SubtitleEdit/subtitleedit · error · InvalidOperationException

PaddleOCR not found on PATH. Install it (e.g. `pip install p

Error message

PaddleOCR not found on PATH. Install it (e.g. `pip install paddleocr`) and ensure the `paddleocr` binary is on PATH.

What it means

Thrown by PaddleOcrEngine.Create when Detect() returns null, i.e. neither `paddleocr` nor `paddleocr.exe` is found in any directory listed in the PATH environment variable. Unlike tesseract (data files) or nocr (db), PaddleOCR is an external Python CLI that seconv shells out to, so its binary must be independently installed and discoverable.

Source

Thrown at src/seconv/Core/PaddleOcrEngine.cs:47

    {
        var name = OperatingSystem.IsWindows() ? "paddleocr.exe" : "paddleocr";
        var pathEnv = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH") ?? string.Empty;
        var separator = OperatingSystem.IsWindows() ? ';' : ':';
        foreach (var dir in pathEnv.Split(separator, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries))
        {
            var candidate = Path.Combine(dir.Trim(), name);
            if (File.Exists(candidate))
            {
                return candidate;
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    public static PaddleOcrEngine Create(string language = "en")
    {
        var path = Detect()
            ?? throw new InvalidOperationException(
                "PaddleOCR not found on PATH. Install it (e.g. `pip install paddleocr`) " +
                "and ensure the `paddleocr` binary is on PATH.");

        var workDir = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), "seconv_paddle_" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N"));
        Directory.CreateDirectory(workDir);
        return new PaddleOcrEngine(path, language, workDir);
    }

    public string Recognize(SKBitmap bitmap)
    {
        if (bitmap is null || bitmap.Width == 0 || bitmap.Height == 0)
        {
            return string.Empty;
        }

        var pngPath = Path.Combine(_workDir, "in_" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N") + ".png");
        try
        {

View on GitHub (pinned to 17a9f07487)

Solutions

1. Install PaddleOCR: `pip install paddleocr`.
2. Activate the venv/conda env where paddleocr is installed before running seconv.
3. Add the paddleocr binary's directory to PATH (e.g. `export PATH="$PATH:$(python -m site --user-base)/bin").
4. On Windows add `%PYTHON%\Scripts` to PATH.
5. Verify with `which paddleocr` (Unix) or `where paddleocr.exe` (Windows).

Example fix

# before
seconv in.sup out.srt --ocr-engine paddle   # binary missing
# after
pip install paddleocr
seconv in.sup out.srt --ocr-engine paddle

if (options.OcrEngine is "paddle" or "paddleocr" && PaddleOcrEngine.Detect() is null)
    throw new InvalidOperationException("paddleocr not on PATH; pip install paddleocr");

static bool IsPaddleInstalled() => PaddleOcrEngine.Detect() is not null;

try { var engine = PaddleOcrEngine.Create(lang); }
catch (InvalidOperationException ex) when (ex.Message.Contains("not found on PATH"))
{
    // print install instructions, fall back to tesseract
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `OcrEngineFactory.Create` with `--ocr-engine paddle` (or paddleocr) on a host where the paddleocr executable is not on PATH. Detect() splits PATH and checks File.Exists for the binary name in each dir.

Common situations: PaddleOCR installed in a virtualenv that is not activated; installed via pip but the Scripts/bin dir is not on PATH; running in a container without paddleocr preinstalled; Windows where the .exe lives in `%PYTHON%\Scripts\` which is not on PATH.

Related errors

• paddleocr exited with code {proc.ExitCode}: {err}
• Tesseract not found on PATH. Install it from https://tessera
• llama-server not found. Either: download llama.cpp in Subtit
• OCR model file not found: {name}
• Failed to start paddleocr process.

AI-assisted analysis of SubtitleEdit/subtitleedit@17a9f07487 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6a51b1c05884d342. Report an issue: GitHub.