How to Use Progress Tracking in C# with IronOCR

What Progress Information Can I Access from the Event?

The OcrProgress event provides comprehensive progress data that helps monitor and optimize OCR performance. Each property serves a specific purpose in tracking the operation:

• ProgressPercent: Progress of the OCR job as a percentage of pages completed, ranging from 0 to 100. Useful for updating progress bars in GUI applications.
• TotalPages: Total number of pages being processed by the OCR engine. Essential for calculating estimated completion times.
• PagesComplete: Number of pages where OCR reading has been fully completed. This count increases gradually as pages are processed.
• Duration: Total duration of the OCR job, indicating time taken for the entire process to complete. Measured in TimeSpan format and updated every time the event triggers.
• StartTimeUTC: Date and time when the OCR job started, represented in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) format.
• EndTimeUTC: Date and time when the OCR job was 100% completed in UTC format. This property is null while OCR is in progress and gets populated once the process finishes.

Advanced Progress Tracking Implementation

For production applications, implement more sophisticated progress tracking. This example includes error handling and detailed logging:

using IronOcr;
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

public class OcrProgressTracker
{
    private readonly IronTesseract _tesseract;
    private Stopwatch _stopwatch;
    private int _lastReportedPercent = 0;

    public OcrProgressTracker()
    {
        _tesseract = new IronTesseract();

        // Configure for optimal performance
        _tesseract.Language = OcrLanguage.EnglishBest;
        _tesseract.Configuration.ReadBarCodes = false;

        // Subscribe to progress event
        _tesseract.OcrProgress += OnOcrProgress;
    }

    private void OnOcrProgress(object sender, OcrProgressEventsArgs e)
    {
        // Only report significant progress changes (every 10%)
        if (e.ProgressPercent - _lastReportedPercent >= 10 || e.ProgressPercent == 100)
        {
            _lastReportedPercent = e.ProgressPercent;

            Console.WriteLine($"Progress: {e.ProgressPercent}%");
            Console.WriteLine($"Pages: {e.PagesComplete}/{e.TotalPages}");
            Console.WriteLine($"Elapsed: {e.Duration.TotalSeconds:F1}s");

            // Estimate remaining time
            if (e.ProgressPercent > 0 && e.ProgressPercent < 100)
            {
                var estimatedTotal = e.Duration.TotalSeconds / (e.ProgressPercent / 100.0);
                var remaining = estimatedTotal - e.Duration.TotalSeconds;
                Console.WriteLine($"Estimated remaining: {remaining:F1}s");
            }

            Console.WriteLine("---");
        }
    }

    public OcrResult ProcessDocument(string filePath)
    {
        _stopwatch = Stopwatch.StartNew();

        using var input = new OcrInput();
        input.LoadPdf(filePath);

        // Apply image filters for better accuracy
        input.Deskew();
        input.DeNoise();

        var result = _tesseract.Read(input);

        _stopwatch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine($"Total processing time: {_stopwatch.Elapsed.TotalSeconds:F1}s");

        return result;
    }
}

using IronOcr;
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

public class OcrProgressTracker
{
    private readonly IronTesseract _tesseract;
    private Stopwatch _stopwatch;
    private int _lastReportedPercent = 0;

    public OcrProgressTracker()
    {
        _tesseract = new IronTesseract();

        // Configure for optimal performance
        _tesseract.Language = OcrLanguage.EnglishBest;
        _tesseract.Configuration.ReadBarCodes = false;

        // Subscribe to progress event
        _tesseract.OcrProgress += OnOcrProgress;
    }

    private void OnOcrProgress(object sender, OcrProgressEventsArgs e)
    {
        // Only report significant progress changes (every 10%)
        if (e.ProgressPercent - _lastReportedPercent >= 10 || e.ProgressPercent == 100)
        {
            _lastReportedPercent = e.ProgressPercent;

            Console.WriteLine($"Progress: {e.ProgressPercent}%");
            Console.WriteLine($"Pages: {e.PagesComplete}/{e.TotalPages}");
            Console.WriteLine($"Elapsed: {e.Duration.TotalSeconds:F1}s");

            // Estimate remaining time
            if (e.ProgressPercent > 0 && e.ProgressPercent < 100)
            {
                var estimatedTotal = e.Duration.TotalSeconds / (e.ProgressPercent / 100.0);
                var remaining = estimatedTotal - e.Duration.TotalSeconds;
                Console.WriteLine($"Estimated remaining: {remaining:F1}s");
            }

            Console.WriteLine("---");
        }
    }

    public OcrResult ProcessDocument(string filePath)
    {
        _stopwatch = Stopwatch.StartNew();

        using var input = new OcrInput();
        input.LoadPdf(filePath);

        // Apply image filters for better accuracy
        input.Deskew();
        input.DeNoise();

        var result = _tesseract.Read(input);

        _stopwatch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine($"Total processing time: {_stopwatch.Elapsed.TotalSeconds:F1}s");

        return result;
    }
}

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Integrating Progress Tracking with UI Applications

