What ORPALIS does

ORPALIS (legal entity Orpalis Imaging SAS, headquartered in Muret near Toulouse, France) is a privately held, self-funded document imaging and PDF processing software company founded in 2003. The company develops and owns all of its core technology in-house, providing a portfolio that spans developer SDKs (GdPicture.NET Document Imaging SDK with 3,000+ features and DocuVieware HTML5 Viewer), cloud document processing APIs (PassportPDF), freemium and premium web applications (AvePDF), and desktop productivity tools (PaperScan, PDF Reducer, PDF OCR). Its technology stack covers OCR with deep learning-based ICR, 1D and 2D barcode recognition, Mixed Raster Content hyper-compression, format conversion across 100+ document types, and an emerging Intelligent Document Processing suite including table extraction and key-value pair data extraction.

The company serves three primary customer segments: software developers and ISVs who embed the SDKs into their applications (15,000+ developers across 70+ countries), large enterprise customers across government, healthcare, financial services, aerospace, and pharmaceuticals (with named logos including Microsoft, IBM, HP, Xerox, Siemens, Airbus, Barclays, and Bayer), and SMB/end-user consumers via PaperScan and AvePDF. Revenue is generated primarily through one-time perpetual SDK licenses, supplemented by subscription tiers on PassportPDF, freemium-to-premium conversion on AvePDF, and channel sales through a global reseller network (ComponentSource, SHI, 2checkout, others). The Aquaforest subsidiary (acquired February 2021) extends reach into Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, and Power Automate ecosystems.

In May 2022 ORPALIS announced a strategic partnership with PSPDFKit (now rebranded Nutrient), effectively aligning the company's document imaging technology with a global industry leader. The firm has been profitable for over a decade, reinvesting all earnings, and operates a lean team of 11-50 employees. In June 2023 it announced the sunset of legacy PDF OCR and PDF Reducer desktop products effective June 30, 2024, consolidating focus on the SDK, cloud, and web product lines.

Name

ORPALIS

Legal name

Orpalis Imaging SAS

Website

https://orpalis.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

ORPALIS is a self-funded French software company that develops in-house document imaging and PDF processing SDKs (GdPicture.NET, DocuVieware), cloud APIs (PassportPDF), and web tools (AvePDF), serving 15,000+ developers and enterprise customers in government, healthcare, finance, and aerospace across 70+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Document Imaging Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) & OCR Automation (HDAEAHAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Document Capture, Scanning, OCR/ICR & Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (HDAEAGAD), Optical Character Recognition (OCR) & Document Vision (HDAAAEAD), OCR, ICR & Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (BPAAAKAB)

Keywords

• Document imaging software
• PDF processing tools
• OCR technology
• Document management SDK
• Intelligent document processing

Headquarters

HQ city

Muret

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. SDK Licensing: Royalty-free SDK licensing for GdPicture.NET, DocuVieware, and other toolkits. Developers pay a license fee to use the SDK in their applications without ongoing royalties. Available in ActiveX and .NET editions.
2. End-user Software Sales: Sales of end-user applications including PaperScan Scanning Software, PDF Reducer, PDF OCR, and related products. Products available in various editions including Free, Professional, and Enterprise versions.
3. Cloud Services (PassportPDF): Commercial plans for PassportPDF cloud ecosystem offering document processing microservices and REST APIs. Launched in 2020 with free and premium tiers.
4. Web Application Services (AvePDF): Premium pricing for AvePDF online PDF and document tools. Freemium model with premium plans launched March 2023.
5. Plugin Licensing: Specialized plugins such as DataMatrix Barcode Recognition available as separate licensed products, starting from $599.00 USD with free evaluation periods.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

ORPALIS develops and sells proprietary document imaging and PDF processing software, including the GdPicture.NET Document Imaging SDK and DocuVieware HTML5 Viewer for developers, the PassportPDF cloud ecosystem with REST APIs, and end-user applications (PaperScan, PDF Reducer, PDF OCR, AvePDF) for scanning, OCR, compression, conversion, and document management. The company also offers enterprise Microsoft-platform solutions (Aquaforest) for SharePoint, Office 365, and Power Automate, covering the full document lifecycle from acquisition to storage.

