diff --git a/ocr-service/Dockerfile b/ocr-service/Dockerfile
index 99ac88fc..0c90503c 100644
--- a/ocr-service/Dockerfile
+++ b/ocr-service/Dockerfile
@@ -2,10 +2,11 @@ FROM python:3.11-slim
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
-# curl for healthcheck; libgomp1 for PyTorch CPU threading
+# curl for healthcheck; libgomp1 for PyTorch CPU threading; libvips for kraken PDF support
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
     curl \
     libgomp1 \
+    libvips42 \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 # PyTorch CPU-only — separate layer; the whl/cpu index strips all CUDA variants (~2 GB saved)
diff --git a/ocr-service/requirements.txt b/ocr-service/requirements.txt
index 7ee1d67a..5c3023d8 100644
--- a/ocr-service/requirements.txt
+++ b/ocr-service/requirements.txt
@@ -6,4 +6,5 @@ torchvision==0.22.1
 transformers>=4.56.1,<5.0.0
 pillow>=10.2.0,<11.0.0
 pypdfium2==4.30.0
+pyvips>=2.2.0
 httpx==0.28.1