diff --git a/Common/Cpp/Exceptions.cpp b/Common/Cpp/Exceptions.cpp
index 301fc07318..1397166abb 100644
--- a/Common/Cpp/Exceptions.cpp
+++ b/Common/Cpp/Exceptions.cpp
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ MLModelSessionCreationError::MLModelSessionCreationError(Logger* logger, std::st
 std::string MLModelSessionCreationError::message() const{
     return std::format(
         "Failed to create a model session from {}. "
-        "Probably failure loading the model or not enough GPU memory",
+        "Probably failure loading the model or not enough GPU memory. Also, ensure that the corresponding ONNX model has been downloaded.",
         m_model_path
     );
 }
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonFramework/GlobalSettingsPanel.cpp b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonFramework/GlobalSettingsPanel.cpp
index 571adc2814..868919af8f 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonFramework/GlobalSettingsPanel.cpp
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonFramework/GlobalSettingsPanel.cpp
@@ -141,11 +141,18 @@ GlobalSettings::GlobalSettings()
 #endif
     )
     , THEME(CONSTRUCT_TOKEN)
-    , USE_PADDLE_OCR(
-        "<b>Enable PaddleOCR:</b><br>"
-        "Use PaddleOCR instead of Tesseract for OCR.",
-        LockMode::UNLOCK_WHILE_RUNNING,
-        false
+    , OCR_LIBRARY(
+        "<b>OCR library:",
+        {
+            {OcrLibrary::PADDLE_OCR,         "paddle-ocr",           "Paddle OCR"},
+            {OcrLibrary::TESSERACT,            "tesseract",              "Tesseract"},
+        },
+        LockMode::LOCK_WHILE_RUNNING,
+        OcrLibrary::TESSERACT
+    )
+    , OCR_WARNING(
+        "WARNING: If you change the OCR library away from the default (PaddleOCR), you must ensure that you have the necessary resource downloaded. "
+        "Otherwise, the programs that use OCR will throw an error."
     )
     , USE_GPU_FOR_ML_INFERENCE(
         "<b>Use GPU for Machine learning inference:</b><br>"
@@ -275,7 +282,8 @@ GlobalSettings::GlobalSettings()
     PA_ADD_OPTION(USE_GPU_FOR_ML_INFERENCE);
 
     // gated behind Dev mode. see GlobalSettings::load_json
-    PA_ADD_OPTION(USE_PADDLE_OCR);
+    PA_ADD_OPTION(OCR_LIBRARY);
+    // PA_ADD_OPTION(OCR_WARNING); // TODO: enable this when Tesseract is no longer a default resource.
     PA_ADD_OPTION(RESOURCE_DOWNLOAD_TABLE);
     PA_ADD_OPTION(DOWNLOAD_ERROR);
 
@@ -324,7 +332,7 @@ GlobalSettings::GlobalSettings()
 
     PA_ADD_OPTION(DEVELOPER_TOKEN);
 
-    USE_PADDLE_OCR.set_visibility(ConfigOptionState::HIDDEN);
+    OCR_LIBRARY.set_visibility(ConfigOptionState::HIDDEN);
     RESOURCE_DOWNLOAD_TABLE.set_visibility(ConfigOptionState::HIDDEN);
     DOWNLOAD_ERROR.set_visibility(ConfigOptionState::HIDDEN);
     SAVE_DEBUG_VIDEOS_ON_SWITCH.set_visibility(ConfigOptionState::HIDDEN);
@@ -348,7 +356,7 @@ void GlobalSettings::load_json(const JsonValue& json){
     ConfigOptionState devmode_visibility = developer_mode
         ? ConfigOptionState::ENABLED
         : ConfigOptionState::HIDDEN;
-    USE_PADDLE_OCR.set_visibility(devmode_visibility);
+    OCR_LIBRARY.set_visibility(devmode_visibility);
     RESOURCE_DOWNLOAD_TABLE.set_visibility(devmode_visibility);
     DOWNLOAD_ERROR.set_visibility(devmode_visibility);
     SAVE_DEBUG_VIDEOS_ON_SWITCH.set_visibility(devmode_visibility);
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonFramework/GlobalSettingsPanel.h b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonFramework/GlobalSettingsPanel.h
index dd494c8a6d..46d897db73 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonFramework/GlobalSettingsPanel.h
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonFramework/GlobalSettingsPanel.h
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 
 #include <vector>
 #include "Common/Cpp/Containers/Pimpl.h"
+#include "Common/Cpp/Options/EnumDropdownOption.h"
 #include "Common/Cpp/Options/ConfigOption.h"
 #include "Common/Cpp/Options/StaticTextOption.h"
 #include "Common/Cpp/Options/BooleanCheckBoxOption.h"
@@ -42,6 +43,10 @@ class ErrorReportOption;
 class ResourceDownload;
 