Product overview

ORPALIS offers a comprehensive document imaging and PDF processing portfolio consisting of two main categories: developer toolkits (GdPicture.NET SDK, DocuVieware HTML5 Viewer, PassportPDF cloud APIs) and productivity applications (PaperScan, PDF Reducer, PDF OCR, AvePDF web tools). The toolkits provide 3,000+ features for document scanning, viewing, processing, OCR, barcode reading, compression, and format conversion across 100+ formats, while applications offer end-user solutions for scanning, PDF optimization, and OCR. ORPALIS Labs provides free experimental products including Virtual Barcode Reader and DICOM Viewer. Following the 2021 acquisition of Aquaforest, the portfolio expanded to include enterprise document automation solutions for SharePoint and Microsoft platforms. All core technologies are developed in-house with full intellectual property ownership.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GdPicture.NET: Comprehensive document imaging toolkit for WinForms, WPF, and Web development
• DocuVieware
• PassportPDF
• AvePDF
• PaperScan
• PDF Reducer
• PDF OCR
• Aquaforest
• ORPALIS Labs

Products and services

• GdPicture.NET Document Imaging SDK Comprehensive document imaging SDK for WinForms, WPF, and Web development providing 3,000+ features for PDF processing, OCR, barcode reading/writing, image processing, and format conversion across 100+ document formats. Targeted at software developers building document imaging into their applications.
• DocuVieware HTML5 Viewer and Document Management Kit Universal HTML5 viewer and document management toolkit for ASP.NET that enables document viewing, annotation, and management in web browsers without plugins. Targeted at developers integrating document viewing into web applications.
• PassportPDF Cloud Ecosystem Next-generation cloud ecosystem offering REST APIs and microservices for document and PDF management, enabling developers to integrate document processing capabilities into applications via subscription-based cloud services.
• AvePDF Free online web application for processing PDF and electronic documents, offering tools for conversion, compression, OCR, and document manipulation. Freemium model with premium subscription plans.
• PaperScan Scanning Software Professional scanning software with TWAIN and WIA scanner support, automatic color detection, barcode reading, OCR, and SharePoint integration for digitizing paper documents. Targeted at end users and small businesses.
• PDF Reducer PDF compression software that reduces PDF file sizes using hyper-compression (MRC, JBIG2, JPEG 2000) and color detection technologies. Targeted at end users and enterprises needing to optimize PDF storage.
• PDF OCR OCR software that extracts text from scanned documents and images to create searchable PDFs. Targeted at end users needing OCR without developer integration. Product scheduled for sunset on 30 June 2024.
• Virtual Barcode Reader Free virtual barcode reader that integrates into the Windows system tray, supporting 20+ linear barcode symbologies and 2D codes including DataMatrix, PDF417, QR-Code, and Micro QR-Code.
• DICOM Viewer Free medical imaging software for viewing and analyzing DICOM files, released as part of ORPALIS Labs experimental projects for healthcare and medical imaging use cases.
• PDF MRC Compressor Desktop application for Mixed Raster Content compression, optimizing colored document compression while maintaining quality. Targeted at end users and enterprises with high-volume colored document storage.
• Aquaforest Searchlight Audit, OCR conversion, and metadata tagging tool for SharePoint and Office 365 documents, making SharePoint content fully text searchable. Targeted at enterprise SharePoint administrators.
• Aquaforest Autobahn DX High-performance automated batch OCR and conversion to searchable PDFs for Windows servers. Targeted at enterprise IT teams running high-volume document conversion.
• Aquaforest PDF Connector No-code, low-code automation tool for the Microsoft Power Automate platform for PDF processing workflows. Targeted at enterprise users building document automation in the Microsoft ecosystem.
• Aquaforest Tagger Automated tagging solution for SharePoint content metadata. Targeted at enterprise SharePoint administrators.
• Aquaforest Checkpoint

