Merge branch 'dev' into feature-ai

docs/api.md

@@ -294,6 +294,13 @@ The following methods are supported:
         -   `"delete_original": true` to delete the original documents after editing.
         -   `"update_document": true` to update the existing document with the edited PDF.
         -   `"include_metadata": true` to copy metadata from the original document to the edited document.
+-   `remove_password`
+    -   Requires `parameters`:
+        -   `"password": "PASSWORD_STRING"` The password to remove from the PDF documents.
+    -   Optional `parameters`:
+        -   `"update_document": true` to replace the existing document with the password-less PDF.
+        -   `"delete_original": true` to delete the original document after editing.
+        -   `"include_metadata": true` to copy metadata from the original document to the new password-less document.
 -   `merge`
     -   No additional `parameters` required.
     -   The ordering of the merged document is determined by the list of IDs.

docs/configuration.md

@@ -1805,6 +1805,26 @@ password. All of these options come from their similarly-named [Django settings]
 
 : Defaults to false.
 
+## Remote OCR
+
+#### [`PAPERLESS_REMOTE_OCR_ENGINE=<str>`](#PAPERLESS_REMOTE_OCR_ENGINE) {#PAPERLESS_REMOTE_OCR_ENGINE}
+
+: The remote OCR engine to use. Currently only Azure AI is supported as "azureai".
+
+    Defaults to None, which disables remote OCR.
+
+#### [`PAPERLESS_REMOTE_OCR_API_KEY=<str>`](#PAPERLESS_REMOTE_OCR_API_KEY) {#PAPERLESS_REMOTE_OCR_API_KEY}
+
+: The API key to use for the remote OCR engine.
+
+    Defaults to None.
+
+#### [`PAPERLESS_REMOTE_OCR_ENDPOINT=<str>`](#PAPERLESS_REMOTE_OCR_ENDPOINT) {#PAPERLESS_REMOTE_OCR_ENDPOINT}
+
+: The endpoint to use for the remote OCR engine. This is required for Azure AI.
+
+    Defaults to None.
+
 ## AI {#ai}
 
 #### [`PAPERLESS_AI_ENABLED=<bool>`](#PAPERLESS_AI_ENABLED) {#PAPERLESS_AI_ENABLED}

docs/index.md

@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ physical documents into a searchable online archive so you can keep, well, _less
 -   **Organize and index** your scanned documents with tags, correspondents, types, and more.
 -   _Your_ data is stored locally on _your_ server and is never transmitted or shared in any way, unless you explicitly choose to do so.
 -   Performs **OCR** on your documents, adding searchable and selectable text, even to documents scanned with only images.
--   Utilizes the open-source Tesseract engine to recognize more than 100 languages.
+    -   Utilizes the open-source Tesseract engine to recognize more than 100 languages.
+    -   _New!_ Supports remote OCR with Azure AI (opt-in).
 -   Documents are saved as PDF/A format which is designed for long term storage, alongside the unaltered originals.
 -   Uses machine-learning to automatically add tags, correspondents and document types to your documents.
 -   **New**: Paperless-ngx can now leverage AI (Large Language Models or LLMs) for document suggestions. This is an optional feature that can be enabled (and is disabled by default).

docs/usage.md

@@ -923,6 +923,21 @@ how regularly you intend to scan documents and use paperless.
     performed the task associated with the document, move it to the
     inbox.
 
+## Remote OCR
+
+!!! important
+
+    This feature is disabled by default and will always remain strictly "opt-in".
+
+Paperless-ngx supports performing OCR on documents using remote services. At the moment, this is limited to
+[Microsoft's Azure "Document Intelligence" service](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/ai-services/ai-document-intelligence).
+This is of course a paid service (with a free tier) which requires an Azure account and subscription. Azure AI is not affiliated with
+Paperless-ngx in any way. When enabled, Paperless-ngx will automatically send appropriate documents to Azure for OCR processing, bypassing
+the local OCR engine. See the [configuration](configuration.md#PAPERLESS_REMOTE_OCR_ENGINE) options for more details.
+
+Additionally, when using a commercial service with this feature, consider both potential costs as well as any associated file size
+or page limitations (e.g. with a free tier).
+
 ## Architecture
 
 Paperless-ngx consists of the following components: