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PDF Rescue

Overview

PDF Rescue is a specialised AI-powered OCR tool designed to extract clean, editable text from poorly formatted PDFs. Built into Supervertaler, it uses vision-capable LLM OCR to intelligently recognise text, formatting, redactions, stamps, and signatures–producing professional, translator-ready documents.

🎯 The Problem It Solves

Have you ever received a PDF translation job where:

  • The text won’t copy-paste cleanly?
  • Line breaks are all over the place?
  • Formatting is completely broken?
  • Traditional OCR produces gibberish?
  • Redacted sections show as black boxes?
  • Stamps and signatures clutter the text?

PDF Rescue fixes all of this.

Real-World Success Story

“I had a client reach out for a rush job–a 4-page legal document that had clearly been scanned badly. Traditional OCR couldn’t handle it, and manual retyping would have taken hours.

I used PDF Rescue’s one-click PDF import, processed all 4 pages with AI OCR, and it produced a flawless Word document that I could immediately start working with. What would have been a multi-day nightmare became a straightforward job I could deliver on time.

I was able to tell my client that I could handle the job–and delivered professional quality. PDF Rescue literally saved a client relationship.”

– Michael Beijer, Professional Translator

✨ Key Features

1. 📄 One-Click PDF Import

  • No external tools needed – Import PDFs directly
  • Automatic page extraction – Each page saved as high-quality PNG (2x resolution)
  • Persistent storage – Images saved next to source PDF in {filename}_images/ folder
  • Client-ready – Images can be delivered to end clients if needed

2. 🧠 Smart AI-Powered OCR

  • Vision-capable LLM OCR – High accuracy OCR
  • Context-aware – Understands document structure and formatting
  • Intelligent cleanup – Fixes line breaks, spacing, and formatting issues
  • Redaction handling – Inserts descriptive placeholders like [naam], [bedrag] in document language
  • Stamps & signatures – Detects and describes non-text elements: [stempel], [handtekening]

3. 🎨 Optional Formatting Preservation

  • Markdown-based – Uses **bold**, *italic*, __underline__
  • Toggle on/off – User-controlled via checkbox
  • Clean output – Markdown converted to proper formatting in DOCX export
  • Visual preview – See formatting markers before export

4. 📊 Batch Processing

  • Process selected – Work on individual images
  • Process all – Batch process entire document
  • Progress tracking – Visual progress bar and status updates
  • Skip processed – Already-processed images are skipped (unless re-selected)

5. 📝 Comprehensive Logging

  • Activity log integration – All operations logged with timestamps
  • PDF import progress – Each page extraction logged
  • OCR processing – Per-image processing logged
  • DOCX export – Export operations tracked

6. 👁️ Full Transparency

  • “Show Prompt” button – View exact instructions sent to AI
  • Configuration display – See model, formatting settings, max tokens
  • No black boxes – Complete visibility into AI processing

7. 📊 Professional Session Reports

  • Markdown format – Clean, readable documentation
  • Complete configuration – All settings recorded
  • Processing summary – Table of all images and status
  • Full extracted text – All OCR results included
  • Statistics – Character/word counts and averages
  • Supervertaler branding – Professional client-ready reports

8. 💾 Flexible Export Options

  • Markdown + Word export – One click writes a Markdown file, a formatted Word document (with optional bold/italic/underline) and a session report
  • Copy to clipboard – Quick text extraction
  • Session reports – Professional MD documentation

9. 🚀 Standalone Mode

If you run Supervertaler from source, PDF Rescue can also run on its own, outside Supervertaler:

Terminal window
python modules/pdf_rescue_Qt.py

Full-featured standalone application with all capabilities.

🎯 Workflow

Quick Start (5 Steps)

  1. Open PDF Rescue – Open the Tools menu at the top of the window → 📄 PDF Rescue…. The tool opens in its own window.
  2. Import PDF – Click ”📄 Import PDF”, select your badly-formatted PDF
  3. Check formatting option – Leave “Preserve formatting” checked (default)
  4. Process – Click ”⚡ Process ALL” to OCR all pages
  5. Export – Click ”💾 Export Markdown & Word” to create the Word document

That’s it! You now have a clean, editable Word document ready for translation.

Detailed Workflow

Step 1: Import Your PDF

Method 1: Direct PDF Import (Recommended)

Click: 📄 Import PDF
→ Select PDF file
→ Automatic page extraction to {filename}_images/ folder
→ All pages added to processing queue

Method 2: Manual Image Import

Click: ➕ Add Image Files → Select individual images
OR
Click: 📂 Folder → Select folder with images

Result: All images listed in left panel with ✓ status indicators

Step 2: Configure Settings

Model Selection (the AI Model dropdown; vision-capable models, grouped by provider):

  • OpenAI: gpt-5.5 (Recommended – flagship, the default), gpt-5.4-mini (budget option)
  • Claude: claude-sonnet-5-5, claude-opus-5-5, claude-fable-5-1
  • Gemini: gemini-3.1-flash-lite, gemini-2.5-pro, gemini-3.1-pro-preview

The Model Capabilities box below the dropdown says what each model is good at.

Formatting Option:

  • ✓ Preserve formatting (bold/italic/underline) – Enabled by default
  • Unchecked = Plain text output only

Extraction Instructions:

  • Default instructions optimized for badly formatted PDFs
  • Handles redactions, stamps, signatures automatically
  • Can customize if needed (advanced)
  • Click “👁️ Show Prompt” to see exact AI instructions

Step 3: Process Images

Option A: Process Selected

1. Select image(s) in list
2. Click: 🔍 Process Selected
3. View result in preview pane

Option B: Process All (Recommended)

1. Click: ⚡ Process ALL
2. Confirm batch processing dialog
3. Watch progress bar
4. All pages processed automatically

Processing Details:

  • Each image sent to the OCR model
  • Text extracted with context awareness
  • Formatting detected (if enabled)
  • Redactions/stamps/signatures handled
  • Results stored in memory
  • ✓ indicator appears when processed

Step 4: Review & Export

Review Extracted Text:

  • Click any processed image in list
  • Preview pane shows extracted text
  • Formatting shown as markdown (**bold**, *italic*, etc.)
  • Verify quality before export

Export Options:

  1. 💾 Export Markdown & Word (Primary export)

    • Asks for one file name and writes three files: name.md (the extracted text as Markdown), name.docx (the formatted Word document) and name_report.md (the session report)
    • Markdown converted to proper formatting in the Word document
    • A heading per page (Page 1: filename)
    • Ready for translation work

  2. 📋 Copy All

    • All text to clipboard
    • Includes page separators
    • Quick paste into any application

  3. 📊 Session Report

    • Professional markdown documentation
    • Complete configuration record
    • All extracted text included
    • Statistics and metadata
    • Client-ready deliverable
🤖 These docs are AI-readable: llms.txt · full · Workbench only