Quantifiable outcome

• 13+ consecutive ComponentSource awards (Top Publisher and Top Product)
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers38 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• PSPDFKitcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 May 2022Strategic partnership announced May 16, 2022 with PSPDFKit, the Austrian-American leading document processing platform. ORPALIS joined the PSPDFKit team, combining their document imaging technologies. PSPDFKit is a global industry leader in document processing and manipulation for developers and enterprise.
• Aquaforest Ltd.coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 February 2021Acquisition completed February 16, 2021. Aquaforest, based in Aylesbury UK, specializes in searchable PDFs and document automation for Microsoft platforms. Their products include Autobahn DX for Windows servers, Searchlight for SharePoint/Office 365, and PDF Connector for Power Automate. This acquisition extended ORPALIS's enterprise software solutions offering.
• PDF AssociationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerActive member of the PDF Association. Elodie Tellier serves on the PDF Association Board of Directors. ORPALIS organizes PDF Day France and participates in PDF Days Europe as sponsor and presenter.
• ComponentSourcemajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMajor software marketplace and reseller partner. ORPALIS has won ComponentSource Top Publisher and Top Product awards for 13+ consecutive years through this channel.
• Plan InternationalminorOthersORPALIS supports Plan International since 2015. Plan International is a humanitarian and development organization defending children's rights and equal opportunities for girls.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Foxit Software: PDF SDK, document viewer, and PDF editor provider serving developers and enterprises globally. Direct competitor to GdPicture.NET and DocuVieware in the PDF/document imaging toolkit market.
• Apryse (iText): PDF SDK and document processing platform serving enterprise developers with iText and Apryse products. Comparable to GdPicture.NET in SDK-based PDF generation, manipulation, and digital signature functionality.
• Nutrient (formerly PSPDFKit): Global document processing SDK and API platform for developers and enterprise. ORPALIS strategically merged with PSPDFKit in May 2022 and has rebranded to Nutrient; both companies shared nearly identical product positioning across PDF, document viewing, and IDP tooling.
• LEADTOOLS: Document imaging SDK provider offering OCR, barcode, forms recognition, and medical imaging toolkits for developers. Closely comparable niche competitor to GdPicture.NET in the document imaging SDK category.

Emerging players

• Google Document AI: Google Cloud's machine-learning-based document processing service for OCR, form parsing, and extraction. Competes with PassportPDF/AvePDF as a cloud-native, usage-priced alternative to traditional SDK licensing.
• AWS Textract: Amazon's cloud OCR and document extraction service offering form, table, and handwriting recognition. Emerging cloud-native competitor to PassportPDF REST APIs in the IDP-as-a-service category.

Broad incumbents

• Kofax (Tungsten Automation): Major IDP and intelligent automation vendor offering OCR, document capture, and process automation. Listed as an ORPALIS customer/OEM partner but also competes in the same IDP space at enterprise scale.
• ABBYY: Global leader in OCR, document capture, and IDP with FineReader and Vantage platforms serving enterprise document automation. Directly comparable to ORPALIS's OCR/ICR and IDP capabilities but at much larger scale and broader enterprise reach.
• UiPath Document Understanding: IDP module within the UiPath hyperautomation platform, providing OCR, extraction, and document classification. Comparable to ORPALIS's PassportPDF IDP capabilities but embedded within a much larger RPA ecosystem.
• Adobe Document Services: Adobe's PDF and document processing APIs (PDF Services, Extract) targeting enterprise developers. Broad incumbent offering overlapping PDF manipulation, OCR, and document generation capabilities at much greater scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/Orpalis
• Xx.com/ORPALIS
• Facebookfacebook.com/ORPALIS

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A2 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ORPALIS