Free guide · Oct 17, 2026

olmOCR 2: turn scanned PDFs into text your AI can read

How to pick a small scan to try, check numbers and equations, and see whether your GPU fits before you download it.

The short version

I use this guide to choose a checkable scanned page, audit small numbers and equations, and plan the GPU and output checks. AllenAI documents a 7B document conversion model for PDFs/images with natural reading order, math, tables and handwriting; the 2-7B-1025-FP8 card lists Apache 2.0. The pipeline filters repeated headers/footers and uses page-image/anchor inputs.

The source documentation was inspected; I have not independently run the proposed test in this guide. These steps help you choose and check a small first experiment before committing a larger workflow. Any successful output needs its own saved result and configuration.

What's in the full guide

  1. 01What you need
  2. 02Start cheaply
  3. 03My small test plan
  4. 04A starter request
  5. 05How I would judge the result
  6. 06Access and terms
  7. 07Primary sources