pack is now installed

Some engines flag a pack download too

On the OCR Engine cards above, a "Needs download" badge means the engine's runtime is present but its language weights aren't on disk yet. Select a language pack listed under that engine and use the Download action to fetch it, then confirm the Engine Status panel reads Ready. See OCR engine & languages settings.

What happens if a language pack is missing at run time

If a requested language's pack isn't available when OCR runs, Scanix continues with the languages it does have rather than stopping — but accuracy for the missing language may drop. Apply your language choice ahead of a big batch so the packs are in place first.

Per-template language override

A template can carry its own language so every document captured or imported with it is read the same way, without relying on the app default. When a template has a language set, Scanix uses it automatically and does not show the per-run Select OCR languages prompt for those imports.

Setting	Where	Default	Effect
Template language	Captured with the template in the Template Designer	Inherits the app default	Pins the OCR language(s) for that template's documents
OCR Engine (template default)	Template Designer → OCR Behaviour card	App default (Settings → OCR Engine)	Optionally pins the engine too, alongside the language

The engine dropdown's options are App default (Settings → OCR Engine), Tesseract, EasyOCR, PaddleOCR, and Scanix Vision (in-house). Leave it on App default to inherit your global choice. (Availability of PaddleOCR and Scanix Vision (in-house) depends on the online catalog — Tesseract and EasyOCR are always available.)

The per-run language prompt

For untemplated imports with no language bound, Scanix asks which languages to use right before OCR starts, so it loads the correct models instead of guessing.

Element	Detail
When it appears	You click OCR in the viewer on a free-form import that has no template language set, and you haven't already remembered a choice this session
Title	Select OCR languages
Picker	Multi-select Languages list (with RTL/CJK badges and a warning if a pack isn't installed)
Remember for this session — reuse for the next OCR run without asking again	Checkbox, ticked by default; cleared when you leave the viewer
Buttons	Cancel and Run OCR (Run OCR stays disabled until you pick at least one language)

Template imports skip this prompt entirely and use the template's pinned language.