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Scan and digitize your documents

Posted on by angelo
Scan and digitize your documents

For many of us, scanned documents and files are a common reality, but finding a reliable and secure way to store and organize them can be a challenge. As data security concerns increase, users are looking for alternatives to the cloud-based storage solutions that come with modern scanners. Self-hosted options like Paperless-ngx offer a reliable and secure way to manage digital documents. By running your own instance of Paperless-ngx on a local server or virtual machine, you gain complete control over your data, ensuring its privacy and security.

What is Paperless-ngx?

Paperless-ngx helps you move from storing physical documents to digital documents, making it easier to find what you need online. Paperless-ngx was designed as a new version of Paperless and its previous updates (Paperless-ng), so that a team of people could work together to improve and support the project. And for those wondering, the “ng” in Paperless-ngx stands for “next generation”.

Main features of Paperless-ngx

  • Organize and index scanned documents with tags, correspondents and types
  • Store data locally, never transmitting or sharing it (there are sharing options)
  • OCR functionality for searchable text
  • Supports multiple file formats (PDF, images, Office files)
  • Machine learning adds automatic tags, matches and document types
  • Customizable web application with filtering, bulk editing and drag-and-drop uploading

With the Paperless-ngx tagging feature, you can tag each document with relevant keywords, making it easy to find what you need later. You can also categorize your documents by type or correspondent, keeping everything organized and easily accessible.

Paperless-ngx also includes advanced features like Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to make your scanned documents searchable. This means you can quickly find specific words or phrases in a document, without having to manually scroll through it. Plus, it supports multiple file formats, including PDFs, images, and Office files, so you can store all your important documents in one place. And with automatic tagging based on machine learning, you can let the app do the work for you. Just scan your documents and let Paperless-ngx organize them for you… if you trust it to. 😉

Install Paperless-ngx with Docker

The Paperless-ngx installer script makes setting up your instance easy. It asks for a few basic settings, downloads the necessary files, pulls the Docker image, starts Paperless, and even creates a user account.

Need help? Check out our resources to get started with self-hosting and setting up Docker.

$ bash -c "$(curl --location --silent --show-error https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/main/install-paperless-ngx.sh)"

The bash script cannot be run as root and you will need permission to write to the current directory.

Paperless-ngx uses Tika and Gotenberg to parse metadata and convert Office documents (like .doc, .xlsx, and .odt) and emails (.eml). To use this feature, you need to set up separate servers for Tika and Gotenberg, configure their endpoints, and enable the feature. Fortunately, Paperless-ngx provides ready-to-use Docker Compose examples that simplify the setup process and offer several database options with or without Gotenberg and Tika.

However, the above installation script also allows you to choose to use Tika and Gotenberg, which I highly recommend. You can customize settings like port, database, URL, username, and password from this bash script. It does the work for you, making the installation simple. Once the installation is complete, navigate to your server or computer’s IP address and port number to start using Paperless-ngx.

Log in with your chosen username and password. To get the most out of Paperless-ngx, I suggest you take the built-in tour to discover its main features. Just click the “Start Tour” button to start exploring!

Getting documents from Paperless-ngx server

This part is up to personal preference. Some people prefer the traditional method and buy a scanner, while I like to use my iPhone with the Swift Paperless app. The Swift Paperless app offers more features than just scanning documents. It’s free, highly rated, and allows me to control every aspect of Paperless-ngx, including adding tags, document type, and correspondents before uploading the scanned documents to the server. (These settings can also be changed after the scan is complete.) I can also create new scans or import documents and photos from my device. Finally, there are no annoying nag screens asking for donations… anywhere in the app. You can see what people have to say about it here on the Paperless-ngx discussions. When I figure out how to donate to the creator of this app, I’ll be sure to update this post with that information!

Although I have tried other iPhone iOS scanning apps, none have met my needs as well as Swift Paperless. Those apps are more general-purpose scanning tools, while Swift Paperless was designed specifically for Paperless-ngx. Its tailored features make it the perfect fit for my use case.

You can simply connect to your Paperless-ngx server and access all your documents. From there you can start scanning or importing new documents or even editing existing documents.

To connect, I used my local Paperless-ngx server, keeping it private and not exposing it through Cloudflare. This allowed me to simply enter the server IP address and port into the Swift Paperless app.

When exposing your self-hosted Paperless-ngx server to the Internet, be careful. This is especially important when storing sensitive documents containing personal information such as social security numbers, phone numbers, or birth certificates.

Final Notes and Thoughts

I have been using Paperless for 2 years and since its ngx version, my experience has been revolutionary! I have scanned important documents, receipts, manuals and even sentimental cards, giving them a new life. With the iOS app, scanning and organizing documents is seamless: open, scan, label and send – effortlessly!

I used the search feature a lot to find old receipts and remember key details like dates or prices. My ultimate dream is to integrate Paperless-ngx with Ollama, which would allow me to simply ask questions about my documents and receive instant answers directly on my self-hosted server via Open WebUI. I’m sure a solution will be available soon, even if it’s not already available.

For any questions or support requests, please refer to the Paperless-ngx Github repository. Drop by and give the project at least one star!