 
+enum class OcrLibrary{
+    PADDLE_OCR,
+    TESSERACT,
+};
 
 class FolderInputOption : public StringOption{
 public:
@@ -127,7 +132,8 @@ class GlobalSettings : public BatchOption, private ConfigOption::Listener, priva
     FolderInputOption TEMP_FOLDER;
 
     Pimpl<ThemeSelectorOption> THEME;
-    BooleanCheckBoxOption USE_PADDLE_OCR;
+    EnumDropdownOption<OcrLibrary> OCR_LIBRARY;
+    StaticTextOption OCR_WARNING;
     BooleanCheckBoxOption USE_GPU_FOR_ML_INFERENCE;
     SettingsResourceDownloadTable RESOURCE_DOWNLOAD_TABLE;
     SettingsDownloadError DOWNLOAD_ERROR;
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_DictionaryMatcher.h b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_DictionaryMatcher.h
index 175cacaff5..5d2a52568e 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_DictionaryMatcher.h
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_DictionaryMatcher.h
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ class DictionaryMatcher{
         Language language,
         const ImageViewRGB32& image,
         double max_log10p, double log10p_spread = 0.5,
-        OCR::PageSegMode psm = OCR::PageSegMode::SINGLE_BLOCK
+        OCR::PageSegMode psm = OCR::PageSegMode::SINGLE_LINE
     ) const;
 
     // Match a substring from `image` using multiple black-white filters.
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ class DictionaryMatcher{
         const std::vector<OCR::TextColorRange>& text_color_ranges,
         double max_log10p, double log10p_spread = 0.5,
         double min_text_ratio = 0.01, double max_text_ratio = 0.50,
-        OCR::PageSegMode psm = OCR::PageSegMode::SINGLE_BLOCK
+        OCR::PageSegMode psm = OCR::PageSegMode::SINGLE_LINE
     ) const;
 
 
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_RawTesseractOCR.cpp b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_RawTesseractOCR.cpp
index 197361df7c..f1f382c00f 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_RawTesseractOCR.cpp
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_RawTesseractOCR.cpp
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ class TesseractPool{
             new TesseractAPI(m_training_data_path.c_str(), m_language_code.c_str())
         );
         if (!api->valid()){
-            throw InternalSystemError(nullptr, PA_CURRENT_FUNCTION, "Could not initialize TesseractAPI.");
+            throw InternalSystemError(nullptr, PA_CURRENT_FUNCTION, "Could not initialize TesseractAPI. Ensure that Tesseract has been downloaded.");
         }
 
         // Add to pool under lock.
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_RawTesseractOCR.h b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_RawTesseractOCR.h
index cccbfeb8ea..9b91188f0e 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_RawTesseractOCR.h
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_RawTesseractOCR.h
@@ -54,11 +54,11 @@ bool tesseract_language_available(Language language);
 //  call `ensure_tesseract_instances()` to pre-warm to pool with a given number of instances.
 //
 //  psm: Page segmentation mode - controls how Tesseract interprets the image layout.
-//       Defaults to SINGLE_BLOCK (Tesseract C++ API's default) for best performance.
+//       Defaults to SINGLE_LINE
 std::string tesseract_ocr_read(
     Language language,
     const ImageViewRGB32& image,
-    PageSegMode psm = PageSegMode::SINGLE_BLOCK
+    PageSegMode psm = PageSegMode::SINGLE_LINE
 );
 
 
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_Routines.cpp b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_Routines.cpp
index 32f9090fd7..cc63bbee63 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_Routines.cpp
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_Routines.cpp
@@ -23,18 +23,9 @@ using std::endl;
 namespace PokemonAutomation{
 namespace OCR{
 
