--- title: Laravel OCR Package: Turn PDFs into PHP Arrays | daily.dev description: A walkthrough of the Laravel OCR package, which turns PDFs and images into text and then into structured PHP data (arrays/DTOs). The demo covers three... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/laravel-ocr-package-turn-pdfs-into-php-arrays-cphfldcpz twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Laravel OCR Package: Turn PDFs into PHP Arrays | daily.dev og:description: A walkthrough of the Laravel OCR package, which turns PDFs and images into text and then into structured PHP data (arrays/DTOs). The demo covers three... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/laravel-ocr-package-turn-pdfs-into-php-arrays-cphfldcpz og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/cPhFLDCPz.png og:image:alt: Laravel OCR Package: Turn PDFs into PHP Arrays og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Laravel OCR Package: Turn PDFs into PHP Arrays **[Laravel Daily](https://daily.dev/sources/laraveldaily)** · 9 min read · 20 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A walkthrough of the Laravel OCR package, which turns PDFs and images into text and then into structured PHP data (arrays/DTOs). The demo covers three extraction methods: default parsing using built-in document-type regex (shown to produce inaccurate results for invoices), custom template parsing stored in the database (much more accurate), and table extraction. The package requires Tesseract or another OCR driver locally, and optionally integrates with Laravel AI for cleanup. A blade component for previewing documents alongside extracted fields is also demonstrated. The video includes a sponsored segment for Oh Dear, a website uptime and performance monitoring tool. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How accurate is the default document-type parsing in the Laravel OCR package for invoices? Default document-type parsing in the Laravel OCR package can be inaccurate because it relies on simple regular expressions tied to document types like invoice. For example, it may incorrectly extract the literal word invoice as the invoice number, or mistake unrelated text like a city name for a PO number, because the regex just looks for a keyword followed by the nearest number or word. _Developers evaluating OCR packages for invoice parsing can track real-world accuracy reports like this on daily.dev._ ### How do I get more accurate field extraction from PDFs with Laravel OCR instead of relying on default parsing? Create a custom template in the database using the package's template manager, defining each field with its own regular expression pattern, rather than relying on the built-in document-type defaults. This template parsing approach produced accurate results for invoice date, invoice number, and PO number in testing, versus the default parsing which mismatched these fields. _Anyone comparing PHP OCR tooling approaches can follow practical comparisons like this on daily.dev._ ### What local dependency does the Laravel OCR package require to extract text from images or PDFs? The Laravel OCR package requires an OCR engine like Tesseract installed locally, though other drivers can be configured instead. An optional AI cleanup feature also depends on Laravel AI if enabled. After installation, the package provides methods like extract, extractTable, and parseFromPdf to convert documents into structured PHP arrays or DTOs. _Developers setting up OCR pipelines in Laravel apps can find setup details like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Parsel: Parse PDFs, Office Documents, and Images in PHP](https://daily.dev/posts/parsel-parse-pdfs-office-documents-and-images-in-php-8qrk6y17h) · Laravel News · 19 upvotes · 2 comments - [Extract PDF text in your browser with LiteParse for the web](https://daily.dev/posts/extract-pdf-text-in-your-browser-with-liteparse-for-the-web-lyswob0q8) · Simon Willison · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Rolling your own serverless OCR in 40 lines of code](https://daily.dev/posts/rolling-your-own-serverless-ocr-in-40-lines-of-code-zns9axxya) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#machine-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/machine-learning), [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php), [#laravel](https://daily.dev/tags/laravel) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/laravel-ocr-package-turn-pdfs-into-php-arrays-cphfldcpz) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Laravel OCR Package: Turn PDFs into PHP Arrays","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/laravel-ocr-package-turn-pdfs-into-php-arrays-cphfldcpz","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/laravel-ocr-package-turn-pdfs-into-php-arrays-cphfldcpz"},"datePublished":"2026-10-15T07:19:41.329Z","dateModified":"2026-10-15T07:19:59.938Z","description":"A walkthrough of the Laravel OCR package, which turns PDFs and images into text and then into structured PHP data (arrays/DTOs). The demo covers three...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bWZYWemujMU/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bWZYWemujMU/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Laravel Daily","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Laravel Daily","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--vzdgNGfl--/f_auto/v1725044498/logos/laraveldaily","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/laraveldaily"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/laravel-ocr-package-turn-pdfs-into-php-arrays-cphfldcpz","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":20},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"machine-learning,php,laravel","timeRequired":"PT9M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Laravel OCR Package: Turn PDFs into PHP Arrays","description":"A walkthrough of the Laravel OCR package, which turns PDFs and images into text and then into structured PHP data (arrays/DTOs). The demo covers three...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bWZYWemujMU/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-10-15T07:19:41.329Z","duration":"PT9M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/cPhFLDCPz","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/bWZYWemujMU"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Laravel Daily","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/laraveldaily"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Laravel OCR Package: Turn PDFs into PHP Arrays"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/laravel-ocr-package-turn-pdfs-into-php-arrays-cphfldcpz#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How accurate is the default document-type parsing in the Laravel OCR package for invoices?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Default document-type parsing in the Laravel OCR package can be inaccurate because it relies on simple regular expressions tied to document types like invoice. For example, it may incorrectly extract the literal word invoice as the invoice number, or mistake unrelated text like a city name for a PO number, because the regex just looks for a keyword followed by the nearest number or word. Developers evaluating OCR packages for invoice parsing can track real-world accuracy reports like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I get more accurate field extraction from PDFs with Laravel OCR instead of relying on default parsing?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Create a custom template in the database using the package's template manager, defining each field with its own regular expression pattern, rather than relying on the built-in document-type defaults. This template parsing approach produced accurate results for invoice date, invoice number, and PO number in testing, versus the default parsing which mismatched these fields. Anyone comparing PHP OCR tooling approaches can follow practical comparisons like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What local dependency does the Laravel OCR package require to extract text from images or PDFs?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The Laravel OCR package requires an OCR engine like Tesseract installed locally, though other drivers can be configured instead. An optional AI cleanup feature also depends on Laravel AI if enabled. After installation, the package provides methods like extract, extractTable, and parseFromPdf to convert documents into structured PHP arrays or DTOs. Developers setting up OCR pipelines in Laravel apps can find setup details like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```