diff --git a/scripts/ci/desktop-linux/screen-text.py b/scripts/ci/desktop-linux/screen-text.py
index 41964ecbb9..26cae42156 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/desktop-linux/screen-text.py
+++ b/scripts/ci/desktop-linux/screen-text.py
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 
-# Reads the words tesseract found on a screenshot (its TSV output) and prints the phrases on screen, or the centre of one phrase.
+# Reads the words tesseract found on a screenshot (TSV output, one file per OCR pass) and
+# prints the phrases on screen, or the centre of one phrase.
 #
-#   screen-text.py <scale> lines <tsv>        one phrase per line: centre x,y and its words
-#   screen-text.py <scale> find <text> <tsv>  "x y" of the first phrase containing the text; fails if none does
+#   screen-text.py <scale> lines <tsv>...        one phrase per line: centre x,y and its words
+#   screen-text.py <scale> find <text> <tsv>...  "x y" of the first phrase containing the text; fails if none does
 #
 # <scale> is how much the screenshot was enlarged for OCR; printed coordinates are screen pixels.
 # Words are compared ignoring case and punctuation.
@@ -27,10 +28,30 @@ def read_words(path, scale):
             if row["level"] != "5" or not key(text) or float(row["conf"]) < MIN_CONFIDENCE:
                 continue
             left, top, width, height = (int(row[k]) / scale for k in ("left", "top", "width", "height"))
-            words.append({"text": text, "key": key(text), "l": left, "t": top, "r": left + width, "b": top + height})
+            words.append({"text": text, "key": key(text), "conf": float(row["conf"]),
+                          "l": left, "t": top, "r": left + width, "b": top + height})
     return words
 
 
+def area(w):
+    return (w["r"] - w["l"]) * (w["b"] - w["t"])
+
+
+def same_place(a, b):
+    dx = min(a["r"], b["r"]) - max(a["l"], b["l"])
+    dy = min(a["b"], b["b"]) - max(a["t"], b["t"])
+    return dx > 0 and dy > 0 and dx * dy >= 0.5 * min(area(a), area(b))
+
+
+# The passes read the same place differently; keep the more confident reading of each place.
+def merge(passes):
+    kept = []
+    for w in sorted((w for words in passes for w in words), key=lambda w: -w["conf"]):
+        if not any(same_place(w, k) for k in kept):
+            kept.append(w)
+    return kept
+
+
 def centre(words):
     return ((min(w["l"] for w in words) + max(w["r"] for w in words)) / 2,
             (min(w["t"] for w in words) + max(w["b"] for w in words)) / 2)
@@ -80,11 +101,11 @@ def find(all_phrases, text):
 def main():
     scale, command, args = float(sys.argv[1]), sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3:]
     if command == "lines":
-        for phrase in phrases(read_words(args[0], scale)):
+        for phrase in phrases(merge(read_words(p, scale) for p in args)):
             x, y = centre(phrase)
             print(f"{round(x)},{round(y)} {' '.join(w['text'] for w in phrase)}")
     elif command == "find":
-        found = find(phrases(read_words(args[1], scale)), args[0])
+        found = find(phrases(merge(read_words(p, scale) for p in args[1:])), args[0])
         if not found:
             sys.exit(1)
         print(f"{round(found[0])} {round(found[1])}")
diff --git a/scripts/ci/desktop-linux/ui b/scripts/ci/desktop-linux/ui
index c83aac7daf..49eb1afd44 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/desktop-linux/ui
+++ b/scripts/ci/desktop-linux/ui
@@ -84,17 +84,17 @@ start() {
 }
 
 # ocr <png> lines | ocr <png> find <text>
-# Text of either polarity becomes dark on white: the difference from a morphological close (which removes dark strokes) and
-# from an open (which removes light ones). A mean-based local threshold rings coloured buttons, and tesseract skips text in rings.
+# Dark text is cut out by a local threshold, light text (labels on coloured buttons) by the difference from a morphological open:
+# a local threshold of the negative rings the buttons, and tesseract reads nothing inside a ring.
 ocr() {
   local png=$1 o=$state/ocr
   shift
   convert "$png" -colorspace Gray "$o/gray.png"
-  convert "$o/gray.png" \( +clone -morphology Dilate Rectangle:9x1 -morphology Dilate Rectangle:1x9 -morphology Erode Rectangle:9x1 -morphology Erode Rectangle:1x9 \) -compose Difference -composite "$o/dark.png"
-  convert "$o/gray.png" \( +clone -morphology Erode Rectangle:9x1 -morphology Erode Rectangle:1x9 -morphology Dilate Rectangle:9x1 -morphology Dilate Rectangle:1x9 \) -compose Difference -composite "$o/light.png"
-  convert "$o/dark.png" "$o/light.png" -compose Lighten -composite -negate -resize 200% "$o/text.png"
-  tesseract "$o/text.png" "$o/text" --psm 11 tsv > /dev/null 2>&1
-  python3 "$here/screen-text.py" 2 "$@" "$o/text.tsv"
+  convert "$o/gray.png" -resize 200% -lat 60x60-5% "$o/dark.png"
+  convert "$o/gray.png" \( +clone -morphology Erode Rectangle:9x1 -morphology Erode Rectangle:1x9 -morphology Dilate Rectangle:9x1 -morphology Dilate Rectangle:1x9 \) -compose Difference -composite -negate -resize 200% "$o/light.png"
+  tesseract "$o/dark.png" "$o/dark" --psm 11 tsv > /dev/null 2>&1
+  tesseract "$o/light.png" "$o/light" --psm 11 tsv > /dev/null 2>&1
+  python3 "$here/screen-text.py" 2 "$@" "$o/dark.tsv" "$o/light.tsv"
 }
 
 screen_ocr() {
@@ -118,8 +118,10 @@ shot() {
   import -window root "$f.png"
   ocr "$f.png" lines > "$f.txt"
   mkdir -p "$UI_OUT/ocr"
-  cp "$state/ocr/text.png" "$UI_OUT/ocr/$(basename "$f").png"
-  cp "$state/ocr/text.tsv" "$UI_OUT/ocr/$(basename "$f").tsv"
+  for pass in dark light; do
+    cp "$state/ocr/$pass.png" "$UI_OUT/ocr/$(basename "$f")-$pass.png"
+    cp "$state/ocr/$pass.tsv" "$UI_OUT/ocr/$(basename "$f")-$pass.tsv"
+  done
   echo "::group::text on screen: $(basename "$f")"
   cat "$f.txt"
   echo "::endgroup::"