# OCR accessible PDF fails

**URL:** <https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/ocr-accessible-pdf-fails/51313>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [27 October 2026 22:05 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/ocr-accessible-pdf-fails/51313 "2026-10-27T22:05:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![h3193](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/9e8a1a/32.png) [@h3193](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/h3193)\
**Post date:** [27 October 2026 22:05 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/ocr-accessible-pdf-fails/51313/1 "2026-10-27T22:05:22Z")

</div>

### Operating system

Linux

### Joplin version

3.7.21

### Desktop version info

Joplin 3.7.21 (prod, linux)

Gerät: linux, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz  
Client-ID: 6483eeccd480452dbd999748a55783a4  
Sync-Version: 3  
Profil-Version: 54  
Unterstützter Schlüsselbund: Nein  
Alternative Instanz ID: -  
Sync target: Joplin Server  
Editor: Markdown

Revision: e41516e

Backup: 1.5.1  
Better Code Blocks: 2.0.2  
Conflict Resolution: 1.2.3  
Enhancement: 1.2.1  
Freehand Drawing: 4.3.0  
Geodata: 0.9.4.6  
Katex Input Helper: 3.0.1  
Math Mode: 1.0.0  
Note Tabs: 1.4.0  
Rich Tables: 1.8.18  
Simple Image Resize: 1.7.1  
Table Formatter Plugin: 1.2.1

### What issue do you have?

When I right-click a PDF attachment and choose “Create accessible document”, an error appears after a few seconds:

Failed to create accessible document: WinAnsi cannot encode "ı" (0x0131)

(Screenshot attached)

It seems the OCR recognised a dotless “ı” (U+0131) somewhere in the document. That is probably a misrecognition, which is fine. The actual problem is that pdf-lib uses a standard font with WinAnsi encoding, so any character outside Windows-1252 makes the whole export fail.

Expected behaviour: The accessible PDF is created anyway, e.g. by embedding a Unicode font for the text layer or by replacing characters that cannot be encoded.

Regards, Helge

### Screenshots

 ![Bildschirmfoto vom 2026-10-27 22-33-52.png](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/cozic/original/3X/f/c/fc3ebf1897fdfc250f4ccbd20a8220cb6261b3c1.png)