diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 7f52fa0..493a2a8 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ requires-python = ">=3.10"
 license = {text = "MIT"}
 
 dependencies = [
-    "ocrbridge-core>=2.0.0",
+    "ocrbridge-core>=3.0.0",
     "easyocr>=1.7.2",
     "torch>=2.1.0",
     "pdf2image>=1.17.0",
diff --git a/src/ocrbridge/engines/easyocr/engine.py b/src/ocrbridge/engines/easyocr/engine.py
index 442696f..86b4f8c 100644
--- a/src/ocrbridge/engines/easyocr/engine.py
+++ b/src/ocrbridge/engines/easyocr/engine.py
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@
 
 from ocrbridge.core import OCREngine, OCRProcessingError, UnsupportedFormatError
 from ocrbridge.core.models import OCREngineParams
-from ocrbridge.core.utils import easyocr_to_hocr
 
+from . import hocr as hocr_utils
 from .models import EasyOCRParams
 
 pdf2image = cast(Any, _pdf2image)
@@ -299,7 +299,7 @@ def _to_hocr(self, easyocr_results: EasyOCRResults, image_path: Path) -> str:
             # Use default dimensions if image can't be opened
             image_width, image_height = 1000, 1000
 
-        # Convert to HOCR using utility from core
-        hocr_xml = easyocr_to_hocr(easyocr_results, image_width, image_height)
+        # Convert to HOCR using internal utility
+        hocr_xml = hocr_utils.to_hocr(easyocr_results, image_width, image_height)
 