-// return true if the user enabled PaddleOCR and its resource has been downloaded
-// NOTE: we are making the assumption that if English is downloaded, 
-// that all the other languages are downloaded too, since they're all downloaded
-// as a bundle.
-bool use_paddle_ocr(){
-    static bool use_paddle_ocr = GlobalSettings::instance().USE_PADDLE_OCR && paddle_ocr_language_available(Language::English);
-
-    return use_paddle_ocr;
-}
 
 bool ocr_language_available(Language language){
-    if (use_paddle_ocr()){
+    if (GlobalSettings::instance().OCR_LIBRARY == OcrLibrary::PADDLE_OCR){
         return  OCR::paddle_ocr_language_available(language);
     }else{
         return OCR::tesseract_language_available(language);
@@ -44,16 +35,21 @@ bool ocr_language_available(Language language){
 
 std::string ocr_read(Language language, const ImageViewRGB32& image, PageSegMode psm){
     std::string ocr_text = "";
-    if (use_paddle_ocr()){
-        ocr_text = OCR::paddle_ocr_read(language, image);
-    }else{
+    if (psm == PageSegMode::AUTO || psm == PageSegMode::SINGLE_BLOCK || psm == PageSegMode::SINGLE_COLUMN){
+        // if using multiline detection, force Tesseract
         ocr_text = OCR::tesseract_ocr_read(language, image, psm);
+    }else{
+        if (GlobalSettings::instance().OCR_LIBRARY == OcrLibrary::PADDLE_OCR){
+            ocr_text = OCR::paddle_ocr_read(language, image);
+        }else{
+            ocr_text = OCR::tesseract_ocr_read(language, image, psm);
+        }
     }
     return ocr_text;
 }
 
 void ensure_ocr_instances(Language language, size_t instances){
-    if (use_paddle_ocr()){
+    if (GlobalSettings::instance().OCR_LIBRARY == OcrLibrary::PADDLE_OCR){
         OCR::ensure_paddle_ocr_instance(language);
     }else{
         OCR::ensure_tesseract_instances(language, instances);
@@ -61,7 +57,7 @@ void ensure_ocr_instances(Language language, size_t instances){
 }
 
 void clear_ocr_cache(){
-    if (use_paddle_ocr()){
+    if (GlobalSettings::instance().OCR_LIBRARY == OcrLibrary::PADDLE_OCR){
         OCR::clear_paddle_ocr_cache();
     }else{
         OCR::clear_tesseract_cache();
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_Routines.h b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_Routines.h
index 1614cd3201..037e433553 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_Routines.h
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/CommonTools/OCR/OCR_Routines.h
@@ -32,7 +32,10 @@ struct TextColorRange{
 
 bool ocr_language_available(Language language);
 
-std::string ocr_read(Language language, const ImageViewRGB32& image, PageSegMode psm = PageSegMode::SINGLE_BLOCK);
+// will use the OCR library as per the dropdown in GlobalSettings
+// if the preferred library's resource is missing (i.e. it has not been downloaded),
+// an error will be thrown within OCR initialization infra.
+std::string ocr_read(Language language, const ImageViewRGB32& image, PageSegMode psm = PageSegMode::SINGLE_LINE);
 
 void ensure_ocr_instances(Language language, size_t instances = 1);
 
@@ -45,12 +48,12 @@ StringMatchResult multifiltered_OCR(
     const std::vector<TextColorRange>& text_color_ranges,
     double log10p_spread,
     double min_text_ratio = 0.01, double max_text_ratio = 0.50,
-    OCR::PageSegMode psm = OCR::PageSegMode::SINGLE_BLOCK
+    OCR::PageSegMode psm = OCR::PageSegMode::SINGLE_LINE
 );
 
 StringMatchResult dictionary_OCR(
     Language language, const DictionaryMatcher& dictionary, const ImageViewRGB32& image,
-    double log10p_spread, OCR::PageSegMode psm = OCR::PageSegMode::SINGLE_BLOCK
+    double log10p_spread, OCR::PageSegMode psm = OCR::PageSegMode::SINGLE_LINE
 );
 
 
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_BattleLevelUpReader.cpp b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_BattleLevelUpReader.cpp
index eeccc9c9c2..770ba43357 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_BattleLevelUpReader.cpp
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_BattleLevelUpReader.cpp
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ StatReads BattleLevelUpReader::read_stats(Logger &logger, const ImageViewRGB32&
     auto read_stat = [&](const ImageFloatBox &box, const std::string &name){
         ImageViewRGB32 stat_region = extract_box_reference(game_screen, box);
 