When building desktop applications with Windows Forms or WPF, progress tracking becomes crucial for user experience. The progress event can update UI elements safely:

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using IronOcr;

public partial class OcrForm : Form
{
    private IronTesseract _tesseract;
    private ProgressBar progressBar;
    private Label statusLabel;

    public OcrForm()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        _tesseract = new IronTesseract();
        _tesseract.OcrProgress += UpdateProgress;
    }

    private void UpdateProgress(object sender, OcrProgressEventsArgs e)
    {
        // Ensure UI updates happen on the main thread
        if (InvokeRequired)
        {
            BeginInvoke(new Action(() => UpdateProgress(sender, e)));
            return;
        }

        progressBar.Value = e.ProgressPercent;
        statusLabel.Text = $"Processing page {e.PagesComplete} of {e.TotalPages}";

        // Show completion message
        if (e.ProgressPercent == 100)
        {
            MessageBox.Show($"OCR completed in {e.Duration.TotalSeconds:F1} seconds");
        }
    }
}

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using IronOcr;

public partial class OcrForm : Form
{
    private IronTesseract _tesseract;
    private ProgressBar progressBar;
    private Label statusLabel;

    public OcrForm()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        _tesseract = new IronTesseract();
        _tesseract.OcrProgress += UpdateProgress;
    }

    private void UpdateProgress(object sender, OcrProgressEventsArgs e)
    {
        // Ensure UI updates happen on the main thread
        if (InvokeRequired)
        {
            BeginInvoke(new Action(() => UpdateProgress(sender, e)));
            return;
        }

        progressBar.Value = e.ProgressPercent;
        statusLabel.Text = $"Processing page {e.PagesComplete} of {e.TotalPages}";

        // Show completion message
        if (e.ProgressPercent == 100)
        {
            MessageBox.Show($"OCR completed in {e.Duration.TotalSeconds:F1} seconds");
        }
    }
}

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Working with Large Documents and Timeouts

When processing extensive documents, progress tracking becomes even more valuable. Combine it with timeout settings and abort tokens for better control:

using IronOcr;
using System;
using System.Threading;

public async Task ProcessLargeDocumentWithTimeout()
{
    var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
    var tesseract = new IronTesseract();

    // Set a timeout of 5 minutes
    cts.CancelAfter(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5));

    tesseract.OcrProgress += (s, e) =>
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Progress: {e.ProgressPercent}% - Page {e.PagesComplete}/{e.TotalPages}");

        // Check if we should cancel based on progress
        if (e.Duration.TotalMinutes > 4 && e.ProgressPercent < 50)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Processing too slow, cancelling...");
            cts.Cancel();
        }
    };

    try
    {
        using var input = new OcrInput();
        input.LoadPdf("large-document.pdf");

        var result = await Task.Run(() => 
            tesseract.Read(input, cts.Token), cts.Token);

        Console.WriteLine("OCR completed successfully");
    }
    catch (OperationCanceledException)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("OCR operation was cancelled");
    }
}

using IronOcr;
using System;
using System.Threading;

public async Task ProcessLargeDocumentWithTimeout()
{
    var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
    var tesseract = new IronTesseract();

    // Set a timeout of 5 minutes
    cts.CancelAfter(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5));

    tesseract.OcrProgress += (s, e) =>
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Progress: {e.ProgressPercent}% - Page {e.PagesComplete}/{e.TotalPages}");

        // Check if we should cancel based on progress
        if (e.Duration.TotalMinutes > 4 && e.ProgressPercent < 50)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Processing too slow, cancelling...");
            cts.Cancel();
        }
    };

    try
    {
        using var input = new OcrInput();
        input.LoadPdf("large-document.pdf");

        var result = await Task.Run(() => 
            tesseract.Read(input, cts.Token), cts.Token);

        Console.WriteLine("OCR completed successfully");
    }
    catch (OperationCanceledException)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("OCR operation was cancelled");
    }
}

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Best Practices for Progress Tracking

1. Frequency of Updates: The OcrProgress event fires frequently during processing. Consider filtering updates to avoid overwhelming your UI or logs.

2. Performance Impact: Progress tracking has minimal performance overhead, but excessive logging or UI updates can slow down the OCR process.

3. Memory Management: For large TIFF files or PDFs, monitor memory usage alongside progress to ensure optimal performance.

4. Error Handling: Always include error handling in your progress event handlers to prevent exceptions from disrupting the OCR process.

5. Thread Safety: When updating UI elements from the progress event, ensure proper thread synchronization using Invoke or BeginInvoke methods.

Conclusion

Progress tracking in IronOCR provides essential visibility into OCR operations, enabling developers to create responsive applications that keep users informed about processing status. By leveraging the OcrProgress event effectively, you can build professional applications that handle everything from single-page documents to extensive PDF files with confidence.

For more advanced OCR techniques, explore our guides on image filters and result objects to further enhance your OCR implementations.