v0.4.0

PaddleOCR Engine Update for v3.x Compatibility

This release updates the PaddleOCR engine to work with PaddleOCR 3.x (the current version available on PyPI). The PaddleOCR library underwent a major API overhaul between v2 and v3, making the previous engine code non-functional with current installations.

Breaking Changes

• PaddleOCR minimum version: Now requires paddleocr>=3.0.0 and paddlepaddle>=3.0.0
• use_v4_server config deprecated: Use ocr_version="PP-OCRv4" instead. Model management is now handled automatically by PaddleOCR.
• use_gpu config deprecated: GPU/CPU device selection is now automatic in PaddleOCR 3.x.
• Engine name: All PaddleOCR results now use "PADDLE_OCR" as the engine name (previously V4 server results used "PADDLE_OCR_SERVER_V4").

New Features

• PaddleOCRVersion enum: Choose between PP-OCRv3, PP-OCRv4, or PP-OCRv5 model versions.
• PP-OCRv5 by default: PaddleOCR now auto-selects the latest PP-OCRv5 models for most languages.
• Custom model overrides: Pass text_detection_model_name, text_recognition_model_name, text_det_limit_side_len, or text_rec_score_thresh in config.
• Automatic model downloads: Models are automatically downloaded from HuggingFace and cached locally.
• PaddlePaddle dependency check: Clear error message if paddlepaddle is not installed.

Fixes

• Replaced deprecated ocr() call with predict() API
• Replaced use_angle_cls with use_textline_orientation
• Updated result parsing for new OCRResult format (rec_texts, rec_scores, dt_polys)
• Disabled unnecessary document preprocessing (orientation classify, unwarping) for perspective image crops
• Suppressed PaddleOCR connectivity check by default for faster initialization

Installation

pip install "panoocr[paddleocr]"

This now automatically installs both paddleocr and paddlepaddle.

Migration Guide

# Before (v0.3.x)
engine = PaddleOCREngine(config={
    "language_preference": PaddleOCRLanguageCode.CHINESE,
    "use_v4_server": True,
    "use_gpu": True,
})

# After (v0.4.0)
engine = PaddleOCREngine(config={
    "language_preference": PaddleOCRLanguageCode.CHINESE,
    "ocr_version": "PP-OCRv4",  # or PaddleOCRVersion.PP_OCRV4
})