-        if (!GlobalSettings::instance().USE_PADDLE_OCR){
+        if (GlobalSettings::instance().OCR_LIBRARY != OcrLibrary::PADDLE_OCR){
             // Tesseract-free path: waterfill segmentation + template matching
             // against the PokemonFRLG/Digits/0-9.png templates.
             return read_digits_waterfill_template(logger, stat_region);
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_DigitReader.h b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_DigitReader.h
index 15f6898bce..7f01cf9557 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_DigitReader.h
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_DigitReader.h
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
  *  then template-matches each cropped digit against the pre-stored digit
  *  templates (Resources/PokemonFRLG/Digits/0-9.png) on the unblurred original.
  *
- *  This is the Tesseract/PaddleOCR-free fallback path for USE_PADDLE_OCR=false.
+ *  This is the Tesseract (PaddleOCR-free) fallback path.
  */
 
 #ifndef PokemonAutomation_PokemonFRLG_DigitReader_H
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_PartyLevelUpReader.cpp b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_PartyLevelUpReader.cpp
index 4c9a26ce4d..bc4f5f0e46 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_PartyLevelUpReader.cpp
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_PartyLevelUpReader.cpp
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ StatReads PartyLevelUpReader::read_stats(Logger &logger, const ImageViewRGB32& f
     auto read_stat = [&](const ImageFloatBox &box, const std::string &name){
         ImageViewRGB32 stat_region = extract_box_reference(game_screen, box);
 
-        if (!GlobalSettings::instance().USE_PADDLE_OCR){
+        if (GlobalSettings::instance().OCR_LIBRARY != OcrLibrary::PADDLE_OCR){
             // Tesseract-free path: waterfill segmentation + template matching
             // against the PokemonFRLG/Digits/0-9.png templates.
             return read_digits_waterfill_template(logger, stat_region);
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_StatsReader.cpp b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_StatsReader.cpp
index 3e528bcc95..9fab647c8d 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_StatsReader.cpp
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_StatsReader.cpp
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ void StatsReader::read_level(
 
     ImageViewRGB32 level_box = extract_box_reference(game_screen, jpn ? m_box_level_jpn : m_box_level);
 
-    if (!GlobalSettings::instance().USE_PADDLE_OCR){
+    if (GlobalSettings::instance().OCR_LIBRARY != OcrLibrary::PADDLE_OCR){
         // The level uses white text with dark shadow on a lilac background.
         // The digit reader's binarizer captures dark pixels (<=190 on all channels)
         // but NOT the white text (all channels 255 -> excluded). This leaves the
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ void StatsReader::read_page2(
     auto read_stat = [&](const ImageFloatBox& box, const std::string& name){
         ImageViewRGB32 stat_region = extract_box_reference(game_screen, box);
 
-        if (!GlobalSettings::instance().USE_PADDLE_OCR){
+        if (GlobalSettings::instance().OCR_LIBRARY != OcrLibrary::PADDLE_OCR){
             // Tesseract-free path: waterfill segmentation + template matching
             // against the PokemonFRLG/Digits/0-9.png templates.
             return read_digits_waterfill_template(logger, stat_region);
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_TrainerIdReader.cpp b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_TrainerIdReader.cpp
index 799ea19442..c8e4c17cba 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_TrainerIdReader.cpp
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonFRLG/Inference/PokemonFRLG_TrainerIdReader.cpp
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ uint16_t TrainerIdReader::read_tid(
     
     ImageViewRGB32 tid_region = extract_box_reference(game_screen, language == Language::Japanese ? m_box_tid_jpn : m_box_tid);
 
-    if (!GlobalSettings::instance().USE_PADDLE_OCR){
+    if (GlobalSettings::instance().OCR_LIBRARY != OcrLibrary::PADDLE_OCR){
         // Tesseract-free path: waterfill segmentation + template matching
         // against the PokemonFRLG/Digits/0-9.png templates.
         return uint16_t(read_digits_waterfill_template(logger, tid_region));
diff --git a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonSV/Inference/PokemonSV_BlueberryQuestReader.cpp b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonSV/Inference/PokemonSV_BlueberryQuestReader.cpp
index aa6b0dacc2..c252b6e202 100644
--- a/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonSV/Inference/PokemonSV_BlueberryQuestReader.cpp
+++ b/SerialPrograms/Source/PokemonSV/Inference/PokemonSV_BlueberryQuestReader.cpp
@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@ OCR::StringMatchResult BlueberryQuestReader::read_substring(
 ) const{
     return match_substring_from_image_multifiltered(
         &logger, language, image, text_color_ranges,
-        MAX_LOG10P, MAX_LOG10P_SPREAD, min_text_ratio, max_text_ratio
+        MAX_LOG10P, MAX_LOG10P_SPREAD, min_text_ratio, max_text_ratio,
+        OCR::PageSegMode::SINGLE_BLOCK
     );
 }