UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Just working on Firefox support!

Tesseract.js

Tesseract.js is a javascript library that gets words in almost any language out of images. (Demo)

Tesseract.js works with script tags, webpack/browserify, and node. After you install it, using it is as simple as

Tesseract.recognize(my_image)
         .progress(function  (p) { console.log('progress', p)    })
         .then(function (result) { console.log('result', result) })

Check out the docs for a full treatment of the API.

Installation

Tesseract.js works with a <script> tag via local copy or cdn, with webpack and browserify via npm, and on node via npm. Check out the docs for a full treatment of the API.

<script/>

You can either include Tesseract.js on you page with a cdn like this:

<script src='https://cdn.rawgit.com/naptha/tesseract.js/0.2.0/dist/tesseract.js'></script>

Or you can grab copies of tesseract.js and worker.js from the dist folder and include your local copies like this:

<script src='/path/to/tesseract.js'></script>
<script>
window.Tesseract = Tesseract.create({
    workerPath: '/path/to/worker.js',
    langPath: 'https://cdn.rawgit.com/naptha/tessdata/gh-pages/3.02/',
    corePath: 'https://cdn.rawgit.com/naptha/tesseract.js-core/0.1.0/index.js',
})
</script>

After including your scripts, the Tesseract variable should be defined! You can head to the docs for a full treatment of the API.

npm

First:

> npm install tesseract.js --save

Then

var Tesseract = require('tesseract.js')

or

import Tesseract from 'tesseract.js'

You can head to the docs for a full treatment of the API.

Docs

• [Tesseract.recognize(image: ImageLike[, options]) -> TesseractJob](#tesseractrecognizeimage-imagelike-options---tesseractjob)
  • Simple Example
  • More Complicated Example
• [Tesseract.detect(image: ImageLike) -> TesseractJob](#tesseractdetectimage-imagelike---tesseractjob)
• ImageLike
• TesseractJob
  • TesseractJob.progress(callback: function) -> TesseractJob
  • TesseractJob.then(callback: function) -> TesseractJob
  • TesseractJob.catch(callback: function) -> TesseractJob
• Tesseract Remote File Options
  • Tesseract.coreUrl
  • Tesseract.workerUrl
  • Tesseract.langUrl
• Contributing
  • Development
  • Building Static Files
  • Send us a Pull Request!

Tesseract.recognize(image: ImageLike[, options]) -> TesseractJob

Figures out what words are in image, where the words are in image, etc.

• image is any ImageLike object.
• options is either absent (in which case it is interpreted as 'eng'), a string specifing a language short code from the language list, or a flat json object that may:
  • include properties that override some subset of the default tesseract parameters
  • include a lang property with a value from the list of lang parameters

Returns a TesseractJob whose then, progress, and catch methods can be used to act on the result.

Simple Example:

Tesseract.recognize(document.querySelector('#my-image'))
.then(function(result){
    console.log(result)
})

More Complicated Example:

// if we know our image is of spanish words without the letter 'e':
Tesseract.recognize(document.querySelector('#my-image'), {
    lang: 'spa',
    tessedit_char_blacklist: 'e'
})
.then(function(result){
    console.log(result)
})

Tesseract.detect(image: ImageLike) -> TesseractJob

Figures out what script (e.g. 'Latin', 'Chinese') the words in image are written in.

• image is any ImageLike object.

Returns a TesseractJob whose then, progress, and error methods can be used to act on the result of the script.

Tesseract.detect(document.querySelector('#my-image'))
.then(function(result){
    console.log(result)
})

ImageLike

The main Tesseract.js functions take an image parameter, which should be something that is like an image. What's considered "image-like" differs depending on whether it is being run from the browser or through NodeJS.

On a browser, an image can be:

• an img, video, or canvas element
• a CanvasRenderingContext2D (returned by canvas.getContext('2d'))
• a File object (from a file <input> or drag-drop event)
• a Blob object
• a ImageData instance (an object containing width, height and data properties)
• a path or URL to an accessible image (the image must either be hosted locally or accessible by CORS)

In NodeJS, an image can be

• a path to a local image
• a Buffer instance containing a PNG or JPEG image
• a ImageData instance (an object containing width, height and data properties)

TesseractJob

A TesseractJob is an an object returned by a call to recognize or detect. It's inspired by the ES6 Promise interface and provides then and catch methods. One important difference is that these methods return the job itself (to enable chaining) rather than new.