         return hocr_xml
diff --git a/src/ocrbridge/engines/easyocr/hocr.py b/src/ocrbridge/engines/easyocr/hocr.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b272b07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/ocrbridge/engines/easyocr/hocr.py
@@ -0,0 +1,202 @@
+"""HOCR conversion utilities for EasyOCR engine.
+
+This module handles the conversion of EasyOCR's native output format
+(list of bbox, text, confidence tuples) to the standard HOCR XML format.
+"""
+
+from typing import Sequence, TypedDict
+
+Point2D = tuple[float, float]
+BBox = tuple[int, int, int, int]
+
+
+class WordData(TypedDict):
+    """Word data with bounding box and metadata."""
+
+    text: str
+    confidence: float
+    bbox: BBox
+    y_center: float
+    height: float
+    x_min: int
+
+
+class LineData(TypedDict):
+    """Line data containing grouped words."""
+
+    bbox: BBox
+    words: list[WordData]
+
+
+EasyOCRResult = tuple[Sequence[Point2D], str, float]
+
+
+def _group_words_into_lines(easyocr_results: Sequence[EasyOCRResult]) -> list[LineData]:
+    """Group EasyOCR word detections into lines based on vertical position.
+
+    Args:
+        easyocr_results: List of (bbox, text, confidence) tuples from EasyOCR
+
+    Returns:
+        List of line dictionaries, each containing:
+            - bbox: (x_min, y_min, x_max, y_max) in pixels
+            - words: List of word dictionaries with text, confidence, bbox
+    """
+    if not easyocr_results:
+        return []
+
+    # Convert EasyOCR results to word dictionaries
+    words: list[WordData] = []
+    for result in easyocr_results:
+        # EasyOCR bbox format: [[x1,y1], [x2,y2], [x3,y3], [x4,y4]]
+        bbox, text, confidence = result
+
+        # Extract coordinates (convert to min/max format)
+        x_coords = [point[0] for point in bbox]
+        y_coords = [point[1] for point in bbox]
+        x_min, x_max = int(min(x_coords)), int(max(x_coords))
+        y_min, y_max = int(min(y_coords)), int(max(y_coords))
+
+        # Calculate vertical center for line grouping
+        y_center = (y_min + y_max) / 2
+        height = y_max - y_min
+
+        words.append(
+            {
+                "text": text,
+                "confidence": confidence,
+                "bbox": (x_min, y_min, x_max, y_max),
+                "y_center": y_center,
+                "height": height,
+                "x_min": x_min,
+            }
+        )
+
+    if not words:
+        return []
+
+    # Calculate median word height for threshold
+    heights: list[float] = [w["height"] for w in words]
+    heights.sort()
+    median_height = heights[len(heights) // 2]
+
+    # Threshold: words are on same line if y_centers within 50% of median height
+    line_threshold = median_height * 0.5
+
+    # Sort words by vertical position (top to bottom)
+    words.sort(key=lambda w: w["y_center"])
+
+    # Group words into lines
+    lines: list[list[WordData]] = []
+    current_line_words = [words[0]]
+    current_y_center = words[0]["y_center"]
+
+    for word in words[1:]:
+        # Check if word belongs to current line
+        if abs(word["y_center"] - current_y_center) <= line_threshold:
+            current_line_words.append(word)
+        else:
+            # Start new line
+            lines.append(current_line_words)
+            current_line_words = [word]
+            current_y_center = word["y_center"]
+
+    # Don't forget the last line
+    if current_line_words:
+        lines.append(current_line_words)
+
+    # Process each line: sort words left-to-right and calculate bbox
+    result_lines: list[LineData] = []
+    for line_words in lines:
+        # Sort words left to right
+        line_words.sort(key=lambda w: w["x_min"])
+
+        # Calculate line bounding box
+        line_x_min = min(w["bbox"][0] for w in line_words)
+        line_y_min = min(w["bbox"][1] for w in line_words)
+        line_x_max = max(w["bbox"][2] for w in line_words)
+        line_y_max = max(w["bbox"][3] for w in line_words)
+
+        result_lines.append(
+            {"bbox": (line_x_min, line_y_min, line_x_max, line_y_max), "words": line_words}
+        )
+
+    return result_lines
+
+
+def to_hocr(easyocr_results: Sequence[EasyOCRResult], image_width: int, image_height: int) -> str:
+    """Convert EasyOCR results to HOCR XML format with hierarchical structure.
+
+    EasyOCR output format: [([[x1,y1], [x2,y2], [x3,y3], [x4,y4]], text, confidence), ...]
+    HOCR format: XML with bbox coordinates and confidence (x_wconf)
+    Creates proper hOCR structure: ocr_page → ocr_line → ocrx_word
+
+    Args:
+        easyocr_results: List of (bbox, text, confidence) tuples from EasyOCR
+        image_width: Image width in pixels
+        image_height: Image height in pixels
+
+    Returns:
+        HOCR XML string with recognized text and bounding boxes in hierarchical structure
+    """
+    # Build HOCR XML structure
+    hocr_lines = [
+        '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>',
+        '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">',
+        '<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">',
+        "<head>",
+        ' <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />',
+        ' <meta name="ocr-system" content="easyocr" />',
+        ' <meta name="ocr-capabilities" content="ocr_page ocr_carea ocr_par ocr_line ocrx_word" />',
+        "</head>",
+        "<body>",
+        f'  <div class="ocr_page" id="page_1" title="bbox 0 0 {image_width} {image_height}">',
+    ]
+
+    # Group words into lines
+    lines = _group_words_into_lines(easyocr_results)
+
+    # Add each line with its words
+    word_counter = 1
+    for line_idx, line_data in enumerate(lines, start=1):
+        line_bbox = line_data["bbox"]
+
+        # Create line element
+        hocr_lines.append(
+            f'    <span class="ocr_line" id="line_1_{line_idx}" '
+            f'title="bbox {line_bbox[0]} {line_bbox[1]} {line_bbox[2]} {line_bbox[3]}">'
+        )
+
+        # Add words to this line
+        for word_data in line_data["words"]:
+            # Convert confidence (0.0-1.0) to percentage (0-100)
+            conf_percent = int(word_data["confidence"] * 100)
+
+            # Escape text for XML
+            escaped_text = (
+                word_data["text"]
+                .replace("&", "&amp;")
+                .replace("<", "&lt;")
+                .replace(">", "&gt;")
+                .replace('"', "&quot;")
+                .replace("'", "&apos;")
+            )
+
+            # Create HOCR word element
+            word_bbox = word_data["bbox"]
+            hocr_lines.append(
+                f'      <span class="ocrx_word" id="word_1_{word_counter}" '
+                f'title="bbox {word_bbox[0]} {word_bbox[1]} {word_bbox[2]} '
+                f'{word_bbox[3]}; x_wconf {conf_percent}">'
+                f"{escaped_text}</span>"
+            )
+
+            word_counter += 1
+
+        # Close line element
+        hocr_lines.append("    </span>")
+
+    # Close HOCR structure
+    hocr_lines.extend(["  </div>", "</body>", "</html>"])
+
+    return "\n".join(hocr_lines)
diff --git a/tests/test_engine_unit.py b/tests/test_engine_unit.py
index e34ee2a..161a0ce 100644
--- a/tests/test_engine_unit.py
+++ b/tests/test_engine_unit.py
@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@ def test_to_hocr_with_valid_image(self, mocker: Any, tmp_path: Path) -> None:
 
         # Mock easyocr_to_hocr from core
         mock_converter = mocker.patch(
-            "ocrbridge.engines.easyocr.engine.easyocr_to_hocr",
+            "ocrbridge.engines.easyocr.hocr.to_hocr",
             return_value="<hocr>converted</hocr>",
         )
 
@@ -395,7 +395,7 @@ def test_to_hocr_with_invalid_image_uses_defaults(self, mocker: Any) -> None:
 
         # Mock easyocr_to_hocr from core
         mock_converter = mocker.patch(
-            "ocrbridge.engines.easyocr.engine.easyocr_to_hocr",
+            "ocrbridge.engines.easyocr.hocr.to_hocr",
             return_value="<hocr>converted</hocr>",
         )