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How to Read Specific Documents Using OCR in C#

How to Read Specialized Documents with C# and IronOCR

Curtis Chau
Curtis Chau
Updated:

Accurately reading specific documents such as standard text documents, license plates, passports, and photos with a general singular method is very hard. These challenges stem from the diverse formats, layouts, and content of each document type, as well as variations in image quality, distortion, and specialized content. Additionally, achieving contextual understanding and balancing performance and efficiency becomes more complex with a broader scope of document types.

IronOCR introduces specific methods for performing OCR on particular documents such as standard text documents, license plates, passports, and photos to achieve optimal accuracy and performance.

Quickstart: Read a Passport in One Line

Use IronOCR’s ReadPassport extension to extract all key passport details with minimal setup. With just one line of code—assuming you’ve installed IronOCR and AdvancedScan—you’ll get structured result data like names, passport number, country, and more, fast and effortlessly.

Nuget IconGet started making PDFs with NuGet now:

  1. Install IronOCR with NuGet Package Manager

    PM > Install-Package IronOcr

  2. Copy and run this code snippet.

    var result = new IronTesseract().ReadPassport(new OcrInput().LoadImage("passport.jpg"));

  3. Deploy to test on your live environment

    Start using IronOCR in your project today with a free trial
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Minimal Workflow (5 steps)

  1. Download a C# library to read license plates, passports, and photos
  2. Prepare the image and PDF document for OCR
  3. Set the ReadLicensePlate method to read a license plate
  4. Set the ReadPassport method to retrieve information from a passport
  5. Leverage the ReadPhoto and `ReadScreenShot` methods to read images that contain hard-to-read text


About The Package

The methods ReadLicensePlate, ReadPassport, ReadPhoto, and ReadScreenShot are extension methods to the base IronOCR package and require the IronOcr.Extensions.AdvancedScan package to be installed.

The methods work with OCR engine configurations such as blacklist and whitelist. Multiple languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and LatinAlphabet, are supported in all methods except for the ReadPassport method. Please note that each language requires an additional language package, IronOcr.Languages.

Using advanced scan on .NET Framework requires the project to run on x64 architecture. Navigate to the project configuration and uncheck the "Prefer 32-bit" option to achieve this. Learn more in the following troubleshooting guide: "Advanced Scan on .NET Framework."

Read Document Example

The ReadDocument method is a robust document reading method that specializes in scanned documents or photos of paper documents containing a lot of text. The PageSegmentationMode configuration is very important in reading text documents with different layouts.

For example, the SingleBlock and SparseText types could retrieve much information from table layout. This is because SingleBlock assumes that the text stays as a block, whereas SparseText assumes that the text is scattered throughout the document.

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/how-to/read-specific-document-document.cs
using IronOcr;
using System;

// Instantiate OCR engine
var ocr = new IronTesseract();

// Configure OCR engine
ocr.Configuration.PageSegmentationMode = TesseractPageSegmentationMode.SingleBlock;

using var input = new OcrInput();

input.LoadPdf("Five.pdf");

// Perform OCR
OcrResult result = ocr.ReadDocument(input);

Console.WriteLine(result.Text);
Imports IronOcr
Imports System

' Instantiate OCR engine
Private ocr = New IronTesseract()

' Configure OCR engine
ocr.Configuration.PageSegmentationMode = TesseractPageSegmentationMode.SingleBlock

Dim input = New OcrInput()

input.LoadPdf("Five.pdf")

' Perform OCR
Dim result As OcrResult = ocr.ReadDocument(input)

Console.WriteLine(result.Text)
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

The methods below are extension methods to the base IronOCR package and require the IronOcr.Extensions.AdvancedScan package to be installed.

Read License Plate Example

The ReadLicensePlate method is optimized for reading license plates from photos. The special information returned from this method is the Licenseplate property, which contains the information of the license plate location in the provided document.

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/how-to/read-specific-document-license-plate.cs
using IronOcr;
using IronSoftware.Drawing;
using System;

// Instantiate OCR engine
var ocr = new IronTesseract();

using var inputLicensePlate = new OcrInput();

inputLicensePlate.LoadImage("LicensePlate.jpeg");

// Perform OCR
OcrLicensePlateResult result = ocr.ReadLicensePlate(inputLicensePlate);

// Retrieve license plate coordinates
Rectangle rectangle = result.Licenseplate;

// Retrieve license plate value
string output = result.Text;
Imports IronOcr
Imports IronSoftware.Drawing
Imports System

' Instantiate OCR engine
Private ocr = New IronTesseract()

Private inputLicensePlate = New OcrInput()

inputLicensePlate.LoadImage("LicensePlate.jpeg")

' Perform OCR
Dim result As OcrLicensePlateResult = ocr.ReadLicensePlate(inputLicensePlate)

' Retrieve license plate coordinates
Dim rectangle As Rectangle = result.Licenseplate

' Retrieve license plate value
Dim output As String = result.Text
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

Read Passport Example

The ReadPassport method is optimized for reading and extracts passport information from passport photos by scanning the machine-readable zone (MRZ) contents. An MRZ is a specially defined zone in official documents such as passports, ID cards, and visas. The MRZ typically contains essential personal information, such as the holder’s name, date of birth, nationality, and document number. Currently, this method only supports the English language.