Typical use is:

Tesseract.recognize(document.querySelector('#my-image'))
    .progress(function(message){console.log(message)})
    .catch(function(err){console.error(err)})
    .then(function(result){console.log(result)})

Which is equivalent to:

var job1 = Tesseract.recognize(document.querySelector('#my-image'));

job1.progress(function(message){console.log(message)});

job1.catch(function(err){console.error(err)});

job1.then(function(result){console.log(result)})

TesseractJob.progress(callback: function) -> TesseractJob

Sets callback as the function that will be called every time the job progresses.

• callback is a function with the signature callback(progress) where progress is a json object.

For example:

Tesseract.recognize(document.querySelector('#my-image'))
    .progress(function(message){console.log('progress is: 'message)})

The console will show something like:

progress is: {loaded_lang_model: "eng", from_cache: true}
progress is: {initialized_with_lang: "eng"}
progress is: {set_variable: Object}
progress is: {set_variable: Object}
progress is: {recognized: 0}
progress is: {recognized: 0.3}
progress is: {recognized: 0.6}
progress is: {recognized: 0.9}
progress is: {recognized: 1}

TesseractJob.then(callback: function) -> TesseractJob

Sets callback as the function that will be called if and when the job successfully completes.

• callback is a function with the signature callback(result) where result is a json object.

For example:

Tesseract.recognize(document.querySelector('#my-image'))
    .then(function(result){console.log('result is: 'result)})

The console will show something like:

progress is: {
    blocks: Array[1]
    confidence: 87
    html: "<div class='ocr_page' id='page_1' ..."
    lines: Array[3]
    oem: "DEFAULT"
    paragraphs: Array[1]
    psm: "SINGLE_BLOCK"
    symbols: Array[33]
    text: "Hello World↵from beyond↵the Cosmic Void↵↵"
    version: "3.04.00"
    words: Array[7]
}

TesseractJob.catch(callback: function) -> TesseractJob

Sets callback as the function that will be called if the job fails.

• callback is a function with the signature callback(erros) where error is a json object.

Tesseract Remote File Options

Tesseract.coreUrl

A string specifying the location of the tesseract.js-core library, with default value 'https://cdn.rawgit.com/naptha/tesseract.js-core/master/index.js'. Set this string before calling Tesseract.recognize and Tesseract.detect if you want Tesseract.js to use a different file.

For example:

Tesseract.coreUrl = 'https://absolute-path-to/tesseract.js-core/index.js'

Tesseract.workerUrl

A string specifying the location of the tesseract.worker.js file, with default value 'https://cdn.rawgit.com/naptha/tesseract.js/8b915dc/dist/tesseract.worker.js'. Set this string before calling Tesseract.recognize and Tesseract.detect if you want Tesseract.js to use a different file.

For example:

Tesseract.workerUrl = 'https://absolute-path-to/tesseract.worker.js'

Tesseract.langUrl

A string specifying the location of the tesseract language files, with default value 'https://cdn.rawgit.com/naptha/tessdata/gh-pages/3.02/'. Language file urls are calculated according to the formula Tesseract.langUrl + lang + '.traineddata.gz'. Set this string before calling Tesseract.recognize and Tesseract.detect if you want Tesseract.js to use different language files.

In the following exampple, Tesseract.js will download the language file from 'https://absolute-path-to/lang/folder/rus.traineddata.gz':

Tesseract.langUrl = 'https://absolute-path-to/lang/folder/'

Tesseract.recognize('#my-im', {
    lang: 'rus'
})

Contributing

Development

To run a development copy of tesseract.js, first clone this repo.

> git clone https://github.com/naptha/tesseract.js.git

Then, cd in to the folder, npm install, and npm start

> cd tesseract.js
> npm install && npm start

  ... a bunch of npm stuff ... 

  Starting up http-server, serving ./
  Available on:
    http://127.0.0.1:7355
    http://[your ip]:7355

Then open http://localhost:7355 in your favorite browser. The devServer automatically rebuilds tesseract.js and tesseract.worker.js when you change files in the src folder.

Building Static Files

After you've cloned the repo and run npm install as described in the Development Section, you can build static library files in the dist folder with

> npm run build

Send us a Pull Request!

Thanks :)