Guide to using IronOCR Computer Vision

Chaknith Bin

September 26, 2022

Updated December 10, 2024

Introduction

IronOCR utilizes OpenCV to use Computer Vision to detect areas where text exists in an image. This is useful for images that contain a lot of noise, images with text in many different places, and images where text is warped. Use of computer vision in IronOCR will determine where text regions exists and then use Tesseract to attempt to read those regions.

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First Step:

IronOCR.ComputerVision Installation via NuGet Package

OpenCV methods that perform Computer Vision in IronOCR are visible in the regular IronOCR NuGet package.

Use of these methods requires NuGet install of IronOcr.ComputerVision to the solution, you are prompted to download if you do not have it installed.

Windows: IronOcr.ComputerVision.Windows
Linux: IronOcr.ComputerVision.Linux
macOS: IronOcr.ComputerVision.MacOS
macOS ARM: IronOcr.ComputerVision.MacOS.ARM

Install using the NuGet Package Manager or paste the following in the Package Manager Console:

PM> Install-Package IronOcr.ComputerVision.Windows

This will provide the necessary assemblies to use IronOCR Computer Vision with our model file.

Functionality and API

Code Examples are included further down this tutorial. Here is a general overview of the methods that are currently available:

Method	Explanation
FindTextRegion	Detect regions which contain text elements and instruct Tesseract to only search for text within the area in which text was detected.
FindMultipleTextRegions	Detect areas which contain text elements and divide the page into separate images based on text regions.
GetTextRegions	Scans the image and returns a list of text regions as `List`.

Code Examples

FindTextRegion

Usage of FindTextRegion will use computer vision to detect regions which contain text elements on every page of an OcrInput object.

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/tutorials/csharp-recognize-text-from-image-computer-vision-1.cs

using IronOcr;

var ocr = new IronTesseract();
using var input = new OcrInput();
// Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png");

input.FindTextRegion();
OcrResult result = ocr.Read(input);
string resultText = result.Text;

Imports IronOcr

Private ocr = New IronTesseract()
Private input = New OcrInput()
' Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png")

input.FindTextRegion()
Dim result As OcrResult = ocr.Read(input)
Dim resultText As String = result.Text

$vbLabelText $csharpLabel

Can optionally be called with custom parameters:

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/tutorials/csharp-recognize-text-from-image-computer-vision-2.cs

using IronOcr;

var ocr = new IronTesseract();
using var input = new OcrInput();
// Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png");

input.FindTextRegion(Scale: 2.0, DilationAmount: 20, Binarize: true, Invert: true);
OcrResult result = ocr.Read(input);
string resultText = result.Text;

Imports IronOcr

Private ocr = New IronTesseract()
Private input = New OcrInput()
' Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png")

input.FindTextRegion(Scale:= 2.0, DilationAmount:= 20, Binarize:= True, Invert:= True)
Dim result As OcrResult = ocr.Read(input)
Dim resultText As String = result.Text

$vbLabelText $csharpLabel

The overload can be used to return the text region as a Rectangle as well:

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/tutorials/csharp-recognize-text-from-image-computer-vision-3.cs

using IronOcr;

using var input = new OcrInput();
// Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png");

input.FindTextRegion(Scale: 2.0, Binarize: true);

Imports IronOcr

Private input = New OcrInput()
' Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png")

input.FindTextRegion(Scale:= 2.0, Binarize:= True)

$vbLabelText $csharpLabel

FindMultipleTextRegions

Usage of FindMultipleTextRegions takes all pages of an OcrInput object and uses computer vision to detect areas which contain text elements and divide the input into separate images based on text regions:

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/tutorials/csharp-recognize-text-from-image-computer-vision-4.cs

using IronOcr;

var ocr = new IronTesseract();
using var input = new OcrInput();
// Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png");

input.FindMultipleTextRegions();
OcrResult result = ocr.Read(input);
string resultText = result.Text;

Imports IronOcr

Private ocr = New IronTesseract()
Private input = New OcrInput()
' Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png")

input.FindMultipleTextRegions()
Dim result As OcrResult = ocr.Read(input)
Dim resultText As String = result.Text

$vbLabelText $csharpLabel

Can optionally be called with custom parameters:

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/tutorials/csharp-recognize-text-from-image-computer-vision-5.cs

using IronOcr;

var ocr = new IronTesseract();
using var input = new OcrInput();
// Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png");

input.FindMultipleTextRegions(Scale: 2.0, DilationAmount: -1, Binarize: true, Invert: false);
OcrResult result = ocr.Read(input);
string resultText = result.Text;

Imports IronOcr

Private ocr = New IronTesseract()
Private input = New OcrInput()
' Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png")

input.FindMultipleTextRegions(Scale:= 2.0, DilationAmount:= -1, Binarize:= True, Invert:= False)
Dim result As OcrResult = ocr.Read(input)
Dim resultText As String = result.Text

$vbLabelText $csharpLabel

Another overload method of FindMultipleTextRegions takes an OCR Page and returns a list of OCR Pages, one for each Text region on it:

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/tutorials/csharp-recognize-text-from-image-computer-vision-6.cs

using IronOcr;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

int pageIndex = 0;
using var input = new OcrInput();
// Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png");

var selectedPage = input.GetPages().ElementAt(pageIndex);
List<OcrInputPage> textRegionsOnPage = selectedPage.FindMultipleTextRegions();

Imports IronOcr
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Linq

Private pageIndex As Integer = 0
Private input = New OcrInput()
' Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png")

Dim selectedPage = input.GetPages().ElementAt(pageIndex)
Dim textRegionsOnPage As List(Of OcrInputPage) = selectedPage.FindMultipleTextRegions()

$vbLabelText $csharpLabel

GetTextRegions

Usage of GetTextRegions returns a list of crop areas where text was detected in a page:

:path=/static-assets/ocr/content-code-examples/tutorials/csharp-recognize-text-from-image-computer-vision-7.cs

using IronOcr;
using IronSoftware.Drawing;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;


int pageIndex = 0;
using var input = new OcrInput();
// Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png");

var selectedPage = input.GetPages().ElementAt(pageIndex);
var regions = selectedPage.GetTextRegions();

Imports IronOcr
Imports IronSoftware.Drawing
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Linq


Private pageIndex As Integer = 0
Private input = New OcrInput()
' Load at least one image
input.LoadImage("/path/file.png")

Dim selectedPage = input.GetPages().ElementAt(pageIndex)
Dim regions = selectedPage.GetTextRegions()

$vbLabelText $csharpLabel

Chaknith Bin

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Software Engineer

Chaknith works on IronXL and IronBarcode. He has deep expertise in C# and .NET, helping improve the software and support customers. His insights from user interactions contribute to better products, documentation, and overall experience.