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/how-to/read-specific-document-passport.cs
using IronOcr;
using System;

// Instantiate OCR engine
var ocr = new IronTesseract();

using var inputPassport = new OcrInput();

inputPassport.LoadImage("Passport.jpg");

// Perform OCR
OcrPassportResult result = ocr.ReadPassport(inputPassport);

// Output passport information
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.GivenNames);
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.Country);
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.PassportNumber);
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.Surname);
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.DateOfBirth);
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.DateOfExpiry);
Imports IronOcr
Imports System

' Instantiate OCR engine
Private ocr = New IronTesseract()

Private inputPassport = New OcrInput()

inputPassport.LoadImage("Passport.jpg")

' Perform OCR
Dim result As OcrPassportResult = ocr.ReadPassport(inputPassport)

' Output passport information
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.GivenNames)
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.Country)
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.PassportNumber)
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.Surname)
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.DateOfBirth)
Console.WriteLine(result.PassportInfo.DateOfExpiry)
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

Result

Read Passport

Please make sure that the document only contains the passport image. Any header and footer text could confuse the method and result in an unexpected output.

Read Photo Example

The ReadPhoto method is optimized for reading images that contain hard-to-read text. This method returns the TextRegions property, which contains useful information about the detected text, such as Region, TextInRegion, and FrameNumber.

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/how-to/read-specific-document-photo.cs
using IronOcr;
using IronSoftware.Drawing;

// Instantiate OCR engine
var ocr = new IronTesseract();

using var inputPhoto = new OcrInput();
inputPhoto.LoadImageFrame("photo.tif", 2);

// Perform OCR
OcrPhotoResult result = ocr.ReadPhoto(inputPhoto);

// index number refer to region order in the page
int number = result.TextRegions[0].PageNumber;
string textinregion = result.TextRegions[0].TextInRegion;
Rectangle region = result.TextRegions[0].Region;
Imports IronOcr
Imports IronSoftware.Drawing

' Instantiate OCR engine
Private ocr = New IronTesseract()

Private inputPhoto = New OcrInput()
inputPhoto.LoadImageFrame("photo.tif", 2)

' Perform OCR
Dim result As OcrPhotoResult = ocr.ReadPhoto(inputPhoto)

' index number refer to region order in the page
Dim number As Integer = result.TextRegions(0).PageNumber
Dim textinregion As String = result.TextRegions(0).TextInRegion
Dim region As Rectangle = result.TextRegions(0).Region
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

Read Screenshot Example

The ReadScreenShot method is optimized for reading screenshots that contain hard-to-read text. Similar to the ReadPhoto method, it also returns the TextRegions property.

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/how-to/read-specific-document-screenshot.cs
}
using IronOcr;
using System;
using System.Linq;

// Instantiate OCR engine
var ocr = new IronTesseract();

using var inputScreenshot = new OcrInput();
inputScreenshot.LoadImage("screenshot.png");

// Perform OCR
OcrPhotoResult result = ocr.ReadScreenShot(inputScreenshot);

// Output screenshoot information
Console.WriteLine(result.Text);
Console.WriteLine(result.TextRegions.First().Region.X);
Console.WriteLine(result.TextRegions.Last().Region.Width);
Console.WriteLine(result.Confidence);
}
Imports IronOcr
Imports System
Imports System.Linq

' Instantiate OCR engine
Private ocr = New IronTesseract()

Private inputScreenshot = New OcrInput()
inputScreenshot.LoadImage("screenshot.png")

' Perform OCR
Dim result As OcrPhotoResult = ocr.ReadScreenShot(inputScreenshot)

' Output screenshoot information
Console.WriteLine(result.Text)
Console.WriteLine(result.TextRegions.First().Region.X)
Console.WriteLine(result.TextRegions.Last().Region.Width)
Console.WriteLine(result.Confidence)
}
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I read license plates using OCR in C#?

You can use the ReadLicensePlate method provided by IronOCR to accurately read license plates from photos. This method returns the license plate text and its location details.

What is the best way to extract information from passport photos?

IronOCR's ReadPassport method is designed to scan the machine-readable zone (MRZ) in passport photos, extracting essential information such as name, date of birth, and document number.

Can IronOCR read text from photos with difficult text?

Yes, the ReadPhoto method in IronOCR is optimized to read images with hard-to-read text, providing detailed data about detected text and its regions.

Is it possible to use IronOCR to read text from screenshots?

Absolutely, IronOCR's ReadScreenShot method is specifically optimized for processing text in screenshots, and it provides detailed text region information.

How can I improve OCR accuracy for documents with complex layouts?

To enhance OCR accuracy for complex document layouts, configure the PageSegmentationMode in IronOCR. Options like SingleBlock and SparseText are particularly useful for extracting information from table layouts.

What should I do if IronOCR's advanced scan features aren't working on my .NET Framework project?

Ensure your project is set to run on x64 architecture by unchecking the 'Prefer 32-bit' option in your project settings to address issues with advanced scan features in IronOCR on .NET Framework.

Are there any language support limitations in IronOCR?

IronOCR supports multiple languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and LatinAlphabet. However, the ReadPassport method currently only supports documents in English.

What do I need to use advanced scanning features in IronOCR?

To use advanced scanning features in IronOCR, the IronOcr.Extensions.AdvancedScan package is required, which is available exclusively on Windows.

Curtis Chau
Curtis Chau
  Chat with engineering team now
Technical Writer

Curtis Chau holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (Carleton University) and specializes in front-end development with expertise in Node.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, and React. Passionate about crafting intuitive and aesthetically pleasing user interfaces, Curtis enjoys working with modern frameworks and creating well-structured, visually appealing manuals.

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